Mobile POC-IT ABX Guide free to SoM students, house staff

The Johns Hopkins Point-of-Care Information Technology Center is making available at no cost to all current Johns Hopkins medical students and house staff the mobile version of the POC-IT ABX Guide. This mobile antibiotic guide was recently chosen by Medical Economics as one of the 10 best medical software applications for 2008, in the category of personal digital assistants.

The Johns Hopkins-developed ABX Guide is a free, Web-based, clinical decision support resource that has been used since 2000 by more than 400,000 physicians, nurses and medical students worldwide.

In January, the university licensed the guide to Skyscape, a firm that is among the leaders in mobile-accessed medical information software. Licensing the guide has made it available for the first time by subscription on all mobile devices, including the Palm and Pocket PC operating systems. The ABX Guide is also accessible from smartphones such as the iPhone and BlackBerry. The guide can be integrated with any of Skyscape's more than 500 other medical information software applications at their regular subscription rates.

"I know so many of our students and house staff rely on the ABX Guide in their daily work," said David Nichols, vice dean for Education at the School of Medicine. "Not only is it used to access a wealth of information on infections and antibiotics, but we also consider it a vital resource to ensure patient safety."

Students and house staff with jhmi.edu e-mail accounts can download the free version of the guide by going to www.skyscape.com/jhu/abxguide and following the prompts.

John G. Bartlett, former chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, championed the development of the POC-IT Guides and remains the ABX Guide's editor in chief. Paul G. Auwaerter, associate professor and clinical director of the Division of Infectious Diseases, is the POC-IT Center's chief medical officer and managing editor of the ABX Guide. For more, go to www.poc-it.org.