iPhone News

As a long-time OS X user and troubleshooter for myself, family, and friends, I¡¯ve got a large bag of tricks to draw from when trying to figure out a problem with the system. Amongst the tools of the trade for OS X troubleshooting are repairing permissions, repairing the hard drive, trying to duplicate the problem with a new user, trashing certain preference files, checking for font corruption, checking crash logs, disabling login items, booting in safe mode, and simply restarting. This isn¡¯t a comprehensive list, of course, but it gives you a sense for the wide range of tools you can use to solve a problem you may be having with OS X.

For years, physicians and other healthcare professionals have relied on the Epocrates family of reference tools to access therapeutic information on their Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices. Now Epocrates Rx brings the company’s extensive drug database to iPhone users, and it’s an excellent start.

After installing the application, you set up an account on Epocrates’ Web site and then enter your user name and password on the iPhone. Registration is free and takes only a few minutes. Epocrates Rx’s default Drug Search screen lets you look for medications by their generic or trade name. If you’re restricted to prescribing from a specific drug formulary, you can choose one by tapping a button next to the search box, and you can customize the formulary list.

As soon as you begin to type, Epocrates Rx shows all the matching entries in its 3,300-item database. Tap one, and a page with comprehensive information about the drug, including adult and pediatric dosing, black box warnings from the FDA, pharmacology, contraindications, adverse reactions, and pricing, appears. You can even enter notes for your own reference.

Epocrates Rx also makes it easy to check for harmful drug combinations by adding medications to an interaction checklist. Tapping the Interactions button at the bottom of the screen shows potential problems with each pair of medications.

Epocrates Rx can help doctors identify drugs with helpful visuals.

Epocrates Rx can help you manage patients who bring pills in unlabeled containers by identifying drugs based on their physical characteristics, including shape, color, and markings. You need an active Internet connection to view drug pictures, but that makes the application much smaller than it would be otherwise.

As good as it is, Epocrates Rx isn’t perfect: for example, I couldn’t find Thyrogen in its database, nor are iodinated contrast media or other diagnostic materials, which are treated as medications by The Joint Commission, listed. Epocrates also doesn’t offer its subscription-based references—Epocrates Rx Pro, Epocrates Essentials, or Epocrates Essentials Deluxe—for the iPhone yet, although the company says that more products are on the way. Until then, Epocrates Rx is indispensible for anyone who needs drug information on the go.

Epocrates Rx is compatible with any iPhone or iPod touch running the iPhone 2.0 software update.

CUPERTINO, California—July 14, 2008—Apple® today announced that iPhone™ and iPod® touch users have already downloaded more than 10 million applications from its groundbreaking new App Store since its launch late last week. Developers have created a wide array of innovative mobile applications ranging from games to location-based social networking to medical applications to enterprise productivity tools. Users can wirelessly download applications directly onto their iPhone or iPod touch* and start using them immediately. More than 800 native applications are now available on the App Store, with more than 200 offered for free and more than 90 percent priced at less than $10.

CUPERTINO, California—July 14, 2008—Apple® today announced it sold its one millionth iPhone 3G on Sunday, just three days after its launch on Friday, July 11. iPhone 3G is now available in 21 countries—Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US—and will go on sale in France on July 17.