Internal medicine review in 5 minutes

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5-Minute Clinical Consults (5MCC) is a commercial program for personal digital assistants (PDAs). It is the handheld version of the 2003 Griffith's 5-Minute Clinical Consult textbook, which is edited by Mark Dambro, MD, and published by Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. The PDA version of 5MCCs is powered by Skyscape.

Cost

Cost at time of review: $64.95. You can register for a free trial version prior to purchase.

Intended Audience

5-Minute Clinical Consults is aimed at physicians, students, and nurses involved in clinical care.

Description

5-Minute Clinical Consults is a medical reference database. It primarily supplies background information on a given topic and includes clinical information, drug references, and International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision (ICD-9) codes. The following description pertains to the Pocket personal computer (Pocket PC). The Palm operating system's (Palm OS) version is similar in content; however, the navigation keys differ slightly. Upon launching 5MCC, 7 tabs or links appear across the top of the screen: the back arrow, the index tab, the table of contents tab, a bookmark tab, a history tab, which provides a list of the recently accessed topics, a skyscapelink tab, which links skyscape products on your PDA, and a screenwidth tab.

The two most useful tabs are the Index and Table of Contents links. The Main Index provides an alphabetical list of medical conditions. One can either scroll down to the desired topic or search for the topic by using the “look for” text box which is at the bottom of the screen. Tapping on a topic will take you to a smARTtab/quick link screen. These smARTtabs are located at the far right hand corner of the screen. They are B (basics), D (diagnosis), T (treatment), Rx (medications), F (follow-up), and M (miscellaneous). Tapping on these tabs will reveal more information on the topic. One can choose to ignore the tabs and simply use the scroll button.

The Table of Contents link is more difficult to use. This screen provides a list of 11 folders, which are listed alphabetically beginning with “Cardiovascular” and ending with “Skin/Exocrine.” To answer the question, for example, whether gout is a long-term complication of Polycythemia Vera, you would tap the “Hemic/Lymphatic/Immunologic” folder. This leads to a screen with another list of folders A to Z. Tap on “P” and then on the file “Polycythemia Vera.” This leads to the familiar smARTtabs screen described above. Finally, tap on “F” for follow-up or use the scroll down key to try to find the answer to the question. The answer is listed: possible complications of Polycythemia Vera include gout.

Both the Index and Table of Contents screens have a scroll down menu which allows easy access to the medication index and the ICD-9 Index. The medication list is alphabetical. The medication index has two options: a pop-up menu or a direct link to a Rx smARTtab. If the medication is used in a variety of medical conditions, then tapping on the medication will produce a pop-up menu of the various medical conditions. One can tap on the desired medical condition and this will take you to the smARTtab Rx screen, described above. If the medication is only used in one medical condition, then you go directly to the Rx screen. In either case, the Rx screen provides recommendations on dosage, contraindications, precautions, significant interactions, and when appropriate, alternative drugs. The ICD-9 index lists diagnosis codes. Unfortunately, unless you have an idea of the code (which would make looking it up pointless), it is difficult to search for a specific code because the search textbox only responds to numbers. I found it easier to look under the “miscellaneous” quick link to find the ICD-9 code.

Evidence Base

It is difficult to determine if suggested diagnostic strategies, therapeutic interventions, or prognosis are based on the best available evidence; however, every topic is referenced under the smARTtab“miscellaneous.”

Frequency of Update

Updates are available for purchase on an annual basis. However, your current version continues indefinitely whether you choose to purchase an update or not.

Limitations

The limitations of 5MCC are similar to limitations that one encounters when using a textbook. For example, I could find no information on a recent medical topic such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, although I found in-depth information on Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2. In addition, the medication index is not up to date. I could find no information on Zetia, the new cholesterol drug on the market.

Ease of Use

The interface for 5MCC is easy to use and professional in appearance. The program is easy to download to a desktop. The initial synchronization from desktop to PDA is about 10 minutes.

PDA Operating System

5-Minute Clinical Consults requires a Palm version 3.0 or greater operating system or the Windows CE personal digital assistant system.

Desktop Operating System

The product can be downloaded on any desktop operating system. It can be downloaded to a memory card also.

Memory Requirement

For the Palm OS device, without images this program requires 4.3 megabytes of memory and with images 7.6 megabytes of memory. For the Pocket PC device, this program requires 9.5 megabytes of memory.

Is 5 minute clinical consult good?

Trusted by Physicians Top notch great information. Don't know how I ever lived without it!" "5MinuteConsult.com is a perfect extension of Dr. Domino's 5 Minute Clinical Consult book. This site gives me the added confidence in my clinical decision making process that no other resource has been able to provide."

Is there a 5 minute consult app?

Purchase includes the mobile app, MacOS app, and web access. The latest update of 5-Minute Clinical Consult (5MCC) helps you diagnose, treat, and follow up on over 1,000 medical conditions found in everyday practice.

What is the phone number for 5 minute consult?

Customer Service Visit https://5minuteconsult.com/public/ContactUs to contact us or call 1-800-468-1128.