If you are a busy medical professional like I am, then you know that you don't always have the time to run and reference a medicine or diagnosis.

Hence, the PDA and dedicated medical software. I use a software program called EPOCRATES. Its available as a free download from the epocrates site at (www.epocrates.com) with limited use or you can purchase the full Essentials software package as I have done.

Epocrates Essestials is the all-in one mobile guide to all of the drugs, diseases and diagnostics you could ever need. It supports the OS 3.5 or higher palms and needs about 8 mb of available memory. It also supports the Microsoft Pocket PC platform and only requires about 6 mb of available memory. It will also support the Windows 98/2000/ME/XP platforms with palm desktop 3.1 or higher.

Each time you cradle your PDA it will be updated by the epocrates site. The Essestials program offers you over 3,000 brand and generic drug monographs with most all of the health plan insurance formularies. It also offers you the ability to multicheck multiple-drug interactions. It has an ID infectious disease treatment guide, 400 alternative medicine monographs including interactions with drugs, Clinical tables and guidelines, Medical Calculators, IV compatibility checker, diagnosis and treatment for more than 1,200 diseases and conditions, Selection and interpretation of literally hundreds of diagnostic and laboratory tests, and the ability to cross reference drugs, diseases and diagnostics. What I really like about the Epocrates Essentials program is the fact that all of the ACLS and PALS algorhythms are at your finger tips. Visit the Epocrates site and download some of the freebies they offer and evaluate the software if you are a busy medical professional who would like to have most of the references, medications and diagnostics at your fingertips.

The other program I use is called PEPID. You can also get a free download from them on their site, WWW.Pepid.com.

This program too is a very comprehensive medical software program for the PDA. I use the ED module in the Emergency room where I work as a nurse. This program allows me to have a complete emergency medical database, containing instant answers to questions on diagnosis, treatment and disposition. It covers over 2000 medical topics and has some 5,000 drugs including prescription drugs, OTC and herbal medications. They also utilize over 250 medical calculators which are fully integrated. They also utilize International Comprehensive - SI and American lab units and calculators. They display more than 1,900 diseases and trauma topics with diagnosis, pathophysiology, treatment and disposition.

The list for this software package is endless but is extremely powerful and gives you much much more bang for the buck then anything else I have seen in 25 plus years of being a nurse and working in the Health Care field.

If you are as busy as most of the Doctors and Nurses are today and you really need to be on top of your game, then I would invite you to check out these two sites and decide for yourself, as I have done, which of these programs, if not both, will best suite your needs. I use both and find most of the ER docs asking me questions because I am able to quickly look things up with the PDA.