INTRODUCTION
Mobile apps such as Medscape and Skyscape put information in the hands of clinicians, when and where they need it. While both apps offer drug guides and calculators as well as news services in their free downloads, they have several key differences in their available content that are important to consider when recommending or using such an app.
OVERVIEW
As mentioned, both apps offer drug guides and calculators. Medscape's drug guide contains more than 2,100 monographs for generic and over-the-counter drugs and more than 5,000 for brand-name drugs, herbals, and supplements. This information is continually updated by Medscape's staff pharmacists. Handouts, drug images, and pricing (in US dollars) is provided by First DataBank. Medscape has dosing calculators integrated with the drug reference and a Drug Interaction Checker.
The Skyscape Rx Drug Guide includes commonly used medications indexed by indication, pharmacologic class, generic name, and US or Canadian brand name. It is continually updated and features nearly 400 integrated dosing calculators for adults, children, and neonates. The drug interaction information comes from Hansten and Horn's The Top 100 Drug Interactions: A Guide to Patient Management [1], which contains over 5,000 individual drug-to-drug interactions.
Each app allows the user to choose specialties to customize the news feed. Medscape contains more than 30 professional areas or topics, while Skyscape contains a list of 15 specialties. Both news feeds include information from government agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as pharmaceutical industry press releases, journal summaries, trial results, drug alerts, and breaking clinical news. In addition, Medscape provides news from over 300 medical meetings.
SKYSCAPE
Skyscape markets itself as an app for nurses, physicians, students, and health professionals. While Skyscape is available as a free app, its most important feature is the ability to access—for a fee—over 400 medical references across 30 specialties from top publishers. This content is enhanced through integrated searching and smARTlink cross-referencing to navigate easily between titles. Content in the MedBeats news feed is also searchable and utilizes smARTlink for convenient access.
Publisher content is available as in-app purchases of single titles or through the purchase of packages available to schools, groups, and associations. Content prices range from $1.99 to $209.95.
MEDSCAPE
Whereas Skyscape provides integrated access to monographs from top publishers, Medscape draws on periodical literature by connecting to MEDLINE. Medscape supports keyword and Boolean searching and some advanced search functions, such as proximity for in-app searching of MEDLINE. A convenient additional feature is that MEDLINE references in Medscape can be exported directly to a variety of citation management programs.
The Medscape app also offers continuing education courses on hundreds of topics. The courses are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation, and the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education. The courses take a variety of formats including patient simulations, case presentations, expert video commentaries, and more. It should be noted that an Internet connection is required for searching MEDLINE and viewing images, formulary information, news, and continuing education.
SUMMARY
Medscape and Skyscape both offer drug guides, calculators, and news services that are useful to clinicians, but the value-added features of the two apps differ significantly. Medscape allows searching of the MEDLINE database of abstracts and offers accredited continuing education courses. Skyscape provides access to content from many of the top publishers integrated into one app with cross-referencing among resources using smARTlink. Mobile apps such as Medscape and Skyscape are valuable tools for evidence-based practice, but important differences in scope of content available in-app should inform user selection.
Footnotes
Romany Craig, MLIS, romany.craig@ucalgary.edu.qa, Learning Commons, University of Calgary in Qatar, Doha, Qatar
REFERENCE
- 1.Hansten PD, Horn JR. The top 100 drug interactions: a guide to patient management Publications; H, editor. 2015 . Freeland, WA: H. [Google Scholar]