National Library of Medicine

NLM is available everywhere! You can download access to NLM onto your mobile device by going to PubMED at
www.pubmed.gov

You can access the web version of NLM by going to
http://www.nlm.nih.gov

PubMed also offers other features for your PDA, including the PubMed search engine itself as well as MD on Tap. MD on Tap is software that searches and finds Medline citations. This can be downloaded from
http://mdot.nlm.nih.gov/proj/mdot/download.php

Medline is a great resource for patient information, since it give great easily understandable summaries of drugs and diseases.

This PubMed software allows you to find what you need in evidenced based medicine without using a computer and without needed other EBM software on your PDA. One downfall is that an internet connection is needed to be able to pull up and read the articles.

Diagnasaurus

Diagnasaurus can be found through Access Medicine (through our Hardin Library). This site offers symptom lists and possible diagnoses. This site offers differential "diagn"oses based upon sets of common symptoms. Although the site dose not contain treatment options, through Access Medicine the diseases are linked to other resources containing disease and treatment information.

ACP PIER

ACP PIER is one of the most well-known and best sources of evidence-based medicine. It is web based but a PDA version is downloadable to Palm systems only. It offers disease modules with graded recommendations based on the latest research. The PDA version is updated monthly. PIER offers the most important information with the best evidence on a wide variety of point of care subjects. Not only does PIER offer disease and drug information, but they have complementary and alternative information as well, and recommendations on disease prevention and screening. ACP PIER also has journal club information to keep you updated on the most important and newest discoveries.

DynaMed

­DynaMed, similar to other Evidence Based Resources, offers concise summaries of graded and reviewed information. This resource focuses on diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of many conditions. The information comes from over 500 journals and are carefully reviewed. Retrieving disease information in this manner is much faster than searching for articles on PubMed.

InfoRetriever/ InfoPOEM

InfoRetriever is a PDA and web based resource which provide evidence-based recommendations and useful information. It contains many tools and databases including Practice Guidelines, 5 Minute Clinical Consult, Clinical Calculators and infoPOEMS. These databases give levels of recommendation, references and are wonderfully concise. InfoPOEMS, found here, offer excellent summaries of research. A great way to stay up-to-date is to receive current InfoPOEMS daily via e-mail.

Lexi-Comp On-Hand

Lexi-Comp for PDA is called Lexi-Comp On-Hand is the most comprehensive handheld database that I've seen yet. I don't feel I'd be able to adequately describe all that is available through these programs but more information and very useful online tours can be found at

www.lexi.com

The program can be used on the internet, on a desktop or on a handheld device. The web version obviously is better if you'd like to follow links and does have very complete information. Lexi-comp products encompass many databases and tools, some which can be purchased separately and downloaded onto a palm, pocketPC or blackberry device. Some of the smaller databases included Lexi-drugs, Lexi-interact, Lexi-DrugID, Lexi-Calc and many, many others. I don't believe there is much drug information out there that can't be found under one of the databases offered. For simplicity I will discuss the most used version, which is Lexi-Complete and it offers IV compatibility, drug information, interaction checker, and the calculators. As an aside the calculators are offered on ALL databases that are purchased.

Currently Lexi-Comp is having a sale, and you can purchase a one-year subscription for $75 to one database and add any other for $40.

Within Lexi-Complete you can reference 15 clinical database!! These include very useful installed books containing disease information, herbal drug information, medical abbreviations and many other useful bits of information. Within all the books, drugs and disease are linked to their information found in the other books so that complete information can be searched out easily. The drug database is very comprehensive and has links within that will lead you to important calculators for that drug, definitions of terms, important tables, and much more.

Lexi-interact is has, in my opinion, the most complete information and the most reference. The program actually cites it's sources!! However, because the program is so in depth I feel that it can sometimes be a little confusing to find what you need - even with their new search and "jump" features. If considering this database, I would spend some time on the internet going over the tours and product details, and then spend some time playing around with the database. Although it may be difficult to use at first, once mastered, the Lexi programs will be a great resource!!

Monthy Presribing Reference

Another Free Database! I really like this one, it offers a little bit of everything. Although the information doesn't seem to be too in depth, it has several unique features.

For downloading, as I said it's free, and compatible with any windows system so this includes all the PocketPC PDA's as well as many smartphones which we haven't seen yet. Of course it's accessible via the Internet so any system which has a connection could access this website.

You can search and COMPARE 3000 OTC and Rx drug monographs which include indications, dose, contraindications, precautions, interactions, adverse reactions and how supplied, all very concise. Drugs are listed by brand, generic, manufacturer and therapeutic category.

Other resources, besides monographs, include charts which easily depict comparisons of medication or flow diagrams of disease management and is definitely a unique feature of this reference. Their Prescribing Notes are general important therapeutic points for each drug class. These can be accessed by drug class or can be accessed by a link in the monograph of specific medications. Lastly MPR keeps you updated with news bulletins about drug information and new products.

Oh, and if they don't have the answer you need, check out the forums under the "We Got Answers" tab!