March 2010 Pulse Newsletter


	Drug, Disease, and Formulary Updates
	Clinical Intuition
	FDA MedWatch Safety Alerts
	Product-related questions? Contact the drug manufacturer from your iPhone®
	Free Schizophrenia Mobile Resource Center
	It's here! Epocrates Rx® for Android™ and Palm® webOS™
	What's This Disease?

Epocrates is committed to helping healthcare professionals improve patient safety. You can use our drug interaction checker on your handheld device to identify harmful interactions among your patient's medications and our dosing feature to ensure the dosage is appropriate. In a recent Epocrates survey, we found that over 60% of physicians credit Epocrates software for helping them to avoid one ADE per week! Learn more about what Epocrates has to offer

Here's what a few of our users had to say:

"The Epocrates MultiCheck feature is invaluable to my practice. I don't know how anyone could memorize all of the drug-drug interactions and black box warnings."
– Dr. Matthew Ponzio, Cardiology

"I really use Epocrates everyday, to look at the interaction with medications I prescribe, and to make sure I am ordering the right dose."
–Dr. Denise Armellini, Endocrinology

"Epocrates is my primary drug reference for safe use during pregnancy and lactation."
– Dr. Ricardo Gomez-Betancourt, OBGYN

DocAlert Messages

Anne Meneghetti, MD
Director, Clinical Communications

Clinical Intuition

We all know gifted colleagues whose diagnostic skills border on the stuff of magic. An ER physician eyeballs a patient with stable vitals, and senses the crash that comes minutes later. A psychiatrist inexplicably knows that a woman's unusual thoughts stem from an organic cause. An ophthalmologist examining the retina asks the patient, "How long have you had atrial fibrillation?" A clinician in a resource-poor country examines a woman with irregular menses, and detects a subtle pulse finding that correlates with the expanded blood volume characteristic of pregnancy.

Some clinicians possess a natural sixth sense for sussing out a patient's condition; others leverage decades of experience into informed intuition and superb judgment. A recent Lancet systematic review emphasized the importance of physician instincts (and parental instincts) when detecting serious acute illness in children. A gut feeling can often reveal what numbers and logic cannot.

Among the most popular DocAlert messages are news about diagnostic algorithms, clinical guidelines, and other decision-support tools. We will keep these messages coming. Yet, there is a certain kind of knowing that will never be captured by a guideline committee. There is no substitute for the eyes and hands of an experienced physician.

	Nasal polyps
	Hiccups
	Tenosynovitis of the hand and wrist
	Vitamin B1 deficiency
	Sporotrichosis
	Lymphedema
	CREST syndrome
	Evaluation of proteinuria
	Cataracts
	Dubin-Johnson syndrome
	Buerger disease


	calcium citrate (generic)
	fenofibric acid (first-time generic for Fibricor)
	Istodax (romidepsin)
	Kalbitor (ecallantide)
	Monodox (doxycycline)
	Oforta (fludarabine)
	Victoza (liraglutide)

Kaiser Colorado Federal Group (CO)
Ventura County Health Care Plan (CA)

Prescription Drugs: Long-Acting Beta-Agonists, Exjade (deferasirox), Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents Procrit, Epogen and Aranesp, Invirase (saquinavir), Tysabri (Natalizumab), Zyprexa (olanzapine)

Over-the-Counter Drugs: Maalox Total Relief & Maalox Liquid Products, Ear Candles

Devices: Safesheath CSG Coronary Sinus Guide Hemostatic Introducer, BD Q-Syte Luer Access Devices, Cardiac Science Automated External Defibrillators

Product-related questions? Contact the drug manufacturer from your iPhone

One-tap access directly to the pharmaceutical manufacturer now enabled in selected Epocrates drug monographs. Provides quick access for your product-related questions.

Browse product list
   — Launch Epocrates on your iPhone
   — Tap the "More" icon, and select "Contact the Manufacturer"
   — Select a product
   — Select the phone icon to initiate a call (standard cell phone charges will apply)

Free Schizophrenia Mobile Resource Center

The new Schizophrenia Mobile Resource Center provides editorially independent commentaries on important clinical news and research in schizophrenia. The content is selected and commented upon by a highly regarded thought leader in the areas of schizophrenia and psychiatry. The material is updated every 2 weeks and includes clinical news, conference highlights, resources, and scientific abstracts.

Now available on iPhone, Palm and Windows Mobile devices, we invite you to visit our site to get more information about this and other free resource centers.

It's Here! Epocrates Rx for Android and Palm webOS

		With our new Epocrates Rx beta application, you will have quick and easy access to reliable drug information. Epocrates Rx provides you with multiple clinical tools in one easy-to-use application. Please note that the clinical content will not be updated for the beta version of this application.

Test your knowledge!
Can you identify the disease in this image?

Answer

Find this image and many others in Epocrates Essentials for iPhone and BlackBerry®, Epocrates ® Essentials Deluxe for iPhone.

Mobile Updates

Update (sync) your device regularly to download free clinical content and news, including new drugs and DocAlert messages.

We always love to hear from our members about Epocrates products, or any other topics at youropinion@epocrates.com.

We occasionally select reader comments to feature in future newsletters. All readers featured in the newsletter will receive a free one-year subscription to the premium product of their choice.



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