Use of smartphone apps is increasing in every area of work and life. So what smartphone apps are medical students are using?

Recently the Medical Student Government of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania released the results of their 2012 medical smartphone app survey. After the votes were counted Epocrates Essentials was rated as the #1 app by the students. Essentials is billed as a "all-in-one clinical reference suite". Other notables included the MedCalc medical calculator app in second place and the drug reference Medscape Mobile app in third. Most of the apps mentioned were in the reference or calculator categories.

The top five apps at Harvard survey in 2011 also included Essentials and another Penn top 8 scorer Dynamed, another clinical reference tool.

Here are the first five in each list.

Harvard 2011	Penn 2012
Dynamed	Epocrates Essentials
Unbound Medicine UCentral	Medcalc
VisualDx Mobile	Medscape Mobile
Epocrates Essentials	Dynamed
iRadiology	VisualDx Mobile

All of the top rated medical smartphone apps mentioned support both iPhone as well as Android.

What are your most popular medical apps?

Smartphone medical apps are quickly becoming the first choice of reference for over 40% of surveyed medical students according to a Epocrates survey. Convenience, cost, ease of use, comprehensive coverage, variety and utility are all drivers in the increased use of medical smartphone apps. Clinical reference, drug reference, diagnosis help and medical calculators seem to dominate the type of medical smartphone apps that students use regularly in study or clinical sessions. Based on current trends, the use of smartphone apps will prepare students for professional clinical life where, according to Manhattan research, 81% of physicians now own and use smartphones.

How do you use medical apps in your study and in clinical situations?

What apps are you using for USMLE or COMLEX preparation?

What problems have you encountered as the reliance on medical smartphone apps increases?

Are there problems or situations that a medical smartphone app needs to be created for?

References:
2012 Medical App Survey Results (upenn.edu)
Top five medical apps at Harvard Medical School (mobihealthnews.com)
Epocrates Invests in Future Physicians (globenewswire.com)
There's an app for that cold (magicvalley.com)
Smartphones, Tablets and Mobile Marketing (manhattanresearch.com)