Windows Phone Thoughts: Examining Epocrates Essentials

Bringing It All Together - Navigation Made Easy!
I've actually already mentioned quite a bit on the integrative aspects of Epocrates Essentials. Want information on drugs? The answer is Epocrates Rx Pro. Want information on conditions treated by those drugs? The answer is Epocrates Dx. Infectious diseases? Epocrates ID. What about drugs used to treat those infectious diseases? Back to Epocrates Dx. As you can see, everything is tight-knit, and the only way you can work your way around tight integration is an easy-to-use interface. Thankfully, Epocrates Essentials provides that. From the many screenshots in this review, you can see that everything is structured around a tabbed interface. Moving from one program to the next is only one tap away. The program's intuitive use of a "Back" button allows you to flip back to the previous page. "Home" takes you back to the main screen of the respective program, while the other buttons facilitate searching, scrolling back to the top of the page, and gaining access to the MultiCheck tool.

Making Epocrates Work The Way You Want It To
Epocrates Essentials also allows for customisation of the user interface. Figure 16 illustrates the option to move the scrollbar to the left (perfect for left-handers). On top of that, you can also configure the default start tab and method of sorting for each component of Epocrates Essentials.


Figure 16: Epocrates Essentials allows you to tweak the user interface.

Conclusions
After reviewing Epocrates Essentials, I was left in awe at its attention to detail and well-structured interface. Perhaps the best feature of the program would be its tight integrative structure, but every other feature is well regarded in my opinion. Whether you're after information on drugs, diseases, diagnostics, or updated medical news, Epocrates Essentials delivers it. While each component can be purchased separately, I believe that the entire Essentials package will deliver a better user experience! As a student or physician, you will discover that you will end up using all components of the Epocrates Essentials package if you are wanting to get the best and most detailed reference material in the palm of your hand. However, there is still room for improvement which the Epocrates team appear to be working on in the near future. I will be undertaking quite a bit of pathophysiology work next year, and I'll be happy to have Epocrates Essentials in my pocket as a handy reference guide. It beats having to lug reference books around any day!