This Month's Features

Happy Holidays!
New Products Coming Soon ...

What's New From Epocrates?
— Updated HIV Information

Use MobileCME and Win a $1,000 Prize!

Epocrates Gift Ideas & Year-End Special for Groups

Advocate of the Month —
Yanick Larivee, MD, Canada

This Month in Medical History

Quick Poll

Question of the Month — Are Epocrates products compatible with a memory card?

Advocate of the Month

Yanick Larivee, MD, FRCSC, Otolayrngologist, Head & Neck Surgeon, Chief of Staff, Granby Regional Hospital, Canada

For the last six years, Epocrates has been an invaluable, fundamental and irreplaceable part of my everyday practice. I just can’t work without it: I use it no less than 20 times a day! It’s like carrying all the useful charts and books in your PDA, which saves me time for other important and innumerous tasks. It’s simply all there, in one perfectly integrated program!

I am keen on using the ID program for the best antibiotic treatment of diseases I’m less familiar with. Also, for me, the integration of the
5-Minute Clinical Consult (Epocrates Dx) to the suite is most practical for rapidly finding important details about rare (and often forgotten) diseases that could affect my pre-op investigation. And it is rewarding to me to find significant drug interactions, with the Multicheck function, that even the internists overlooked.

Epocrates Rx Online is a charm to use in my office. Identifying pills with the patient is a snap, and searching for the deleterious effects of an alternate medicine has been many times a complication-sparing activity. For example, discovering that one of my senior patients with persistent low calcium was on raspberry leaves! I didn’t know that one, but now I do, thanks to Epocrates.

Epocrates provides a direct benefit to my patients and myself. Of course you feel more intelligent with Epocrates, but it’s really like being a more complete physician who actively tries to make fewer avoidable medical errors. Simply put – Epocrates saves time and lives.

And with the addition of the Canadian drug name index*, what more can be said? Once you start using it, you easily find the clear and concise information you were looking for. And voilà! You’re an Epocrates addict!

*Drug name indexes are now available for Canada, Spain, Germany, and the UK.

Learn More >

This Month in
Medical History

December 3, 1967— Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the world's first heart transplant in Cape Town, South Africa. The same day in 1982, doctors at the University of Utah carried the world's first artificial heart implant.

Quick Poll — Give Us Your Opinion

Have recent news reports about FDA approval requirements increased patient interest and involvement in the potential side-effects of their prescription medications?

Please note that poll questions can only be answered in the HTML version of our email newsletter.

We will publish the results in the next newsletter.

Last month we asked: Have you treated any Halloween-related cases these past few days?
9% said yes and 91% said no.

Happy Holidays! New Products Coming Soon!

The Holidays are coming, and so are some exciting new products from Epocrates ...

• Epocrates SxDx symptom assessment tool — Search the Epocrates SxDx disease database by your patient's symptoms, physical findings, and history.
• Epocrates Online FREE web-based drug reference — Look up continually updated drug information for free on any Internet-connected desktop - perfect for admin staff.

Visit our website again soon to learn about these new products!

What's New From Epocrates?

FREE Updates, Tools, and Services Available Now:

• Updated HIV Tables
• Drug & Clinical Updates
• Formulary Updates
• New MobileCME Activities

To receive free edits and additions to your current Epocrates mobile products, simply AutoUpdate.

Updated HIV Tables

Since 1988, December 1st has been observed as World AIDS Day, dedicated to increasing the awareness of the global AIDS epidemic as well as honoring those who have helped advance HIV/AIDS research over the past 20 years. This day has been chosen because the first case of AIDS was documented on December 1st, 1981 in the United Kingdom.

This month we are highlighting new and updated HIV Tables in Epocrates Rx Pro/Epocrates Rx Online, based on the recently updated
pediatric guidelines (PDF) and adult guidelines (PDF) issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). 

Updates include:  

• Updated HIV Tx Regimens, Adults Table for treatment options in antiretroviral naïve adults and adolescents
• NEW HIV Tx Regimens, Pediatrics Table for initial antiretroviral therapy in pediatric patients
• NEW HIV Postexposure Prophylaxis Tables for the U.S. Public Health recommendations for occupational and nonoccupational postexposure prophylaxis

Drug Updates

In November our Medical Information Editors added a new drug monograph for zidovudine and made 144 edits to existing monographs.

VIEW DETAILED UPDATES >

Formulary Updates

The following health insurance formularies are now available:

Health plans: Kaiser Permanente of Ohio (OH)
Hospitals: Good Samaritan Hospital (MD), Harbor Hospital, Baltimore (MD)

ADD FORMULARIES NOW (sign in required) >

New MobileCME Activities

We continually add primary care and specialty CME activities to the free MobileCME learning center. Recently added and popular activities include:

• Blood Test Could Help Find Foods that Trigger Irritable Bowel Syndrome
• Weekend Warriors and Mortality Risk
• Eczema Creams and Cancer

Use MobileCME in December for a Chance to Win!

Whether you need to fulfill your 2005 CME requirements or just want to learn something new, use the MobileCME on-the-go learning center. You could win one of TEN Modern Essentials packages each worth more than $1,000:

HP® iPAQ HW6515 Phone + Epocrates Essentials + iPod® Nano

Each time you complete a MobileCME activity in November and December, you'll receive one entry into our prize drawing. The more programs you complete, the greater your chance of winning!

PLUS Where do you CME Photo Contest: November's Winning Photo

Congratulations to Jean Anaya PA-C (CPT) for being selected as the November winner!

Runners-up include:
Emily Venteicher, MD,
Randall Braddom, MD, and
Dipesh Navsaria, PA-C.

VIEW WINNING PHOTOS >

Epocrates Gift Ideas

Looking for a new PDA with all the bells and whistles?

Save when you buy a PDA with Epocrates Essentials. Check out our great value PDA-software bundles.

Give the gift of more time and less stress ...

Epocrates licenses are available for all Epocrates premium products.

Or why not treat everyone in your practice or facility?

Special group discounts are available now thru 12/31, starting at 20% off for groups of 10 or more.