My Top Medical App list (Android)

image from androidguys.com

Working in Malaysia government hospital as a junior doctor, the following is my 4 frequently use Medical App list:

1) My Blue Book. This app is serve as a useful quick reference for all the drug available in our Malaysia government hospital. I use this app almost everyday. I use it to check drug dosing; name of the drug brand name use in our government hospital; check if my specialist is require to sign for the drug prescription. The down side of this app is not all information is accurate.

2) Medscape. I use this app to check drug dosing, especially if I want to know the pharmacokinetics, duration and half life of the drug. I also use this to check pregnancy and lactation category of a particular drug. Another useful thing of this app is to check the Peak Expiratory Flow prediction when managing asthma patient.

3) Rapid GFR. It's a quick way to estimate the GFR and CKD status of my patient. This app use Cockcroft Gault Formular and MDRD formula. The only word of caution as this app assume there is no black race in Malaysia. And we did see a number of African patient in our hospital.

4) Renal dose. This is another useful app if we want to know the renal dose of each drug. It is simple and straight forward.

I use the following app, but not as frequently.

1) Cardiac Risk Calculator. I use this mainly for educating my patient on their risk status on developing cardiovascular disease. I like the fact that this app uses the Framingham equation.

2) NHS Antibiotic guidelines South of England.

3) SIGN guidelines. SIGN stands for Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network

4) Warfarin HTK. Warfarin dosing and interaction


This is the following app I would love to use. The only barrier is the extra cash:

1) UpToDate. No doubt, UpToDate is the best source of medical information in the world. It is evidence based, straight forward, very detail and yet easy to read and understand. However this app is just too costly for an average doctor. Whooping USD400 per year!

2) Lexicomp.  I know most pharmacist in my hospital use this app. The information is reliable. It cost USD 570 for 3 years subscription.

Yeah, so that's the list. Please share if there is any good medical app I missed?

MRCP part 2

I recently passed my MRCP part 2 (Dec 2014). The following is the resources I use to prepare for this exam:

1) Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine. 

Please don't underestimate this small handbook book. I did, initially. Whatever is written in this book is the correct answer for the MRCP paper. It is as if the author of this book is also the author of the MRCP exam paper. I read this book in and out twice, and I must say most of my time is worth it. Forget thick book like Harrison or Davidson. This book is the bible for MRCP.

2) Rapid Review of Clinical Medicine for MRCP Part 2

Another must book to read. It is the "syllabus" of the Part 2 exam. Go though each page slowly and let it sink in as you read. If everything sticks, chances that you are ready for the exam.

3) Question banks. It's no-brainer, this is a must. The more question you practice, the better you are. I choose Pastest Qbank because most senior recommended me this. The other is Onexamination.com.

4) Facebook groups, Whatsaap group, Internet forum, etc. There are plenty of support groups, and all provide the much needed motivation and resources. I learnt plenty of radiological images, hematological slides, spotter for skin lesions, and fundus from these groups. The group I followed for my MRCP part 2:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/177315392301807/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mrcpuk/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/528967743805371/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/285352564831987/
http://www.rxpgonline.com/forum11.htm


5) Time management and motivation. As a busy junior doctor, you need to manage your time well to prepare for this exam. I use evernote as checklist to make sure I cover most topic before the exam day. Evernote is also an excellent too for making notes everytime I studied a topic and I will share those notes to my friend via evernote. I certainly recommend this app.

One more thing,

6) During the exam, answer all question as fast as you can. The way of doing it is:

1) Read the answer option first,
2) Then, read the question .
3) Then read the case and identify what's the important point as quick as possible. Underline those important point.

Don't think so much or spend too much time on one question. If you don't know the answer, listen to your gut feeling and most likely those answers were right.

Most people fail MRCP part 2 simply because they don't have enough time to complete the paper. Each paper contain 90 questions and you have only 3 hours. Hence max 2 minutes for each question. So, yeah, keep looking at the clock as you answer your paper.

I wish you all the best. Cheers.

ps: You can read my "Part 1" post here.