10 Essential Pharmacy Apps

Our selection of invaluable pharmacy apps allows you to track drug interactions, share health care videos with patients, and much, much more—all with your mobile device.

The December holidays are upon us and with them the chance of receiving a new smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device as a gift. Whether you’re expecting a new tech toy this year or simply looking to add some new resources to your existing device, the following apps can help enhance your pharmacy practice.

Pharmacy Times AR

The latest app from the Pharmacy Times family brings the magazine’s pages to life with videos, animated figures, and enhanced features. After downloading the free application and opening it, simply hover over the AR (Augmented Reality) icon in your issue of Pharmacy Times to see the additional content. To download the app for your Apple device, click here. To read a primer on how to use the app, as well as about options for activating AR material with your Android device, click here.

About Herbs

Keeping track of drug and supplement interactions is critical for anyone who uses supplements, alternative therapies, or homeopathic remedies. This application, created by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and monitored by a pharmacist from its Integrative Medicine Service, includes information on herbs, vitamins, and nutritional supplements. Entries, which are geared toward health professionals and patients, include therapeutic uses and potential treatment interactions (with both prescription and OTC medications) and contraindications.

Apple devices only: http://phrmcyt.ms/Qxypii

DrugInfoLine

This app, for use by members of the American Pharmacists Association, offers summaries of important clinical studies and guidelines dating back to 2000. It is updated weekly with new articles covering major organ systems, oncology, infectious diseases, OTC medications, drug interactions, and pharmacogenomics. FDA actions are posted on an ongoing basis, allowing members to stay up-to-date on important information.

Apple devices only: http://phrmcyt.ms/QSQBmb

ClinicJot

ClinicJot is a therapy management tool that allows pharmacists to type or write notes, schedule appointments, and draw and write on diagrams and photos, adding another dimension to Brown Bag Consults and Medication Therapy Management sessions. The password-protected app integrates with email and other programs, allowing pharmacists to export information for their records. The app is available as a free version with limited information storage or as a paid version that permits many more entries.

Apple devices only: http://phrmcyt.ms/ RGq2a1

HealthClips Rx

HealthClips Rx allows pharmacists to enhance patient understanding by sending them health care education videos. The app includes over 400 videos, including several in Spanish, covering general wellness, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, pulmonology, and other key areas designed to encourage patients to take an active role in their health. Pharmacists can track whether their patients have viewed a given video and insert annotations to encourage patient and provider collaboration.

Apple devices only: http://phrmcyt.ms/LiekhQ

Pharmacotherapy Handbook, 8th Edition

This app allows users to access the 8th edition of McGraw-Hill’s textbook—without the need to carry around the bulky book. It includes information geared toward students and health care providers on drug therapy decision making for more than 140 diseases and disorders. Chapters include information on disease state definition, relevant pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, desired outcome, treatment, and monitoring—with tables, text, figures, and treatment algorithms throughout. The treatment section covers nonpharmacologic therapy, drug selection guidelines, dosing recommendations, adverse reactions, pharmacokinetic considerations, and important drug interactions.

Android: http://phrmcyt.ms/NPl6wK

Apple: http://phrmcyt.ms/NPkKq0

Davis’s Drug Guide

This app includes practical information on commonly used and newly released medicines. The application includes listings for more than 5000 brand name and generic drugs, high alert notices, risk evaluation and mitigation strategies, and a list of discontinued drugs. Entries contain information on dosing and administration and drug-drug, drug-supplement, and drug-food interactions. A “Favorites” option allows users to bookmark important or commonly used entries.

Android: http://phrmcyt.ms/LAOExr

Apple: http://phrmcyt.ms/LAOI0d

Shots by STFM

The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine has designed this app for use by clinicians, teachers, and other health care providers who may be called upon to answer tough questions on dosing and scheduling vaccinations. The app provides a complete set of CDC vaccine schedules and footnotes that include information on high-risk indications, adverse reactions, contraindications, catch-up, administration, epidemiology, brand names, and additives. Graphics, images, and commentary are integrated into the app content, which is reviewed by a CDC expert.

Android: http://phrmcyt.ms/KhiiSb

Apple: http://phrmcyt.ms/Khil03

Drugs & Bugs

Monthly Prescribing Reference offers this app as a resource for health care providers who regularly encounter infectious diseases. The app includes a database of more than 300 anti-infective agents and 280 pathogens, and includes sections on scabies, lice, and fungal, malarial, and protozoal-parasitic infections. Users can search by pathogen, type of infection, and by brand and generic drug names. Physicians review the information, and pharmacists provide frequent updates.

Android: http://phrmcyt.ms/IE1rZ0

Apple: http://phrmcyt.ms/HE9QOG

Pharmacy Tech

Geared toward pharmacy technician students or pharmacy technicians looking to refine their skills, Pharmacy Tech by Ion Citadel, LLC, offers a quiz system to review necessary information and concepts. Intended as a study aid for the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board Exams, it includes more than 1000 exam cards and customizable quizzes on topics including drug classification, calculations, administration, and maintaining medications. The application offers explanations to its quiz questions, allowing users to instantly see correct answers.

Apple devices only: http://phrmcyt.ms/XunriK