Shifting access to apps—availability through the College Library

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 65, No. 7, September 2023, Page 264 College Library
By: Karen MacDonell, PhD, MLIS

The CPS app from the Canadian Pharmacists Association and the Essential Evidence Plus app are no longer available from the Canadian Medical Association after closure of the CMA Library due to a change in the organization’s focus. Another medical app, Epocrates, has exited the Canadian market. College registrants with Library access may be interested in the following alternatives.

The CPS app, a Canadian source of drug and therapeutics information, is available via the College Library at www.cpsbc.ca/registrants/library/drug-tools. The web-based version of the app and the drug interaction checker Lexi-Interact can also be accessed from that web page.

Alternatives to the decision-support apps Epocrates and Essential Evidence Plus include BMJ Best Practice and DynaMed, which are available via the College Library’s point-of-care web page at www.cpsbc.ca/registrants/library/point-care-tools. UpToDate is available through the Divisions of Family Practice, the Specialist Services Committee, and health authorities. The alternatives are not identical to Epocrates, but there are similarities, particularly for BMJ Best Practice in terms of streamlined text.

Essential Evidence Plus contains decision support and content from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Individual Cochrane reviews may be accessed via the Read by QxMD app, along with many other articles, or the entire database may be searched online at www.cpsbc.ca/registrants/library/databases.

Instructions for accessing all mobile apps through the College Library are on the Mobile Apps page: www.cpsbc.ca/registrants/library/mobile-apps.
—Karen MacDonell
Director, Library Services

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This article is the opinion of the Library of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC and has not been peer reviewed by the BCMJ Editorial Board.

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Correction: This article has been revised. Authors provided the following content postpublication: 

  • Essential Evidence Plus is available from the CMA until December 2023. 
  • The CMA’s subscriptions to CPS and DynaMed were discontinued as of June 2023.
  • The CMA Library is now a corporate library; the CMA will stop providing clinical tools and services as part of CMA membership as of December 2023.
     

Karen MacDonell, PhD, MLIS. Shifting access to apps—availability through the College Library. BCMJ, Vol. 65, No. 7, September, 2023, Page(s) 264 - College Library.


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