Overview
Hey everyone!
Welcome to another article on how to survive and thrive as a junior doctor on the wards.
Today’s article has a more practical flavour where I’ll be showcasing 5 of the best FREE apps for junior doctors on the wards.
Introduction
App #1 – RCH Clinical Guidelines
App #2 – The Doctors Bag
App #3 – Opioid Calculator
App #4 – MDCalc
App #5 – Lab Tests Online AU
Introduction
As a busy junior doctor, it can be hard to find time to complete your long list of ward jobs. This can be even more stressful when we feel like we don’t have enough clinical experience or acumen to make certain decisions. There are plenty of websites and online textbooks available with a wealth of information, but for the time poor junior doctor, these can be very difficult to access and use.
As a way to ameliorate this problem, I’ve compiled a list of 5 amazing mobile apps (which are #evidence-based) that can travel in your pocket with you as you run between clinics, theatres and the wards.
Best of all…
They’re FREE!
Without further ado, here are my Top 5 Free Apps for every junior doctor on the wards!
App #1 – RCH Clinical Guidelines
Clinical Guidelines
Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria
- Paediatric doctors
- Emergency medicine doctors
- General practitioners
- Anyone who treats children
This app has a comprehensive list of clinical guidelines relating to paediatric conditions. It contains everything from assessment and managing acute abdominal pain in children to nappy rash to assessing work of breathing. It has a useful search tool that helps you find what you are looking for fast. They also release regular updates to the guidelines – the most recent being on ‘bradycardia during sleep’ and ‘acute abdominal pain’ in children.
- The GO TO guideline for paediatric conditions in Australia
- Regularly updated
- Easy to navigate
- Comprehensive entries including how to assess a child and red flags not to be missed
- Nope. Can’t find any. Sorry.
5 out of 5
FREE!
App #2 – The Doctor’s Bag
The Doctor’s Bag
NPS Medicinewise
- All health professionals!
This app is designed to assist health professionals in an emergency situation. It contains drugs listed in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)
The app is accompanied by a wallchart (another useful tool during an emergency)
The app gives you two options
- The Doctor’s Bag
- Anaphylaxis Management
The Doctor’s Bag contains a list of medications commonly used in emergency scenarios as well as the safe adult dose.
The Anaphylaxis management section steps you through managing anaphylaxis including the correct dosage and frequency of adrenaline administration.
- Simple navigation in an emergency situation
- Not overloaded with information or too busy to read
- It has been endorsed by numerous specialist colleges (ACEM, ASCIA, ACRRM, ADA, RACP, RANZCR, RACGP)
- You can make notes on the app
- Slow download speed (hopefully you’ve got this installed BEFORE the emergency)
- Multiple taps to get to the actual dose for a medication (not ideal in an emergency)
4 out of 5
FREE!
App #3 – Opioid Calculator
Opioid Calculator
- Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA)
- Faculty of Pain Medicine ANZCA
- Junior doctors
- Emergency medicine doctors
- General practitioners
- Anaesthetic doctors
- Pain medicine doctors
- Palliative care doctors
- Medical professionals who are opioid prescribers
- The app converts commonly used opioids to an oral morphine equivalent dose (oMED). For example, if you input all the opioids that a patient is taking, it will spit out the oral morphine equivalent dose
- It also allows you to find equi-analgesic dosing for different strengths of morphine. For example, if you think a patient requires 20mg of morphine equivalent per day, it will show you all the different other opioids and strengths you could prescribe to achieve this target.
- Easy to use with + and – toggles to adjust dosing
- Has an indicator at the top of the page showing whether the dosage is safe (green), high (orange) or harmful (red)
- Contains many commonly used opioids in the Australian setting
- Can be a bit glitchy from time to time
4 out of 5
FREE!
App #4 – MDCalc
MDCalc
- MDAware LLC
- Junior Doctors
- Emergency Medicine doctors
- Internal Medicine doctors
- Surgical doctors
- All doctors who have a use for clinical decision making tools
The MDCalc App has been around since 2005. It contains a wide variety of clinical decision making tools such as scoring systems for common diseases. For example, using this app you can apply the PERC and Wells criteria, calculate creatinine clearance, use the Canadian CT head rule, evaluate GCS or implement the Ottawa rules. It’s been made for doctors by doctors, which also adds to its usability.
- Easy to use interface and appealing design
- Helpful information for each tool such as ‘when to use’, ‘pearls and pitfalls’, ‘evidence’ and ‘creator’
- Useful “Results” section that can point you in the direction of further investigations to order
- You can save your favourite clinical decision making tools
- The page can be a bit busy at times
- It is based in the US so some scoring systems may not be applicable in the Australian or non-US healthcare system
- Downloaded millions of times the world over so it really can’t be that bad
4.5 out of 5
FREE!
App #5 – Lab Tests Online AU
Lab Tests Online AU
- Royal College of Pathologists Australiasia (RCPA)
- Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists (AACB)
- Junior Doctors
- Registrars
- Specialists
- Anyone who orders laboratory tests
- This app lets you search a database containing a wide variety of pathology tests. It explains commonly ordered tests (such as iron studies, liver function tests) as well as more eccentric tests like 24-hour urine copper and the Paul Bunnell Test (for Infectious Mononucleosis).
- Search based on test type, condition or screening
- Extensive database with lots of information
- Easy to download and use
- The descriptions can be a bit wordy making it hard to find the relevant tests
4 out of 5
FREE!
Final Thoughts
Apps are a great way to reduce friction in your day. When your tired, stressed and hungry, you need to be able to rely on an easy tool to help make clinical decisions. No one wants to be drowning in pages of research articles in order to prescribe the right medication or order the right test.
These five apps are a great way to make your day easier and more efficient, leaving you more time for the important things as a junior doctor. Like grabbing a coffee, eating lunch or emptying your bladder. Best of all, downloading them won’t take a bite out of your back pocket.
I’d encourage you to give some (or all) of these apps a try. If they’re not for you, you can always delete them. Best of all, you have nothing to lose because they are totally FREE!
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