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EZDrugID and EtherWare

I've been busy with my other outfit - EtherWare - working on something (else!) exciting for anaesthetists.

EtherWare recently released Drug Cards , a cross platform (iOS & Android, natch) app for doctors and nurses who work in emergencies, theatres and ITU, and anywhere really (if we're being honest). Medical staff really need something they can get their teeth into and the BNF doesn't really cut it. It's massive and comprehensive, in terms of the range and number of medications listed, and we all love to have one (or the app) to hand. It doesn't give you the type of salient and to the point points we'd like though - hence Drug Cards. A large component of drug cards is the pharmacology and effects section.

We think we've done a good job but get in touch, here or on EtherWare, if you have suggestions, praise or criticism. You'll notice there is a Pearls of Wisdom section that is empty for many of our drugs; this is for you, the user, to suggest what you've learned about a drug that you think may be useful. A good example would be the synergistic effect of alfentanil and propofol. If you've never used alfentanil before the speed of induction with propofol combined may surprise you. It's usually significantly faster than a fentanyl-propofol mix and that's the type of thing you need to be aware of.

Go have a look!

PS. There is a new update coming soon so look out for the pulsing green icon. Its a narcotics update, we're trying to get more of that lovely relaxing blue onto your menu screens.

EZDrugID

The other thing I got involved with recently is the EZDrugID campaign.

It seems to have started in New Zealand or Australia and it's a campaign to standardise and differentiate drug packaging clearly in order to reduce medication errors. The idea is that something like this:



is unsafe, and I tend to agree.

Strongly.

In anaesthesia in the UK and the USA there is a very similar drug syringe labelling system. In the UK we use the AAGBI system, details of which can be found here (including proposals for changes I think): http://www.aagbi.org/sites/default/files/SYRINGE%20LABELLING%202014.pdf

In my opinion the AAGBI are perfectly placed to spearhead this campaign and twitter user @conquestfrca has written to them. There is an online petition too, though I don't know what happens if lots of people sign it:

There is also a survey about your experiences with similar looking drugs: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PDMJ7SN

Drug Cards uses the AAGBI colours in the interface, on purpose of course, so we'll be interested to see what happens with this campaign.

Something Else

Finally, I had a dream about gamification and learning and I may be doing something fun and interesting based on... well, that would be telling. I'm mostly busy with EtherWare at the moment but Subjective Effect is still open for business.

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