In today's fast-paced world, one constant companion we all carry is our smartphone. For pharmacists, this device is more than just a means of communication-it's a powerful tool. From quickly looking up dosing information and contraindications, to accessing a hospital's EHR to review patient labs during rounds, smartphones can streamline daily tasks. New practitioners in all areas of pharmacy practice can utilize pharmacy-related apps to enhance their unique workflow. Pharmacy-related apps can enable pharmacists to work more efficiently and confidently, ultimately enhancing patient care and fostering professional development. Now, the question is, what pharmacy-related apps should be on my home screen? Listed here are my top 5 recommendations of free apps to download.
- CDC Vaccine Schedules – The CDC is constantly updating vaccination schedules, especially recently with the introduction of the COVID-19 and RSV vaccinations. This app features the various CDC vaccination schedules based on age, in a simple but effective table format. This app is a convenient tool to have available and can be utilized quickly to make recommendations on the spot. This would be a lifesaver for a new community pharmacist!
- IDSA Practice Guidelines – Infectious diseases is a huge topic, that doesn't typically get enough focused time through PharmD curriculums. As a new practitioner, there is no way we will know every IDSA guideline-recommended treatment for every bug. Luckily, the IDSA Practice Guidelines can be available through their app, sorted by type of infection. This will be especially beneficial to our inpatient PGY1s and PGY2s in Infectious Diseases.
- MDCalc – MDCalc is a set of evidence-based clinical tools and calculators, based on guideline recommendations. On this app, you can utilize your patient's specific values to calculate CHADS2VASc, creatinine clearance, CURB-65, and more. This is a fantastic tool for inpatient rounding. I have used it many times to calculate CHADS2VASc for new atrial fibrillation patients to determine whether or not to use anticoagulation. You could use this in the ambulatory care setting to calculate the risk of undiagnosed diabetes through the ADA risk calculator to determine which patients you should screen.
- epocrates – Epocrates is an extremely comprehensive reference including information about drugs and supplements, guidelines, reference tables, calculators, and ICD-10 codes. Additionally, it includes a medical newsfeed of important updates from the CDC, JAMA, NIH, HHS, and more. Another feature of epocrates that deserves more hype is the CEs built into the app. They boast a large CE catalog for different clinicians, including pharmacists. As new practitioners, we may not have many resources for CE yet, so epocrates is a great place to go for quality, evidence-based CE.
- Pyrls – You didn't think I'd leave off Pyrls, right? Pyrls has some extremely unique features, that make it worth a download. It has a pill counter called PyrlVision, aimed to estimate the number of pills in camera view, in addition to reference tables, and over 800 drug summaries. The drug summaries include brand names, indications, pharmacology, US federal regulatory status, dosage forms, counseling points, dosing, and safety information. The US federal regulatory status feature is unique to Pyrls and could be very useful for community pharmacists.
In conclusion, there are many more pharmacy-related apps beyond just these top five recommendations. If you have any recommendations for apps not included in this list, share them with your fellow new practitioners by replying to this thread. Which app do you want to download now? Does anyone already have all five of these apps downloaded?
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Alexandria Yoby, PharmD
PGY-1 Pharmacy Resident
Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto
Southaven, MS
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