Best Pharmacy Apps to Inspire You

Prescription delivery applications, pill trackers, drug guide programs, pharmacy discount apps: all these mobile platforms perfect our treatment at times. Moreover, such resources are useful to both doctors and their patients: thanks to them, the first ones cure us better, and the second ones get a chance to recover faster.

Surely, various nursing apps help their owners too by serving as a kind of source of profit (with the right approach to the development and monetization issues, of course). And we discussed this intriguing topic more than once in other articles (how's that for a reason to follow our blog?). Now we'd like to acquaint you with the market leaders: we think their examples might inspire you.

So, meet the med list of applications, which are rightfully in great demand among pharmacists, medical professionals, healthcare companies, and patients.

Medical reference apps

The content of these applications usually includes a list of diagnoses, methods of treatment, symptoms of diseases, answers to popular medical questions, descriptions of drugs, and so on. 

Such programs are really sought-after right now, as any clinical professional understands the convenience of having helpful reference materials on portable devices - therefore, they’re always at hand. And the patient can take advantage of the information these services provide him with to better resist the disease: figuratively speaking, he uses them as a kind of treatment planning apps.

UpToDate

The name speaks for itself: the application offers the latest, up-to-date healthcare information and aims at both professionals and ordinary people. By the way, medical college students also find it useful.

All clinical data provided to users is scientifically proven and verified, which has made UpToDate one of the best nursing apps. That's why even highly experienced experts often resort to its help.

Patients receive

The patient should take advantage of UpToDate if he wants to:

• better understand the symptoms of his disease;

• find out which doctor to consult;

• ask the proper questions to the physician he has chosen.

Medical professionals receive

Thanks to UpToDate, medical experts are quicker in finding answers to questions and can treat their patients faster and more efficiently.

Clinics receive

Clinics and other pharmaceutical companies would also benefit from the use of such a medical reference app. Among other things, they get:

• the possibility of supplementing their working content with verified med data by integrating UpToDate with their EHR system;

• the chance of improving the work of employees (medical experts);

• better coherence of strategic decisions.

Benefits

• Proven effectiveness. The application has been repeatedly, more than 30 times, studied, and the conclusions are amazing: UpDated has a very good effect on the entire treatment process;

• Real-time answers to the burning healthcare questions. And users can resort to both the web and mobile UpToDate versions;

• The opportunity to constantly improve your pro skills (through CME/CE /CPD credit possibilities).

Price policy

Of course, we shouldn't forget about the price issue of our first example of popular nursing apps.

In fact, UpToDate can be downloaded for free, but full access to all information requires a subscription (approximately $ 499 / year and more).

Epocrates

Almost a quarter of a century is a significant period of time to succeed and become one of the best nursing apps. And Epocrates has been on the market for that long (to be precise, since 1998). Today it is being used by over a million people from all over the world.

It is considered an example of the ideal digital medical reference book. It offers access to the latest medical data, calculates BMI (body mass index) and other important indicators, helps to find reliable suppliers, etc.

Benefits

• Proven reliability. According to inspiring statistics, every second US medical professional trusts Epocrates and resorts to it in his daily work. Speaking globally, not less than a million doctors around the world take full advantage of the application in question (and they find it highly efficient);

• Constantly updated database. Information is being constantly updated in order to stay relevant;

• Useful tools. The medical reference app provides a variety of great solutions to invite both experts and ordinary users (potential patients);

• The possibility of free use (all the details below);

Price policy 

As we wrote above, most of the app content is provided for free. Payment is required only if a user wants access to extra features: detailed laboratory manuals, alternative medications, and so on. In such a case, he should subscribe to Epocrates Plus ($16.99 per month).

Skyscape

Skyscape is another multitasking medical reference app, a sort of clinical handbook where one can find any information on healthcare topics, from the anatomical guides to practical treatment recommendations. There are also a huge number of monographs and built-in calculators.

Benefits

• Huse experience. The app has been around for several decades and has thrived over all these years.

• Gained trust. The program has been chosen by 2.5+ million healthcare experts, and most of them left positive reviews about the service.

• Trustworthy partnership. Skyscape is really smart when selecting its partners: there are at least 35 experienced and very skilled professionals among content creators.

Price policy

Skyscape works according to the Freemium model: basic content is available to everyone, however, there are additional premium features, and they're paid.

Drug guide apps

These are applications whose content offers the most detailed descriptions of medications. The approach is very convenient since all the necessary information is stored in one place.

