SPOTLIGHT | Your App-Savvy Pharmacy

YOUR APP-SAVVY PHARMACY

The best apps for your daily duties

Keeping up with the times in your independent pharmacy can be a challenge, especially after the pandemic. With added services, fewer employees, and nonstop busyness, you don’t always know where to turn for help. Believe it or not, your phone can be a very useful tool in your pharmacy. Download the right apps, and you can have everything from drug information to patient education at your fingertips. This list of mobile apps can lighten your load as you navigate your to-dos each day: CDC VACCINE SCHEDULES: This is a free app that provides the most current versions of child/adolescent immunization schedules, a catch-up schedule for children and adolescents 4 months through 18 years, adult schedules (including recommended vaccines by age group and medical conditions), and an adult contraindications and precautions table.

DRUGS.COM MEDICATION GUIDE: This guide is full of information that allows you to check drug interactions, identify pills, and create custom lists and reports. It also offers in-depth consumer information, FDA alerts, and a complete database of drug information.

DRUGS@FDA EXPRESS: This mobile version of the agency’s online database of information on approved drugs, allows you to search and browse by drug name, active ingredient, or application number. You can also view a list of recent approvals that are organized by date in the ‘Last 7 Days Approval’ option.

EPOCRATES: Widely regarded as a useful tool for pharmacists, this medical app is reliable, easy to use, and updated regularly. In the free version, you’ll find a drug interaction checker, pill identifier, resources for COVID-19, and drug coverage information for insurance plans. For a monthly fee, you can access premium features such as access to labs, disease monographs, ICD-10 codes, and even an infectious disease treatment selector.

GOOGLE TRANSLATE: If you work with non-English speaking patients, this app translates words and phrases in more than 60 other languages. The app also offers the option to do an instant, two-way speech so you can answer your patients’ questions.

LEXICOMP: This app is great for when you need to look up evidence-based drug information. Some of its unique features include pharmacogenomics databases, drug monographs, IV compatibility data, patient education forms, toxicology, and drug interactions. View more than 20 databases that feature updated, in-depth information on drugs, natural products, interactions, medical calculations, and more.

MERCK MANUAL PROFESSIONAL: This longtime, go-to source for medical knowledge now fits in your pocket. The app contains thousands of regularly updated articles, drug reference information, Illustrations, how-to videos on outpatient procedures and physical exams, and more.

MONTHLY PRESCRIBING REFERENCE (MPR): Optimize medication management with this app’s drug database with real-time updates, a news feed, and tools such as medical calculators, quick-reference charts and guidelines, and prescribing information. You can also personalize your settings to therapeutic areas relevant to your practice.

PEPID: You’ll find all the tools you need to treat patients anywhere and at any time in PEPID. You can access their drug database, medical calculators, high-res pill photos, illustrations, news and alerts, pill identifier, drug-drug interactions, and hundreds of reference videos.

POCKET PHARMACIST: Need to look something up quickly? This app can be useful. As the company description says, “It feels like you’re talking to a live pharmacist versus reading through an encyclopedia.” If you need to search drug information or interactions, this is the app for you. You can also test your own knowledge through medication quizzes. Pocket Pharmacist is available for iPhone and iPad only.

SANFORD GUIDE – ANTIMICROBIAL THERAPY: This tool includes clinical references for the treatment of infectious diseases, dosing tables, information on clinical syndromes as well as pathogens.

SKYSCAPE MEDICAL LIBRARY APP: This is a great decision-support tool for healthcare professionals that includes a comprehensive drug guide, a clinical resource with over 850 topics, a calculator with over 200 interactive tools, and breaking clinical news and drug alerts. UPTODATE: If you’re looking for general clinical information, this is a great resource. It’s an evidence-based, physician-authored clinical support resource. Simply search by topic, including diseases, drugs, or procedures. The app covers 25 specialties, including internal medicine, psychiatry, infectious disease, and cardiovascular medicine. It also includes a number of medical calculators.

With a few exceptions, most of the apps listed have a free version you can try out. If you decide you’d like to use their premium features, you’ll pay a monthly or annual fee. Check reviews, try out the free features, and decide what apps might come in handy in your pharmacy.

Mobile phones can be a distraction in the workplace, but with these apps they can also be a blessing. You owe it to yourself to have the tools you need when you need them. Not only will you benefit, but so will your patients.