15 Essential Point of Care Medical Apps for Physicians, PAs, NPs
We've all been stumped by a particular patient presentation. These medical apps can help at the point of care next time that happens.
CONTENTS
1. Medical Apps with CME2. Free Reference Apps
3. High Tech & Innovative Apps
4. More Medical References
Who Should Use Point of Care Apps?
There are two types of healthcare professionals out there. Those who have been stumped by a clinical presentation at the point-of-care, and…liars.
This is totally normal and is a part of being human (getting stumped, not lying that is).
It’s also partly because your patient’s disease forgot to read the textbook before showing up.
That’s why having certain medical apps at your fingertips is so useful in today’s age, even if you have transitioned to a telemedicine role permanently or temporarily.
List of Point of Care Medical Apps for Healthcare Professionals
I personally love trying out new apps, medical or not. So I figured I'd curate a list of point of care medical apps designed for physicians, PAs, NPs, and students to be used during a clinical encounter – at the bedside, in the exam room, or even during your telemedicine appointment.
Most of the apps will even award category 1 CME credits every time you use them.
In all, there are 15 amazing pieces of medical education technology here.
Many are free, but several offer paid versions with additional features, which especially benefits those who want to buy medical apps with their CME allowance.
We’ve also included a few bonus apps that aren’t necessarily made for the point of care, but are so innovative or useful it would feel wrong NOT to include them in this list.
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6 (+1 bonus) Point of Care Medical Apps That Award Category 1 CME Credits
1. MDCalc
MDCalc is a free medical calculator app that you’ve probably used at least once in your career or training already.
However, MDCalc is on this list because of the company’s constant innovation, continuous updates, and the new option of various CME subscriptions.
Why purchase a CME subscription if all the calculators and evidence summaries are free? Well for one, you need a subscription to claim category 1 CME, even if you use an otherwise CME-accredited calculator on MDCalc.
The other reason would be more altruistic. That would be your supporting this incredible company that is committed to medical education and FOAMed (free open-access medical education).
MDCalc Point of Care App Summary
Platforms: iOS, Android, Desktop
Specialties: All of them
CME: Available for purchase; amount depends on specific plan
Price: Starting at $99/year up to $5,450 for unlimited CME + $3,000 gift card.
Learn more about CME with gift card options.
Purchase or view all MDCalc CME plans here.
2. VisualDx + DermExpert
VisualDx with DermExpert is easily one of my favorites on this list.
It is a user-friendly artificial intelligence-enhanced clinical decision support system built for a variety of specialties.
App Store Rating
First, let’s address that rating in the app store. My first impression was that the 3.8 star average seems unreasonably low for an app of this caliber.
However, I think the explanation is multifactorial. You'll notice the review count is relatively low for an app with so many downloads. Classic sample size bias.
Further, the negative comments are largely several years old from before all the best upgrades and updates rolled out.
Then there are some reviews written by laypeople expecting access, or the grumblings of people who didn’t want to pay for it. Demographic bias. Go figure.
None of that has been my experience, technically or medically, and I would easily give VisualDx 5 stars.
Features & Use
It’s a fantastic tool that can be used in just about every specialty. Without DermExpert, VisualDx still helps you get even better at formulating your differential diagnosis based on a symptom, chief complaint, or myriad other presenting clinical characteristics.
It also takes you through the workup and next steps if you want to be even more sure about your plan.
DermExpert is great for when your dermatology consultant is scheduling 8 weeks out as a favor and 12 weeks for everyone else.
This feature works similarly to the main portion, but instead of typing in a symptom, you take a picture of the lesion with their HIPAA-compliant in-app camera.
You’ll then be taken through a few additional steps to further narrow down your differential.
Every differential you build, picture you take, or quiz you play earns you CME.
It’s so fast the entire process can be done in front of the patient without ruining your workflow for the day. Besides, your EMR will do that.
In fact, clinicians save an average of 26 minutes a day using VisualDx.
VisualDx DermExpert & Health Equity
Furthermore, their 42,000+ image library hosts a diverse range of skin colors and disease variations. That’s a lot better than most dermatologic references, which consist primarily of skin conditions on white skin.
VisualDx Point of Care App Summary
The price of a subscription for this robust database, clinical content, CME, patient handouts, and more is incredibly reasonable if you ask me.
Platforms: iOS, Android, Desktop,
EMR Integration: yes, for institutional accounts
Specialties: Internal medicine, dermatology, psychiatry, pharmacology, and literally all the others
CME: Yes!
Price: $499.99 for 1-year access. Save 20% with promo code MODERNMEDED20
VisualDx Special Offer from Modern MedEd
We’ve worked with the team at VisualDx to create a special, limited-time offer just for our readers.
When you purchase a VisualDx subscription, you'll also get DermExpert included, and a 20% discount with code MODERNMEDED20 at checkout.
Purchase your subscription to VisualDx + DermExpert and get discount here.