I.V. Drug Handbook

The app was built by MobiSystems, a glorious creator of a couple of other mobile health-based programs. All of them are secure and easy to use, and I.V. Drug Handbook is the best proof of our words.

The service belongs to the drug guide apps aimed at medical experts. These experts enjoy using I.V. Drug Handbook to get data about a particular medicine or find out other useful information of the same type.

Benefits

• User-friendly navigation. For I.V. Drug Handbook, providing the best user experience is key. Among other things, this implies intuitive navigation: even a user who rarely resorts to digital products can easily figure out how the system works.

• A lot of customization options. Don't like the font size, background color, or something of the same kind? The application allows you to manage all these settings and change them as you wish.

• In-depth drug analysis. The description of each medicine offers a lot of useful data, including side effects, dosage, interaction with other drugs, etc.

Price policy

I.V. Drug Handbook has several trial versions: one-day, 7-day, and 30-day.

These free versions have the same functionality as the paid one has. Their goal is to convince the user of the benefits of subscribing to the application.

Medscape

Medscape is, too, among the well-known drug guide apps. It provides thorough medicines data, such as compatibility tests, annotations, etc.

App’s users include both doctors and regular people (without medical background).

Benefits

• Recognized respect. Medscape has gained recognition from highly skilled experts around the world.

• Great UI/UX. Medscape has a user-friendly UI/UX design and provides a convenient search option.

• Huge database. The application has data on 7K+ drugs (and the drug database is still growing).

• A variety of content. The core of Medscape's content is extensive information about medications. However, in addition to the drug data, the application offers users a lot of cool medical monographs, video materials, and more.

Price policy

The app is completely free and requires only the creation of an account (however, also without payment).

And now it's time to discuss programs, which partly resemble drug guide services, but with a significant difference. It's about prescription savings apps.

Prescription drug apps

As you know, some medicines are only dispensed on a doctor’s prescription. You can’t just go and buy such a drug, even if you’re sure it'll help you. You still need your physician's permission, otherwise, you won’t get what you want.

As to the sale of such drugs, there are also a few nuances, which is why all sorts of prescription price apps are in handy.

Healthera

Healthera is worthy of our attention for many reasons, one of which is that it ranks among the best prescription discount apps (at least, considering the fact that the application is recommended by representatives of the National Health Service). Its main objective is to help users deal with prescribed medications with maximum comfort.

Benefits

• Ease of use. All the user has to do is find the drug he needs, place an order, and then just wait! Delivery will be made as soon as possible.

• Minimum hassle. Healthera allows avoiding long lines in drugstores, tiresome calls, and so on.

• Nice bonuses. The service offers a good loyalty program to its users. Its owners constantly come up with new cool ideas to please customers.

Price policy

Healthera is free to use (which is a great example of app benefits either, by the by).

RxSaver

If you need cheap prescriptions, this app should be your 1st choice: it is primarily focused on finding maximum discounts (of course, those related to medicines).

Benefits

• 80% savings: the service helps to find medicines at the best prices (minimum price).

• Wide user reach. To take full advantage of RxSaver, you don’t even need medical insurance.

• Discount Rx coupons. RxSaver provides loyal customers with cool discount coupons that can be used throughout many American and European pharmacies.

• Pet-oriented medicines. RxSaver is aimed at people, of course, but among its products, you can find drugs that are also suitable for pets. Moreover, the application specifically facilitates the search for such medicines and allows you to buy them at affordable prices.

Price policy

Since RxSave is absolutely free and requires no subscription, it’d be a good prescription app for doctors and patients.

Treatment planning apps

The recovery process greatly depends on the ability to plan your treatment. And medicine tracker applications are excellent helpers in this difficult task. They can send you all sorts of notifications to remind you to take a pill, measure your blood pressure, etc.

MediSafe

Medisafe is offered free of charge. It’s a pill tracker application, which has become famous among users who suffer from such diseases as diabetes or heart failure. These serious illnesses require timely intake of drug pills, and Medisafe helps patients to adhere to the regimen prescribed by their doctor.

Benefits

• HealthKit Sync. The app syncs with the Apple software via HealthKit to better share and manage user health data

• Family access. A unique feature of MediSafe is the ability to supplement the list of users with relatives in order to monitor their medication intake.

• Convenient medication reminders. Medisafe will send you a reminder to take your medicine no matter where you are or what you are doing. If you are in another country, the program will take into account the change in the time zone  (in the end, sometimes we have to resort to using our medication tracker app even on vacation or business trips!). If your mobile device is in sleep mode, the notification will still come to your phone. There is no way to avoid reminders from Medisafe!

