Epocrates for the iPhone: A Survey

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Joshua Schwimmer, MD, FACP, FASN

Image via CrunchBase

I've previously written about Epocrates, a free database of pharmaceuticals — with extras like CME credits and medical news — for physicians. (See Review of Epocrates on the iPhone and iPhone Medicine Watch.)

Epocrates recently surveyed 303 U.S. physicians (and 304 consumers) regarding their use of Epocrates on the iPhone. (The results are summarized in a PowerPoint presentation.) Here are some highlights:

• Epocrates is the most used healthcare application on the iPhone. [Not surprising, though I imagine that free and inexpensive medical calculators like Mediquations are a close second.]
  
• Epocrates was an "important" or "very important" consideration for users purchasing an iPhone for 72% of physicians. [I imagine that the percentage is higher now — Epocrates wasn't even available when I purchase my iPhone, so it wasn't a consideration. Previously, the lack of useful medical software for the first version of the iPhone was a major barrier to entry for physicians — iPhone 2.0, the app store, and Epocrates changed all that.]
  
• 61% of physicians used Epocrates daily. [If I'm near a computer, I'll often review the drug database on UpToDate, which is the only reason that I don't use Epocrates daily.]
  
• 93% of surveyed physicians and 85% of consumers believe "All healthcare professionals should use a clinical reference such as Epocrates." [This question is such a no-brainer that I'd be fascinated to hear why people answered, "no."]
  
• Nonhealthcare applications used most often by physicians include Pandora, Weather Bug, Sports Tap, Shazam, New York Times, Facebook, and AOL Radio. [Mine would by Evernote, Instapaper Pro, OmniFocus, Pandora, and Twitterific.]
  

Labels: Facebook, iphone, iPhone 2.0, new york times, OmniFocus, Pandora

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