Epocrates

Epocrates is a mobile medical reference for clinicians, serving continually researched and updated clinical content to more than a million users since 1998 and describing itself as the top mobile medical reference in its field.

Its founding story explains why it holds that position. When the iPhone was eight months old, a California neurologist started a petition to get Epocrates onto it, almost 500 doctors signed, and Steve Jobs invited the Epocrates developers to build one of the platform's earliest applications. Being on the first iPhone meant Epocrates was in clinicians' pockets before any competitor existed there, and clinical reference habits formed at that moment have proved remarkably durable.

The user testimony is the most telling evidence of that durability. Clinicians describe the application as their second brain and as absolutely essential to modern practice, which is language about dependence rather than satisfaction, and reflects a tool consulted many times a day rather than occasionally.

Twenty five years of continuous operation has produced content clinicians trust for critical decisions, covering drug information, interaction checking and clinical reference. The mobile first design is the product's defining characteristic rather than an add-on, built for the clinician standing at a bedside rather than sitting at a desk. Epocrates now sits within athenahealth. Pricing is not published; a free tier has historically been offered alongside the paid epocrates+ subscription.