EM Pocket Reference Comparisons
For many of us there is just not time during a busy shift to consult a textbook or an internet article. We need something quicker when we need to refresh our memory or double check something – something that takes about a minute: a one-minute consult.
SEE LISTS BELOW FOR RELATIVE ADVANTAGES OF APPS AND OF POCKETBOOKS AND FOR A LIST OF SOME OF THE POCKETBOOKS MANY OF YOUR COLLEAGUES ARE USING. PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS BELOW.
Advantages of Smartphone Apps:
- Saves space: multiple “books” in one device
- More current: most are updated more frequently than books
- Speed (sometimes): word completion and hotlinks
Advantages of Pocketbooks:
- Cost: usually less expensive than similar apps with no annual fee
- Reliability: no battery, doesn’t brake when dropped
- Modifiable: easily annotated in the margins or with post-its
- Speed: flip the page, easily bookmarked, no updates to upload
Pocket EM Books – General:
- Tarascon Adult Emergency Medicine, $19.95: good charts and images, longest track record, BUT missing many topics and requires separate book for pediatrics
- Quick Essentials: Emergency Medicine, $16.80: many more topics than other books including pediatrics and OB/GYN, succinct, good charts and images, BUT many abbreviations
- Pocket Emergency Medicine, $59.99: durable, well organized, and succinct BUT expensive, a bit bulky and missing many topics
Pocket Pharmacopoeias & Antibiotic Guides:
- Tarascon Pocket Pharmacopoeia, classic edition, $19.95: thorough, BUT no antibiotic guide and minimal side effect and contraindication data and is designed for internal medicine
- A to Z Pocket Emergency Pharmacopoeia, $12.00: alphabetical format easy to use, each entry has side effects & contraindications PLUS contains an antibiotic guide and sections on sedation and drug toxicities and is designed for emergency medicine
- The Sanford Guide to Antimicrobial Therapy, $19.99: thorough guide for antibiotics with much more antibiotic information than other pocketbooks, BUT does not include all the other classes of medications
PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS BELOW
Comments
Comment from ER Pocketbooks
Time: June 3, 2014, 7:14 pm
you should add the Tarascon pediatric emergency guide
Write a comment