ePocrates Delivers Clinical Information to the Point of Care on the Pocket PC

SAN MATEO, Calif., April 9, 2003 -- ePocrates Inc., the leading handheld network for physicians, today announced its collaboration with Microsoft Corp. to enhance physicians' ability to access critical clinical information via Windows Powered Pocket PCs, Microsoft's next-generation personal device assistant (PDA).

As a result of work with the Microsoft Healthcare Industry Solutions Group, physicians will now be able to access ePocrates Rx Pro(TM), the premium version of ePocrates' popular handheld drug reference, using Microsoft Windows Powered Pocket PC devices. The new application, which will be updated weekly, will be available on Pocket PC hardware from HP, Dell, Toshiba, and Casio.

"ePocrates has been a driving force behind the medical community's adoption of handheld devices," says Ahmad Hashem, MD, Microsoft's Global Healthcare Productivity Manager. "We believe that the rapidly expanding community of Pocket PC users will enable ePocrates to deliver their content to a much broader healthcare network. We look forward to working with ePocrates as they take advantage of Microsoft's expertise in mobile device software and enterprise healthcare solutions to build the widespread community of interconnected healthcare professionals that is critical to today's needs."

Previously, ePocrates(R) software only ran on handheld devices using the Palm Operating System (Palm OS). Making ePocrates available on additional platforms is part of the company's mission to disseminate its life-saving drug reference software to an increasingly extensive network of clinicians.

"Accelerating the adoption of new technology is a challenge in any industry, and healthcare has been no exception," says Robert Quinn, ePocrates' Chief Technology Officer. "ePocrates' success stems from the fact that we built a highly intuitive point-of-care PDA drug reference. With virtually no marketing, this application has been adopted by hundreds of thousands of users. Now, we feel that the healthcare community is looking for a wider array of content, applications, platforms and connectivity. We are delighted to partner with Microsoft to address these growing needs, beginning with ePocrates Rx Pro for Pocket PC."

Currently, over 725,000 healthcare professionals are part of the ePocrates network. A study published last year in JAMIA reported that physicians using the ePocrates Rx(TM) software were able to prevent one to two medication errors per week. ePocrates Rx Pro(TM), the premium version, includes information on over 2,800 prescription drugs and 400 alternative medications, and also includes clinical guidelines and an infectious disease application.

"We are pleased that ePocrates will be making their software available on the Pocket PC platform," says Gary Lyndaker, CIO and Director of Information Systems at the Missouri Department of Mental Health. "We are seeking to switch to PDAs using the Pocket PC platform because of its enhanced computing power, speed and memory. We are already moving toward .NET applications and Pocket PC integrates more smoothly with our existing technical architecture, allowing physicians to use Outlook and Word on their PDAs. Our ultimate goal is to simplify our technical infrastructure by only using operating systems from the Windows family."

ePocrates is launching an online version of its clinical product called ePocrates Rx Online this May. Users will be able to access the same information currently available for handheld devices, but will also be able to print out dosing, drug interaction, patient education materials and more, for their patients.

To celebrate the launch, HP is offering a 10% rebate (from April 8 until June 30) to those who purchase an HP iPAQ Pocket PC and ePocrates Rx Pro(TM) for the Pocket PC. Go to https://www.epocrates.com/hpoffer.do for more information on this offer.

About ePocrates

ePocrates Inc. is the largest handheld clinician network with over 725,000 registered healthcare professionals. In addition to ePocrates Rx(TM), ePocrates offers a clinical suite of products, ePocrates RxPro(TM), which includes an herbal database and an infectious disease application. ePocrates also offers formulary hosting, messaging, market research and clinical trial recruitment capabilities via its proprietary network. ePocrates is headquartered in San Mateo, CA. For more information on ePocrates, visit http://www.epocrates.com.

SOURCE ePocrates Inc.

Web Site: http://www.epocrates.com