Drugs.com has rolled out a mobile application that gives consumers and healthcare professionals quick access to medical information.

The new Drugs.com mobile app is available for free download for iOS and Android devices. The company also has a range of paid and free iPhone apps.

"As consumers spend more time with their smartphones, they will inevitably want to search for information relating to their health and medications," said Simon Buckingham, CEO of Appitalism, New York.

"The Drugs.com app is a very comprehensive information source with 11 sections relating to everything from pill identifier, symptom checker and dosage information," he said.

Mr. Buckingham is not affiliated with Drugs.com. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

Drugs.com did not respond by press deadline.

Drugs.com claims to be a leading online drug information resource and has more than nine million unique visitors per month.

Mobile fill
The idea for the app stems from the idea that as the healthcare industry changes, consumers increasingly want to manages their health from their smartphones and tablets, per Drugs.com.

The Drugs.com medication guide app helps consumers manage their health records with a homepage that is set up to outline each part of a user?s medical history.

For example, the My Drugs list section lets users set up a Drugs.com profile called Mednotes. Via Mednotes, users can enter information about any allergies, medications or conditions that they have to help manage their health.

Furthermore, the app includes information on medications that can be filtered alphabetically or broken down into 12 categories such as condition, generic status or drug class. There is also a big search bar stretched across the screen to let users enter keywords and specific descriptions to find a particular type of drug.

Information on more than 24,000 prescription and over-the-counter medications are available via the app.

Using a medication?s imprint, size, shape or color, the app helps consumers determine the types of pills that they have at home.

There is also a symptom checker feature with content from Harvard Health Publications to help consumers self-diagnose their conditions.

Patients can chat with each other through condition-specific support groups.

The Drugs.com iPhone app

Mobile management
In addition to the new free app, Drugs.com also has paid apps for health professionals and consumers.

Other apps include a consumer-facing pill identifier app ? which is 99 cents ? and lets users find images and information of pills based on criteria that consumers type in.

On the business side, Drugs.com offers a drug reference app that lets healthcare professionals search for drug information through a database of information.

As patients and healthcare professionals continue to more heavily rely on their handsets, the healthcare industry is slowly moving towards mobile to store information and let consumers access information more quickly.

"This app is a very useful one for consumers wanting information about medicines," Mr. Buckingham.

"Drugs.com runs ads within the app and monetizes the information it provides through these text ads," he said.

"Basically the Drugs.com app is ideally suited for smartphones since it makes consumers smarter about their medicines and health. Drugs.com has taken most of the features of its Web site and made them available through this free mobile app."

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York