Technology update: January 8, 2007

The http://epocrates.com/ Web site, on the other hand, has focused on patient education by adding education materials and new clinical tools to its free on-line drug and formulary reference guide. The updated site now has answers-in both Spanish and English-to common medication-related patient questions. The site will also include information on health insurance and drug pricing, as well as a searchable database containing the average retail price for medications for uninsured patients. The Epocrates Online application includes information on more than 3,300 drugs and MultiCheck, a drug interaction checker that can identify potential interactions, and formulary coverage information for more than 130 health plans and all Medicare Part D plans.

Software simplifies drug labels

A digital sentry

For many clinical pharmacists, profile review is an important but time-consuming duty. To help reduce that time, Pharmacy OneSource introduces Sentri7, an on-line program that screens drug, patient, and laboratory data from disparate systems and then presents results on a secure, HIPAA-compliant, personalized Web page. Designed specifically for pharmacists, Sentri7 also integrates with Pharmacy OneSource's Quantifi to speed up documentation of clinical activities and provides reporting and data-mining capabilities.

Pharmacy tools for BlackBerry

PEPID has expanded its line of on-line and portable medical tools and applications to work on BlackBerry handsets from Research In Motion. Already available on-line and on PDAs, PEPID will offer its Portable Drug Companion and the Clinical Rotation Suite for the BlackBerry and promises additional applications for individuals, healthcare systems, and hospitals. Visit http://www.pepid.com/ to learn more about the products.

U.S. doctors lag in technology adoption