July 12, 2004 11:37 PM
Review: Tarascon Pocket Pharmacopoeia Deluxe 4.02.10.002

Pocket Pharmacopoeia, published by Tarascon since 1987, has been the pocket book of choice for a good portion of medical and pharmacy students, residents and fellows. With its small size, concise information and ease of use, it has become very popular. With the booming use of PDAs, Tarascon decided to publish Pocket Pharmacopoeia for use with the two most popular PDA platforms, PalmOS and Pocket PC.

I have been using Pocket Pharmacopoeia for about 3 weeks, and I will detail my impressions below. Note that this review pertains to the Pocket PC version, however all contents and the platform used by the publishers is essentially the same for PalmOS.

Installation

Pocket Pharmacopoeia (PP) works by continuously updating its contents, therefore the software is not bought on a "per-edition" basis, but rather as a timed subscription. You sign up through their website, and create an account. You then download the installer, which installs the basic platform on your PDA. The databases containing all the content are then downloaded from Tarascon's servers over the Internet. This took me about 10 minutes to complete, and PP was up and running without a glitch.

Usage

When you launch PP, you are greeted by a nice initial screen. It contains a list of classes of drugs, and on the left side are the main menu options: Class, Index, Tools and Interactions. It also has a small bar with the alphabet in the bottom part of the screen. Tapping a letter takes you to the first drug that starts with that letter, which is a really handy feature. The interface is made by USBMIS, and is not only fast but also very efficient.

In the lowest part of the screen is the navigation bar, containing an "information" button, that has all the editorial stuff, credits, auto-update settings and a list of abbreviations. Of note, there are no options or preferences that can be set at all. It would really add to the value of this application if some options were implemented, such as screen preferences, and (at least for me) a left-sided scroll bar, which means the world to left-handed people like myself. The second button takes you to the Tools section, which I'll discuss later. Next come back and forward buttons, and an "up" button that works as a "history" type of function, followed by the "Home" and "Exit" buttons.

When using the application on a daily basis, I found the information about the drugs very comprehensive for a pocket guide. Aside from displaying the generic name, it also shows all available trade names, which sometimes helps. All drugs are listed by generic and trade names, so you can find the drug you are looking for either way. Also on the top of the screen there are links to the class and subclass of the drug shown, so it is very easy to browse through drugs of the same class.

The initial information you get after tapping on a drug is the standard heading followed by the subclass warning and FDA approved adult dosing. Peds dosing is also available, however there is no option to make peds dosing the default or initial information. Renal dosing is also available when necessary, however that information is in the Caution/Notes area, but once you find it it is easy to get there.

There is extensive information regarding pricing. Not only does PP show relative cost ($-$$$$$), but it also shows information from www.drugstore.com with specific prices. Interestingly it lists all available manufacturers of that specific drug with individual costs. I found this absolutely awesome in an environment where cost is a huge concern.

The "Tools" area could be a separate software package by itself. It contains 9 medical calculators, all of them very relevant. The "creatinine clearance calculator" is the one that I use the most, and this is the most well designed calculator that I ever used in a PDA. It has a compact screen, without the need to scroll. It has its own keypad and big buttons.

Other tools included are several tables, from abbreviatons, drugs that influence P450, antimicrobial information (spectrum SBE prophylaxis), opioid equivalency tables, antidotes, and much more. Unfortunately there is no list of all available Tools and Tables, but I can assure you that they have quite a few relevant tables. Below you will see the opioid equivalency table. Even though it is not a table per se, you can get the information you want without too much hassle.

I also checked their "Drug Interactions Tool", which uses information from "The Medical Letter". It has a split screen, showing the drug list index and the selected drugs. The interactions are well described, and all references are identified.

Summary

For those that are used to using the printed pocket edition, Tarascon Pocket Pharmacopoeia for the PDA does not leave anything out. Getting used to the interface is easy, and the information is easy to find. This is clearly a winner. Still, at US$ 29.95 for a 1-year subscription, the price could be better, compared to US$ 9.95 for the standard pocket edition or US$ 17.95 for the Deluxe edition.

Pros:
- Nice and clean interface
- Concise information
- Excellent medical calculators
- Extensive tables with commonly used information
- Pricing information

Cons:
- No options for customization (Peds dosing by default, for example) or left-sided scrollbars
- Price may be an issue compared to the classic pocket editions

Rating:

Manufacturer: Tarascon Publishing
Pricing: 12 month subscription for $2.29/month. Billed as single $27.48 charge. 3 month subscription for $2.65/month. Billed as single $7.95 charge
System Requirements: All PalmOS devices made by Palm, Sony, Handspring, Acer and HandEra are supported with the exception of devices that do not meet memory requirements. All PocketPC devices are supported. 3.5 MB available Main/Internal memory. 1.9 MB available Main/Internal memory if running from a memory card. Main memory will not be occupied while application is closed.

Posted by leo at July 12, 2004 11:37 PM

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