Thursday, April 24, 2008

Looking for a web based antibiotic guide?

There are usually several free pocket versions of the Sanford Guide lying around our place, left by the drug reps. I’ve found them difficult to navigate. The organization of content is suitable for electronic access but the book requires a lot of page turning. And if you can’t read the small font without a magnifying glass it’s just too cumbersome. I’d be willing to pay for electronic access but there’s no desktop version of the Sanford Guide.

An excellent alternative is the Johns Hopkins ABX Guide. Although dense in content it’s very easy to navigate due to extensive cross linking. You can browse by disease or drug, and can choose among brief summaries, tables and more lengthy monographs for each topic. There are extensive Q&A discussions and literature updates. The site is updated frequently---issues which have only surfaced in recent weeks are discussed. Handheld and desktop versions are included and the site is free after one time registration.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

John's Hopkins guide is great. We used to use it all the time in medical school, it was a great resource. Today, however, it is only available through Skyscape at a hefty subscription price. I haven't found a substitute yet, I just haven't used it since it became so expensive.