The information about U.S. FDA-approved medications in Epocrates products is proprietary content developed by the Epocrates Medical Information editors.
This team of physicians and pharmacists continually and thoroughly researches and reviews information from the primary literature, specialty society recommendations, clinical guidelines, manufacturer labeling, standard medical references, and FDA drug safety alerts, and then condenses that information into concise and clinically relevant monographs. We believe this process produces the best available prescribing and drug reference information — content that goes far beyond package inserts, with the inclusion of off-label and pediatric usage.
Retail pricing data for drugs is sourced from drugstore.com.
Formulary status information is provided by our health plan and hospital partners.
The Epocrates drug database is updated at least once per week.
Our editors incorporate the latest drug interaction data into the drug interaction checker to help avert potential adverse events.
A recent independent study in The Annals of Pharmacotherapy [2006;40(5):850] compared the performance of eight PDA drug-drug interaction (DDI) programs, including Epocrates' MultiCheck feature. The study examined both the ability to identify clinically important DDIs (sensitivity) and the ability to avoid alerting users of clinically unimportant DDIs (specificity). Epocrates software performed the best overall and was the only program to score at least 90% on both sensitivity and specificity. Based on these results, the authors concluded that the Epocrates DDI feature is "the most reliable in detecting the clinically relevant interactions studied without the distraction of detecting those of no clinical significance." Read the Study
High quality, evidence-based information about complementary and alternative medicines has been developed specifically for Epocrates by an international team of clinicians and researchers.
Subscribers can also check for interactions between drugs and alternative medicines with the drug interaction checker (see above).
The alternative medicines content is updated on an annual basis.
Full color pill pictures within the drug monograph show healthcare professionals and their patients exactly what each drug looks like. Pictures are licensed from respected US healthcare information providers.
Epocrates has partnered with the BMJ Group, publishers of the British Medical Journal to produce a disease reference that is easy to use and integrated with other Epocrates references.
The Epocrates Infectious Disease team reviews the most current specialty guidelines and primary literature, distilling vast amounts of information into concise, yet comprehensive, treatment recommendations for common and uncommon infections.
Recommended medications are linked into the Epocrates drug database.
Quarterly updates ensure that the most current information is available at the point of care.
In a study published in the Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials [2004,3:22], Epocrates ID was found to provide treatment recommendations for all patients admitted with a primary or secondary infectious disease diagnosis. The spectrum of infections included acute meningitis, empyema, endocarditis, osteomyelitis, HIV-related CNS infections, and FUO. Read Study
The Epocrates Medical Information editors draw on evidence-based medicine to develop helpful clinical tables that summarize guidelines and present additional drug information.
In order to meet our members' specific needs, Epocrates develops many free add-ons (MedTools applications) and sources others from a variety of companies and individuals.
DocAlert messages are carefully selected by Epocrates editors, often in consultation with outside specialists and publishers, and include summaries and expert commentary.
Topics include clinical alerts, CME alerts, government safety alerts, and medically relevant tips on practice management.