We mentioned in an earlier post that Epocrates is one of the PDA drug solutions available for UK based pediatricians and some other countries.
However, they recently announced that they no longer include these trade names (See their announcement ).
This is really unfortunate for the many pediatricians who subscribed to Epocrates Rx and who are working in the UK.
We suggest that Epocrates should refund those colleagues…
Paediatricians in the UK and other parts of the world has been waiting for this title since years ago. In fact it was a dream to have this concise and focused and patient centered best selling handbook with great deal of practical information and how tos to be pediatric specific.
Now that the book is published (see this page) we expect it to be released for the PDA soon enough.
The book can be purchased from amazon for $45.
It’s mother “Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine” is already available from Skyscape and Unbound Medicine (read this blog). We just wonder which of them is going to hurry up for the pediatric version!
The Pediatric PDA Blog has been told that Oxford University Press will not offer the publishing rights to neither Skyscape nor Unbound Medicine, this time they are working with a UK based PDA software developer, let’s wait and see.
Check back to this post as I will update it once we have information about any PDA version in the future.
This is where we’ve seen Unbound Medicine winning over the Skyscape! The new 7th edition is provided by Unbound Medicine and Skyscape alike. Being a point of comparison Unbound Medicine did not want to miss this chance to prove themselves and they did a wonderful job, They provided a PDA, a Web, and Wireless access to the ebook!
Click here to read Pda4peds Review
Click here to check Oxford Handbook Website
All versions come for one price (yearly subscription for the web and wireless) which is quite reasonable @ $45. Now with the wireless access even iphone users can look up the ebook (see image above).
We wish that Oxford University Press starts thinking seriuosly of developing Oxford Handbook of Paediatrics….
A great news for UK paediatricians, now that they don’t need to carry the handbook anymore, it is there on their Windows Mobiles, Palms, and even BlackBerries. The Skyscape format is a match for the BNF where those chapters and sections are adequately outlined in the TOC and the index enables quick look up of medications whether in trade or generic names.
The 2006 edition is out and the 2007 edition is due on October and it will be from Skyscape also. The BNF for children is also available online and the website is free for NHS hospitals and doctors.
The ebook is an exact copy of the original print edition with the advantage of eliminating extra weight in the white coat pocket + quick and precise digital search + easy live cross linking. Nevertheless, more can be done such as integrating a drug dose calculator and developing a built-in interaction analyzer to make use of the extensive drug-drug interactions database already availble in the content.
Some other extra features that can be wished may include live links to phone numbers and emails of emergency hotlines, poison centers, drug companies, …etc. We can even dream of automatic digital reporting of side effects instead of that yellow card at the back of the print edition!
If you work in UK you probably need to have a software that support the UK formulary list of generic and trade names:
The best answer is the BNF for Children PDA version developed by Skyscape.
Another answer will be Epocrates Rx where UK formulary can be chosen. [Update: May 23, 2008] Epocrates no longer supports international brand names.
However it has to be remembered that Epocrates is essentially developed and supports US formularies, they just added here some of the trade names commonly used in UK and linked them to those already available in USA, which means that drugs that are available in UK but not in USA (e.g Kemadrin) will not be seen in Epocrates.
Another ebook available (The UK electronic Medicines Compendium) from Skyscape and this is a great handbook of all the drugs listed and approved in UK though not pediatric specific.