2a. Bonus! DosedDaily ENT CME
DosedDaily is not necessarily a point-of-care app, but it's so amazing I just had to include it here.
It's a CME subscription that sends you one email per day containing a clinically-relevant ENT question based on the latest evidence-based data. The best part is that you can answer the question right from your email on your phone; one-click gets you CME and MOC, just like that.
Learn more about why it's a good CME buy in the middle of this pandemic.
DosedDaily Summary
Platforms: email
Specialties:
- Internal Medicine
- Neurology
- ENT
- PA-specific
- NP-specific
Specialties (ENT):
- General Otolaryngology
- Facial Plastics
- Head & Neck Oncology
- Otology
- Pediatric Otolaryngology
- Rhinology
CME: 24 category 1 CME credits and MOC points per year
Specialties (PA):
- Hospital Medicine
- Emergency Medicine
- Primary Care
- Surgery
CME: 24 self-assessment CME credits (equivalent to 36 category 1 CMEs) per year
Price: Starting at $40/month for limited credits; up to $800 for a 3 year subscription
3. StatPearls
StatPearls is a comprehensive and authoritative medical education resource, CME article review, and board review and CME question bank.
PubMed has indexed more than 8,000 StatPearls articles, which I've used many times for my own clinical and scientific references.
StatPearls also has one of the widest selections of CME activities available, covering interesting topics such as disaster medicine, brain injury, cardiothoracic anesthesiology, and so much more.
Best of all, you can earn unlimited CME for the unbelievable price of just $399 per year. Or get a lifetime subscription for just $2,599 and never pay for CME again.
4. Canopy Medical Spanish
With the United States healthcare system making access to care an international embarrassment, we as clinicians need to do all we can for underserved patients.
As a relatively privileged member of society who grew up speaking English exclusively until high school Spanish, this is especially important for people like me.
That's where Canopy Medical Spanish CME courses come in. Sure, you can use Google translate or your interpreter services for a lot of the legwork. But let's be honest. When was the last time you looked forward to finding an interpreter? No matter how you cut it, it slows you down and makes everyone's life harder.
Canopy does more than teach you how to translate English medicalese words to Spanish medicalese words. You'll also learn the culture behind the syntax, which is vital for communication in any setting.
And they also have a pretty sweet mobile app for Android and iOS, which does a much better job than Google translate could in a clinical setting. Great for augmenting your interpreter services until you finish their courses.
Canopy Medical Spanish CME Summary
Get 12 months access, 45 category 1 CME credits, and three levels of courses with personalized support for $525 per year.
However, just from us at Modern MedEd, you can reduce that price by 20 per cent to just $420 per year with the promo code MODERN20.
- Platforms: iOS, Android, Desktop
- Specialties: all of them
- CME: Yes!
- Price: starting at $420/year after a 20% discount
5. PEPID
PEPID offers a suite of products all in a single app for use at the point-of-care by physicians, PAs, NPs, pharmacists, nurses, residents, students, EMTs, and paramedics. They cover several specialties, but their bread and butter is emergency medicine, pediatric emergency medicine, primary care, and pharmacology.
A PEPID subscription starts at $299.95/year for a one year term, with the annual cost decreasing as the length of time increases. You can also purchase access to automatically-awarded category 1 CME whenever you use the app, starting at $169 for a one-year subscription.
PEPID also offers a free two-week trial so you can try before you buy. Available on iOS or Android.
6. UpToDate
Up-To-Date gets you category 1 CME with every search. You can use it at a computer or on your mobile device, and some of you probably already have access to it through your institution. If not, then it is currently $559 a year for individual physician/PA/NP/pharmacist/nurse subscribers.
There are also options for group discounts if at least one other person will join you. Additionally, you can access a free 30-day trial to see if it’s really a good fit.
They have articles on just about anything you could imagine, with detailed analyses as well as concise summaries, depending on your needs at the time. And because each search comes with potential CME, it is possible to get all the hours and more just from topic searches.
Best of all, it integrates seamlessly with your VisualDx subscription.
Up-To-Date Point of Care App Summary
- Platforms: iOS, Android, Desktop, some EMRs
- Specialties: all
- CME: Unlimited
- Price: $599/year for individuals
3 Free Point of Care Medical Apps (No CME)
1. Thumbroll
According to Thumbroll themselves, the app is “like having a textbook in your pocket.” The truth is that it’s much better than having a textbook in your pocket.
Thumbroll seems to be mostly targeted towards residents and early-career clinicians. I enjoyed using it early on in my own career when I was a neurosurgery PA. It was one of the only great digital procedure reference guides that I could find.
2. WikEM
WikEM, known as The Global Emergency Medicine Wiki, is the world's largest open-access emergency medicine reference.
The app is completely free and is available on Android, iOS, and desktop. There is also an open call for medical practitioners to join WikEM’s contributor community to share your knowledge with the world.