• Medication reports. In addition to helping you take your medications correctly and on time, Medisafe gives you the ability to create PDF and Excel reports to send to your doctor. 

Price policy

As we’ve already said, the application is free. However, if you wish, you may purchase Medisafe Premium and get access to exclusive features, such as:

• the ability to add as many family members as possible to the number of users;

• access to over 20 health dimensions;

• more ringtones to make your reminder special;

• and so on!

Mango Health

The application with such a "delicious" name has tons of users. Among other things, its popularity is due to gamification, an attempt to bring elements of fun into the treatment process. And this great feature makes Mango Health unique, unlike other items on our med list of nursing apps.

Benefits

• Gamification. The user earns points after completing the tasks assigned to him (taking medicine, checking blood pressure, etc.) and loses them if he shows laziness and negligence. Moreover, he is welcome to exchange these gained points for gift cards or donate them to charity.

• Useful warnings. Mango Health provides users with special alerts: say, if the patient is about to take medicines, which interact poorly with each other. However, the feature is only available on the US market.

• The convenient setting of reminders. Mango Health allows users to customize notifications and reminders to their liking.

• Deserved fame. Glorious resources including Self Magazine, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, etc., talk a lot about the achievements of Mango Health.

Price policy

Mango Health is completely free to use, which also makes it a welcome choice.

Medicine delivery apps

These are regular mobile drug stores, and they come in several types: 

• pharmacy discount applications (if the pharmacy wants to increase its sales through the online channel);

• aggregators collecting information from various resources on the Internet;

• p2p marketplaces, an intermediary between sellers and buyers.

Now let's take a considered look at some of the best pharmacy apps and mobile drug aggregators on the current market.

PharmEasy

The service provides users with the most intuitive, affordable, and comfortable way to purchase drugs, even those that can only be received at the physician’s prescription. 

PharmEasy offers is a cool app to deliver medicine, it simplifies the interaction between pharmacies and customers by offering a number of useful features, including real-time order status updates and the ability to return a drug.

Benefits

• Great UX. PharmEasy pays a lot of attention to UX, which means User Experience. The process of ordering medicine is as simple as possible; no special software skills are required.

• High speed of delivery. No more than 48 hours is required to deliver the order to the user (usually the process takes even less time, within 24 hours).

• The most varied health products. The app range isn't limited to just drugs. The application also offers other products related to the healthcare market (such as special medical equipment)

• Additional health services. Also, PharmEasy provides the opportunity to order medical services: preventive tests, diagnostic body examinations, and so on.

• Good discounts. And on top of that, the medicines home delivery app gives its loyal users access to wonderful discounts.

NetMeds

Netmeds has gone to great lengths to ensure that the drug ordering process is as intuitive as possible. Just a couple of clicks is required to get the desired healthcare item.

Benefits

• Access to a huge list of medicines. This list contains almost everything that may be needed to cure various kinds of diseases: anti-flu remedies, cough syrups, vitamins for pregnant women, etc.;

• 24/7 mode operation: orders are being accepted in a 24/7 mode;

• The intuitive payment process. Netmeds provides users with a couple of payment options, and he is welcome to choose what suits him best.

Pharmacist apps

It’s very important not to confuse these programs with pharmacy apps.

Let's get it clarified: before we discussed mobile services, which may be useful to patients, and now we're talking about applications that professional pharmacists are taking full advantage of.

MPR

MPR fully meets the pharmacist's medical information needs. Evidence of the app’s effectiveness is the following fact: 800+K med staff are resorting to the app on a daily basis. Impressive, right?

Benefits

• A variety of medical content, including drug data, clinical monographs, etc.;

• Drug notifications, reminders, and alerts;

• Useful medical solutions, calculators, and other similar healthcare tools;

• User-friendly navigation;

• Simplified access to favorite application sections.

Pocket Pharmacists

Our med list of apps ends with a program called Pocket Pharmacists.

The application is mainly focused on the United States and the local (American) medicines. However, the pharmacies of other countries will find many useful things here too.

Benefits

• Accurate data presentation. Content makers are experienced pharmacists. And they provide information clearly, understandably, without unnecessary words and abstruse expressions.

• The long history. The application has been on the market since 2010;

• The objectivity of the data provided. The Pocket Pharmacists app doesn’t advertise any medical company, and thus its information is accurate and objective.

So, we’ve told you about the best nursing apps. And we hope you're now quite inspired to create your own application of the same type.