Symptom assessment tool (Sx Tab)

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OS Tested: Palm
OS Available: Palm, Pocket PC
Tested on: Tungsten T|5
Written by: David Stockwell, MD
Review Written: March 12th, 2006

Features: The differential diagnosis guide for Epocrates. Updated like the rest of the program with AutoUpdate, this section under the "Sx" tab is the newest and most innovative addition to the Epocrates lineup. Tapping the Sx tab opens to a choice of age, gender and duration of symptoms. For the pediatric practitioner the age component makes it especially useful and the results are all relevant choices.

After choosing the above three items then you choose one or more symptoms/physical exam findings/abnormal lab values. Following entry of the relevant findings you tell the program to run and it will generate a differential diagnosis list.

The results can be sorted by common or rare. Also once the list is generated it can be refined. This helpful feature asks specific questions to help narrow the list.

Once the list is generated, the specific diagnoses are linked through to their respective topics in the disease reference.

Usability/Navigation:
Like the rest of the platform, this section is simple to navigate. While this section of Epocrates is the slowest by far it is doing the most processing. Results can take 10-20 seconds to run. However this is currently the most powerful differential diagnosis tool currently available on a handheld. Also integration with the disease reference makes it very useful.

While many of the Epocrates products seem to be geared to succinct delivery of information, this section is appropriately exhaustive in its list generation.

The data for this section can be placed on a memory card.

Pros:

• Excellent navigation/presentation
• Very robust adult and pediatric differential lists
• Allows for refining the list with specific questions
• Can be placed on a memory card

Cons:

• Slow

Bottom line: This addition is an innovative and useful product to the Epocrates lineup. Combined with the useful disease reference below it is a terrific tool