Medscape Mobile

What is it?

This app contains a collection of medical reference materials, specialty-specific news stories, and continuing medical education (CME) courses.

How does it work?

Prior to using this app, the user must register with Medscape, providing your name, country, e-mail address, zip code, and specialty. Your name, specialty, and country of practice are shared with third-party sponsors; however, your e-mail address and other personally identifiable information are not shared.

Once in the app, Medscape Mobile provides an intuitive interface that allows you to view reference materials, CME, or news. Reference materials include a drug reference tool that includes prescribing and safety information for prescription, over-the-counter, and herbal medications; a drug interaction checker; a medical calculator with 129 different formulas, scales, and classifications; formulary information for approximately 2000 insurance plans; a disease and condition reference with up-to-date information on more than 4000 diseases; and a procedure reference with instructions on more than 1000 medical procedures. All of the reference materials can be downloaded in one step, allowing you to subsequently access all of the reference materials without Internet access.

In addition, the app includes daily specialty-specific medical news articles and accredited CME courses. Education courses often are provided as videos and screenshots paired with transcriptions for users who prefer reading versus listening to presentations. News articles are timely and cover US Food and Drug Administration announcements, thought leader perspectives, notable journal articles, and the business of medicine.

How can it help me?

Medscape Mobile is made for providers who prefer lots of different types of information within one app. It is the “Swiss Army Knife” of mobile medical apps providing a broad range of reference materials, medical calculators, news, and CME.

I have all the reference materials downloaded on my smartphone, as that allows me fast access to all the drug and clinical reference information during hospital rounds when I may have none or limited wireless Internet access. Although the larger screen of a tablet may be useful for the education and news sections, I personally prefer other sources for my dermatology medical news and CME. Therefore, I only use the smartphone interface.

The disease information also is limited for less common or subspecialty-specific dermatologic diseases. For example, there is no information on Conradi-Hünermann-Happle syndrome, neonatal cephalic pustulosis, or neonatal acne, diseases of interest to a pediatric dermatologist. I, therefore, do not use the dermatology disease and dermatology procedure references in my workflow. I do use the disease and procedure reference materials to familiarize myself with basic disease and procedure information outside of dermatology.

How can I get it?

Because Medscape Mobile is free, every dermatologist should try it. It is available from the Apple App Store for your iPhone and iPad and from the Google Play Store.

If you would like to recommend an app, e-mail our Editorial Office.