Two More Essential Apps for Family Medicine Specialists 

Number 2:  Family Medicine Hand Book by Everyone

This application is a very practical download for your smartphone and one I highly recommend.  This app is more useful for general knowledge rather than reviewing questions for the Boards and more useful for the physicians and residents although students will surely benefit, too.  Once a user downloads the app, a glossary of common conditions will be available for the user to peruse.   Diseases are grouped alphabetically allowing a user to find a disease quickly.   Once a disease is selected, a user will open a very comprehensive overview of the condition in question, the common presentations, main causes, and treatment options for a disease.  This is a useful application to have when a patient walks into your clinic with a tropical disease that you may have a hard time remembering as it is a disease typically only seen on board questions.  Just slip into the back for a moment and learn everything you need to know to manage Schitosomiasis.  

I have used this app myself when I shadowed in my Dad's Family Medicine practice and can reassure you that it works.  If you are new to the field, it can be challenging to have a strong foundation in multiple subjects at once.  In Cardiology, everything is centered around the circulatory system but the scope of material required to be a competent Family physician was much larger.  This app was a good aid to help adjust to the new demands and also provided me some reassurance when I wasn't sure I was recalling the proper information to help my patients.  

Number 3:  LexiComp

This application is an excellent resource and every Family physician should have this available on their phones.  This application focuses on medications and is a great way to determine common medications, dosages, and side effects prior to writing the scripts.  Thankfully enough, drug representatives have to go home at some point during the day and this application is a great filler to hold you over until their next visit.  

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New users are able to download the application and test it out for a 30-day free trial period.  Once activated, a user can navigate through a large variety of different medication categories such as Drug Calculators, common Drug Allergy and Idiosyncratic Reactions, Pediatrics, and countless more.  Doctors will also get a comprehensive list that is available in IV forms that can be useful in a number of settings.  Another beneficial feature is that a list of potential drug interactions can be easily summoned allowing the physician to augment therapies to avoid unwanted side effects.  

The most helpful for a new intern or any physician starting in a new center is that this application has a list of potential acronyms or brand names that may be used to identify the unknown medication.  This will accelerate the transition to the new environment and shift the focus back to patient care rather than figuring out pharmacological headaches.