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But he found it significant that the doctors were admitting they were avoiding any errors at all.Ĭo-founder Dr. Lee, who has all but given up a medical practice to devote his time to ePocrates, admits those numbers are unscientific and that there has yet to be a formal study of ePocrates' effectiveness. The 130 doctors surveyed by the company said they were each making about 1.2 fewer errors in dosage per week and slightly under one error per week for side effects and other problems. Thomas Lee, a co-founder of ePocrates who edits the drug database. More importantly, doctors who are using ePocrates are reporting to the company that they are making fewer prescription errors and providing better patient care, said Dr. 'Now, I can't quite see doing without it,' Rassen said. In his 26 years as a physician, Rassen resisted using gadgets like a Palm until he learned about ePocrates from his son in January. 'Anything that saves one or two or three minutes is enormously valuable.' 'We do a fairly high volume, about four patients an hour,' said Rassen. The 1999 edition of the book is 3,477 pages and about 4 inches thick. The data can be updated daily with new information about existing drugs or about new drugs that are constantly coming on the market.ĭoctors like Shaefer and Rassen say the program allows them to spend more time with patients and less time leafing through the small type in a standard drug reference book like the Physicians' Desk Reference. The program is downloaded from the Internet and transferred into a standard Palm. Instead, ePocrates is trying to build a large network of doctors by luring them with an easy Palm program that provides background information, dosage levels and potential problems for 1,500 commonly prescribed drugs.

'Physicians are a notoriously tough bunch to get to switch their work (habits),' said Claudine Singer, a senior analyst with the Internet research firm Jupiter Communications Inc. And ePhysician said the 120 physicians using its system have written 12,000 electronic prescriptions.īut analysts said ePocrates seems to be gaining acceptance because it has taken a different tack by not trying to convince doctors to scrap their centuries-old practice of writing prescriptions on paper.

#Iscribe medication windows#

For example, Allscripts says it has about 10,000 physicians at 3,000 sites in the United States using its system, which works on a Hewlett-Packard Journada or Windows CE device. They have become 'a hot area within the health care industry,' said analyst Richard Lee, managing director for Wit Soundview in San Francisco.īut none so far has the number of users claimed by ePocrates in such a short time. of Libertyville, Ill., are making handheld prescription drug reference and writing systems. The institute and the Clinton administration have called on the health care industry to slash the number of errors.Ĭompanies like iScribe Inc. The national Institute of Medicine released a study last year that said there were 7,000 deaths annually from medication errors. Public pressure is building to reduce the number of prescription errors. 'I was a delegate at a California Medical Association meeting and I showed it to three of the other delegates, and the reaction was pretty much the same: 'That's cool, where'd you get it?' 'ĮPocrates is one of more than a dozen companies trying to develop and market wireless technology that gives doctors access to prescription drug data and electronic prescription writing using devices like a Palm, handheld PC, notebook or smart pager. Joshua Rassen, co-founder of Brown and Toland Medical Group in San Francisco. 'I've recommended it to 10 other physicians,' said Dr. The firm is gaining about 2,000 new users a week by word of mouth.

#Iscribe medication free#

But an estimated 34,000 people, about 70 percent of whom are doctors, have downloaded the free program since ePocrates made it available on its Internet site in October. has spent only about $3,000 for marketing so far. 'Up to two or three times a day, I feel like I have made better decisions because I have consulted the ePocrates program,' said Shaefer, an internal and critical care medicine specialist for University Hospital in Augusta, Ga. But in the past three months, Shaefer says he has come to think of ePocrates and his stethoscope as his two most indispensable medical tools. Shaefer, like many physicians, is not easily won over by new gadgets.