WikEM was brought to you by the OpenEM Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity. If you are feeling generous, you can donate to WikEM to help make open access to medical knowledge possible.
3. Epocrates
Epocrates is a free point-of-care app for Android and iOS. Your account includes their drug interaction checker, clinical guidelines, and of course, a complete selection of useful drug monographs.
It also has a useful pill ID, so you’ll know what patients mean when they say, “I take a small blue one and a round white one.”
There is a paid version, Epocrates+, that comes with a few more features, which I imagine could be quite useful in some settings. The downside is the apparent lack of CME for all they do offer.
5 Innovative & Engaging MedEd Apps (+/- CME)
These next apps aren’t necessarily useful for point-of-care conundrums, but you won’t regret downloading them.
1. Figure1
Figure1 is like Instagram for medical professionals, but with fewer fake influencers. It’s an incredible place to share interesting cases, learn from your peers, and even earn CME. Figure1 (iOS and Android) has become the largest global network of medical professionals, and for good reason.
Institutions like Mount Sinai Health system, the BMJ, and even yours truly use the platform to share cases and promote medical education. In fact, here are a few cases of ours that went on to be featured by the platform.
Spinal Cord Injury
Angiosarcoma
FYI; you can learn more about soft tissue tumors like this one with this Masters of Pathology CME program.
Figure1 is completely free (even the CME is free), and covers every single specialty that you could imagine. Available on both Android and iOS.
2. Doximity Dialer
Doximity Dialer is now a part of the main Doximity app, and it's one of the most useful day-to-day apps you can download.
The full Doximity app itself it pretty cool (minus misinformation propagation that seems to plague social media companies), but let's focus on the Dialer.
If you don't have easy access to your organization's phone system, what do you use?
Your personal phone, most likely, which many clinicians do not give out to patients as a matter of practice.
Blocking your number protects it, but comes with problems, too.
A lot of people (guilty), including patients, don't answer calls they don't recognize or that comes from blocked numbers, because they are usually spam.
To solve this, Doximity Dialer lets you display your office number (or any other number you want) on their caller ID by routing your call through Doximity's HIPPA compliant platform.
Your patients may still avoid you, but at least they'll be doing it on purpose now. That's not an app problem. Sorry.
There is also a ‘straight to voicemail' feature for the times a conversation is not required. Brilliant.
This is a screenshot of my actual Dialer, with my old clinic numbers redacted because of course.
But the point is those numbers could be literally any valid phone number. You only have to enter it once, because let's be honest, even you don't have your office number memorized.
There is also a new Dialer Video feature to help support the use of telemedicine since the United States acts like we've never seen a pandemic before.
Best of all, the Doximity app completely free on iOS and Android.
3. Medical Joyworks Suite of MedEd Apps
They have built a database of tons of free case-based gamified educational content, like Prognosis: Your Diagnosis (Android and iOS) and Clinical Sense. Makes learning super not boring.
They have also recently released Clinical Odyssey, which will run you $14.99/mo or $149/year after a 7-day free trial.
Clinical Odyssey comes with all the free cases from Prognosis and Clinical Sense as well as exclusive premium cases, a multiple choice question bank, and access to MJW's physician-moderated discussion board. I've been a fan of this app for years and can't recommend it enough.
4. Board Vitals Question Bank App
Board Vitals makes medical examination and CME question banks covering more than 35 specialties.
They are here not as a point-of-care medical app, but an extremely useful source for (now even more) convenient, quick CME you can earn anywhere.
Their app is new, but very easy to use and packed with tons of great clinical content as well as technically seamless. Purchase your subscription on the Board Vitals website and download the app for Android or iOS.
5. Audio Digest Membership CME
Audio Digest is included here only for their convenient CME. It is most certainly not a point-of-care tool, and the website is more stable than the app in my experience. And by the looks of it above, I'm not alone.
The good news is the iOS version of the app has much better ratings, with 4.7 stars.
However, I still love the app when I’m out and want to listen to CME rather than do whatever it is I’m supposed to be doing.
I can download individual lectures or entire playlists ahead of time to save on precious data. That's worth the (truly) minor glitches in the app to me.
Subscribe to Audio Digest Foundation here and get an extra $100 gift card from Modern MedEd in return.
More Online & Point of Care CME Guidance
If you are wondering about more online CME options, we’ve covered them before; as well as the top CME with gift card offers to get before your CME stipend expires.
First Published: 29 October 2020
Further Reading
Top Audio CME Activities of 2023
Audio CME delivered on-demand can reduce stress while offering a satisfying learning experience for busy healthcare professionals.
PECARN for Pediatric Head Injury [Infographic & Calc]
A pediatric head injury makes even stone-cold clinicians nervous. Fortunately, PECARN can make your life easier (and your patient's longer)
VisualDx CME Disclaimer
*This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the ACCME through the joint providership of Med-IQ and VisualDx.
Med-IQ is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Med-IQ designates this point of care activity for a maximum of 0.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™
Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
