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Applications, more commonly called “Apps” for iPhones, iPads, and a litany of other devices, have invaded every facet of our modern society.These days, people use apps to shop, read the news, play games, connect with friends and family, watch sporting events, learn new languages, book vacations, keep track of finances, and frankly, do just about everything.

But in between rounds of Words With Friends, you may have neglected to notice that there are literally thousands of apps available for healthcare professionals. In fact, the medical profession has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of Apple’s app development. However, with the plethora of apps out there directed at doctors, how are they supposed to know which ones are the most useful? Regardless of their intent, the best apps are all designed to help doctors do their jobs in a thoroughly modern way. Below are some of the most resourceful of these medical apps:

MedCalc

MedCalc is an incredibly popular free medical calculator that gives doctors easy access to a multitude of medical formulas and scores, and includes detailed information and bibliographic references for each formula being researched, as well as other helpful features. Right now you may be wondering, what real need is there for medical calculators? However, there are all kinds of complicated formulas and numbers involved when it comes to properly maintaining our health.

While this is a tool designed for doctors in order to help them formulate proper diagnoses out of a variety of symptoms, MedCalc can also help consumers fill in the gaps of their personal biological knowledge. In essence, MedCalc is a series of simple formula-based spreadsheets, organized into categories, into which you can enter numerical statistics having to do with your health, which are then calculated to give you the answer to a larger medical question. A basic example would be entering someone’s height and weight in order to determine body mass index.

Epocrates

Arguably the most widely used medical app, Epocrates is a free drug reference guide that provides comprehensive, clinical information and write-ups on thousands of prescriptions and over-the-counter drug products. It features a pill identifier, in-depth formula information, a drug interaction checker, dozens of calculations, information on dosing, and all the other drug information doctors or interested consumers could ever possibly want. On the home screen, there is a comprehensive search button where you can search in Diseases (Dx), Drugs (Rx), Infectious Diseases (ID), Lab Tests (Lab), Resource Centers (RC), and Tables (Tbl).

Skyscape Medical Resources

The Skyscape Medical Resources app is a clinical decision-support resource and repository of medical information that helps doctors and others find the right answers a variety of healthcare-related queries. Unless your doctor is a character on the showHouse, there is no way that she will able to dish out correct prognosis after correct prognosis without some vital resources at her disposal.And that is where the Skyscape Medical Resources app comes in.

In fact, any person faced with a medical situation can have instant access to important medical data. This data includes comprehensive drug information on thousands of brands and generics, data on hundreds of diseases and symptom-related topics, a decision-making resource, and a medical journal periodically updated with the latest healthcare findings, trial results, breaking clinical news, drug alerts, and other information. Moreover, there are other modules that can be purchased and added to your app.

The Merck Manual

Healthcare professionals have been using the Merck Manual since 1899, but now, it can be accessed on a mobile device! In essence, this is simply the digital version of the reference text. However, the app helps make research easier by allowing users to access content without an Internet connection, perform full text searches, bookmark favorite topics, record viewing history, and browse the text by section or symptom. The Merck Manual is organized into organ systems, and then there are discussions regarding each major disease of that system in the standard format of diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. And you can be confident that you are receiving the most up-to-date medical information, as the Merck Manual is continuously updated by an independent editorial board and over 300 peer reviewers.

Pocket Lab Values

As doctors begin to understand more regarding the biological makeup of certain medical conditions, they are also beginning to use more and more tests to diagnose disease, follow progression, and assess effectiveness of treatment. Doctors must then be able to translate those tests results into the proper treatment. Pocket Lab Values is a lab test application providing fast and easy access to hundreds of lab values and correlating clinical conditions for doctors at the point-of-care, even going as far as to provide reference links to sites such as MedlinePlus and Wikipedia.

Diagnosaurus DDX

With Diagnosaurus, doctors and others can quickly search over 1,000 diagnoses by organ system, symptom, disease, or even by browsing all entries. Most importantly, Diagnosaurus helps doctors perform accurate differential diagnoses at the point of care. By producing a list of possible diseases or other ailments based on the symptoms, Diagnosaurus assists you in discovering the cause of someone’s present anguish.

Medscape

Created by the people that gave paranoid patients everywhere WebMD, Medscape is an easy-to-use and extraordinarily helpful app for doctors featuring the most updated drug reference tools, medical-related news, Diseases and Conditions information, Clinical Procedures section, videos and photographs, physician and pharmacy directories, and much, much more. Additionally, Medscape gives doctors the ability to obtain the requisite Continuing Medical Education credits via mobile device. And by the way, Medscape is completely free.

iAnatomy

iAnatomy makes for an extremely comprehensive anatomical diagram tool. This application has a strong focus on cross section anatomy and while it is perfect for students, it also serves as a wonderful refresher for doctors. After all, every doctor must know how to read a CT scan, and reading CT images requires practice and experience.

And why must every doctor have the ability to read a CT scan? Well, in order to recognize an underlying pathology, one must first know what a normal CT even looks like! In the iAnatomy app, users are presented with numerous slices of CT images, and then you can view the labels for muscles, bones, organs, or blood. There are over 1,000 of these labels to practice with.The app even allows you to open up separate tabs for different views of the organ, blood vessel, bone, and so forth. Additionally, iAnatomy contains more than 60 real cat scans of the pelvis, chest, and abdomen.

iRadiology

Initially designed for students, iRadiology is also a good resource for doctors. It has a catalogue of more than 500 images designed to help users consistently improve their detection skills and become better at reading film, CT, and MRI images. iRadiology allows you to search for various cases based on certain keywords, and then investigate the various subcategories available within. You can even zoom in substantially in order to obtain a better view of these films. Moreover, the helpful “Findings” feature on iRadiology gives the user further information about any particular radiology case.

How You Too Can Become A Resource for Doctors

Become a walking app for doctors by becoming a medical assistant! Did you know that modern doctors utilize teams of people to better assist them? In fact, medical assistants play a vital role in the success of such teams. Whether working at a private practice or a large hospital, those with medical assistant training are at the forefront of patient care. Your medical assisting duties may include preparing patients, assisting physicians, taking medical histories, recording vital signs, explaining treatment procedures to patients, performing laboratory tests, listening to patient questions, documenting patient concerns, giving vaccinations, drawing blood, and, for all intents and purposes, doing just about anything the doctor asks of you.

Jared Colburn, a Phoenix based freelancer, writes on topics associated to medical assisting college programs and mobile medical technology.