However, and stunningly, it was not! Play this video for details;

Skyscape’s Medical Bag features a reasonable portions of the original titles namely the Archimedes 360, Labs 360, and Life Support 360.

In fact if you see the video above it shows clearly that the life support content is exactly as the original version and the selected calculators are closer to Archimedes 360 than it is to the free Archimedes. Only the lab section is perhaps significantly trimmed down from the original Labs 360, but in any case still they include what is commonly asked for in clinical practice.

But anyway this is a great deal. The combined prices of the original components is over $80 in Skyscape’s Website and you get them all for only $1.99! Are they serious?

This is not the first time Skyscape is giving away their titles in such a low price. They have done it before in their first iPhone app, the Skyscape Medical Resources. Probably, they realized that selling thousands [may be hundreds of thousands] of low priced apps is more profitable than selling hundreds of high priced apps.

Note that both Skyscape Medical Resources and Skyscape Medical Bag are not offered in the Skyscape website only in iTunes App Store, and there are no Palm or WM or BB versions, only iPhone version. Why? may be they want to take advantage of the alarmingly increasing number of “iPhone” doctors!

Ultimately, this is good for us consumers. We certainly love lower prices.

So here’s my advice; if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, Do not buy Life Support 360, And perhaps Don’t buy Archimedes 360 and Labs 360 either.

Instead go to iTunes App Store and download the Skyscape Medical Bag for only $1.99.

And if you don’t have an iPhone or iPod Touch, get yourself one of them soon.

Of note, Skyscape is using their properiatory titles in these “subsidized” collections because otherwise they would have to pay royalties if they for example include the Harriet Lane or Davis’s Drug Guide.

The interface is very cool and smart in that it uses the iPhone’s and iPod Touch’s flick scrolling technology making a one page calculator that gives the results in the same page looking like an ABG slot machine!

See how it looks here;

Download this app from iTunes App store for only $3.99 which really worth the price. Also check their other nice app, the Lytes.

The calculator can analyze even complex disorders such as mixed conditions, acute versus chronic, and primary versus secondary compensations.

Not only that, but also input is included for the Sodium and Chloride for calculation of the anion gap which will let us narrow down the diagnosis of metabolic acidosis disorders.

And the coolest feature is that when you tilt the device in landscape mode it will tranform into a Davenport graph with the result dot plotted and pinpointed on it!

Some short monographs about the various disorders also included but these should be little more detailed with more information about the basics of acid base disorders to make this app perfect. Some bugs and errors noticed in the first version were appropriately corrected in the latest update.

This is certainly the best ABG calculator that we have seen so far on the iPhone and iPod Touch and if you frequently calculate ABGs then forget about that ABG expert colleague and look no further than this app.

Here, we have the Life Support solution sporting information about all the ER life threatening scenarios that we may face including PALS and NALS scenarios.

This reference is based on the latest AHA guidelines and was written by an ER and a PDA expert; Grant Fraser the founder of Medical Wizards. The steps illustrated in a simple easy to read and to access style as seen on the slideshow above.

However; there are several shortcomings of this piece piece of software:

First; there is no Yes or No algorithm in the PALS scenarion and so we will be using PALS from DoctocCalc as it faster and easier.

Second; there is no built-in dose calculators and this will waste time looking up doses in other Skyscape titles.

Third; even when algorithms are there such as in the case of NALS, it is not yer supported on the iPhone platform.

We wish that they will correct these deficiencies in future updates…

Download Skyscape’s Life Support 360 directly from iTunes

A small app called PALS has been recently published to the iPhone platform [download it here from iTunes] which is providing an easy to use step by step approach to all PALS scenarios.

Here are some screenshots;

The flow of pages in Yes or No guided steps allow us to refresh the procedure in our minds in matter of seconds before encountering the ER child, which is really what we want in a rush situation and we don’t want complicated interfaces that takes us minutes and hours to digest.

At a $5 price this app is a must have to any child health care professional [doctors and nurses] exposed to life threatening cases.

However there certain improvements that has to be considered in future updates of this little app; first they should provide us with a list of references so that we know that the content is from a trusted source; second they should at least add some drug dosages of commonly used medications in PALS scenarios with a built-in calculator; third they should add NALS to the package in order to make it a complete pediatric ER algorithms app.

You can also read this Pda4peds review

This wonderful app has been made available as a wireless website which can be accessed by any PDA or phone that has browsing capability.

Just point your iPhone’s Safari or your Pocket PC’s IE Mobile to http://mobile.pepid.com and you will be there.

Their suites whether the ED or the PCP both have Pediatrics Module with specific pediatric information and dosages and calculators.

The slide show below demonstrates some screenshots of Pepid Mobile as accessed by iPod Touch.

Of course this will be the same for the iPhone via Wifi or 3G.

The wireless version does not miss anything from the native application that we used to play on our Palm and Windows Mobile devices. But this time we can also have it on the iPhone or iTouch.

The Bad News:

First: Unlike Unbound Medicine they don’t offer wireless subscription when you subscribe for the native application, and so we have to purchase both the wireless and the built-in application for more than $300 per year!

Second: Although the website is user friendly but they did not create an iPhone-friendly website and so they did not redesign it to be compatible with the easy finger touch user interface and consequently buttons and links are still quite difficult to tap even on a wide iPod or iPhone screen.

The Good News:

Pepid promised to create a native application for the iPhone so let’s wait and see.. [ to understand the differences between native and online applications read this guide].

[Update 3-17-2009] PEPID native app is now available, check this Pda4peds review.

Here’s a list of pediatric mobile [wireless] websites as reviewed by pda4peds. You may also vote for your favorite one in the best pediatric mobile website poll.

In this blog we’ll find a comparsim between the two

Kidometer Pda4peds Review Page

Kidcompanion Pda4peds Review Page

For web based table click here