I bought my first PDA in self-defense.

You see, as a program director for a Physician Assistant program, I found that all my students seemed to have one. In time, I purchased my first handheld to see what all the fuss was about.

Of all the applications my students used in their rotations, two stood out as must haves—Epocrates Rx Pro and Griffith's 5MCC. These applications truly changed my clinical practice.

I was thrilled when Epocrates made them available in one integrated package called Epocrates Essentials.

Epocrates Essentials is an all-in-one mobile guide to drugs, diseases and diagnostics. It combines Epocrates Rx Pro (premium drug reference), Epocrates Dx (disease reference based on 5MCC) and Epocrates Lab (a new diagnostic reference) in an easy to use, updateable and integrated format. In short, it is everything a medical professional needs in the palm of my hand.

Epocrates Lab
The newest reference in Epocrates Essentials is called Lab, which covers hundreds of diagnostic tests and panels. This section enables me to look up information based on the lab test, specimen type or specific panel. Information includes the basics of the selected lab, reference ranges, interpretations, and even the appropriate prep/collection method and associated ICD-9 codes.

The Lab database is important to my practice because I see a number of residents from our "group" home for developmentally delayed individuals. A lot of these patients suffer from multiple medical problems in addition to their mental retardation. And many of these medical problems require lab tests that are not always very common.

Can't remember the significance of Burr cells on your CBC? Wonder what the importance of that high Ammonia level is? Epocrates Lab lets me view the normal ranges as well as a number of potential diagnoses for an abnormal value, with suggested follow-up. I can then click on a particular disease process or possible drug cause and I'm launched automatically into Epocrates Dx or Epocrates Rx.

Epocrates Dx
Epocrates Dx is based on content provided by Griffith's 5MCC, which I have used from a standalone platform as well as in hard cover versions, but unlike any other edition of 5MCC, Epocrates Dx is frequently updated and expanded.

Epocrates Dx delivers access to over 1,200 topics. Arranged alphabetically or by body system, the topics are extremely easy to search. I frequently use it to refresh my memory prior to seeing a patient.

For example, say I'm about to see a patient with sarcoidosis and she is having a flare in symptoms. Epocrates Dx lets me review basic knowledge, differential diagnosis, treatment options, and medications options. I can go straight from Epocrates Dx to Epocrates Rx by simply selecting the medication I wish to prescribe. I can return to Epocrates Dx just as easily.