Tarascon's Pharmacopeia vs. ePocrates vs. Lexidrugs

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Hey Ian (or Carolyn, or Akane),

 

I was wondering if you still absolutely needed Tarascon's Pharmacopeia if you had ePocrates on your palm? Are the dosages that different between the two? Is Tarascon's god on the wards?

 

Oh yeah, I do have a copy of Tarascon's that is a couple of years old (2000 or 2001?) Is this horribly out of date?

[Guest Ian Wong]

To me, Tarascon's IS god. Period. I think the major reason is simply universality; everyone takes Tarascon's at face value as being the "correct" dosages. This isn't to say that Epocrates, Lexidrugs, or any of the other ones out there aren't equally as accurate, but somewhere along the way in third year, I was brainwashed into the belief that this book basically does everything that you need of it.

 

I am/was extraordinarily careful to take it with me everywhere on the wards, and into the OR and down to Emerg (common places where you write tons of orders). It ranks up there with my wallet, keys, and pen as the things that I will always have on me when I'm in the hospital.

 

As far as getting the most up-to-date version, this is not really necessary (you'll see tons of residents carrying old, beaten-up copies of these things that are being held together with duct tape), since you generally aren't ordering the latest whiz-bang things for your patients anyways. Most things that you order (ie. antibiotics, analgesics, etc) have been around a while.

 

Ian

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Hah! I suspected as much. So there's nothing to say the Tarascon dose won't kill the patient whereas the ePocrates might have saved their life, but Tarascon is the standard so if you're writing orders down better to make them the ones cited in Tarascon.

 

I'll remember to carry my (old) copy of Tarascon with me next year.

[Guest DrSahsi]

I've used both, and I tend to use ePocrates with more frequency, but I still keeps a physical copy of the Tarascon Pharmacopeia in my work bag, if not in my greens. Lately I've been using the hardcopy more, but that's because my Palm went belly-up about a month ago, and I haven't stopped long enough to reinstall ePocrates. Books don't crash.

 

I find ePocrates significantly faster for on-the-fly quick lookups, and have found almost no cases where I've disagreed with its dosing. The major benefit of the Tarascon is that it gives CANADIAN drug names, and as such tends to feel more "complete."

 

There's a digital version of the Tarascon Pharamcopeia as well. Last time I checked they were releasing a new beta, but that was a couple of months ago. I've never played with it.

 

- Rupinder

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Ironically, I found out that you can get a free beta copy of Tarascon from their website. It seems to work perfectly.

[Guest phantom8]

Maybe I'm missing something but when I load the beta version of Tarascon's for my PDA, it says I need a serial number. Where do I find one?

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Hmm. . . I don't remember needing one. Mine worked right away. Try re-downloading it. Maybe you got the commercial copy.

 

Alternatively, use Kazaa to see if you can find a hack. Sometimes that works.

[Guest Ian Wong]

I assume that you guys are using this website's version:

 

www.usbmis-test.com/beta/beta_test.php

 

Just wanted to clarify (I haven't tried downloading the program from the above and installing it, but thought perhaps you guys might be getting it from different sites.)

 

Ian

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Hmm. . . I can't remember! I thought it was off the Tarascon website. Once I downloaded the program, I kind of forgot about the link.

[Guest me maniac]

To download Tarascon, when you log in (at the top of the page) they give you an "auto-update subsription key". Use this to fill in the first blank field and the serial number on the back of your Palm to fill in the second blank field to start the download. I just did it and I can't believe how easy Tarascon's is to use!