ePocrates will discontinue the free version of for Mac this spring, following a final release of the commercial version. MacNN Reader Felix Parache -- along with several other ePocrates customers -- received a notice from the software developer this evening.

Dear ePocrates Mac user,

We hope you've heard the good news that due to popular demand from the Mac healthcare community, we're developing a Mac-compatible version of our premium software, ePocrates Rx Pro. We are looking forward to providing you with many valuable features you've never been able to access before including AutoUpdate, formularies, DocAlert messages and important safety information on over 400 alternative medicines as well as helpful tables and the ePocrates ID infectious disease guide.

As you probably know, we're a small company with limited resources. It is very time consuming and costly for us to develop and maintain multiple versions of our software. After we release the Mac version of ePocrates Rx Pro this spring, we plan to discontinue supporting the free Mac version of ePocrates Rx because of the cost of maintaining that version for a relatively small number of users. (Mac users currently represent 4-5% of our entire user base.) However, we plan to continue to offer the free ePocrates Rx for the PC/Windows platform because that version is relied on daily by several hundred thousand healthcare professionals.

We recently updated the free Mac version of ePocrates Rx 6.0 for the last time and it is available for download from our website. We will keep it posted until we launch the Mac version of ePocrates Rx Pro. After we release the new, premium software, you will have approximately one month to upgrade before the free ePocrates Rx expires. We hope this courtesy period will provide you enough time to either purchase ePocrates Rx Pro yourself or have someone else sponsor a copy for you. (Please click here to learn more about the ePocrates Rx Pro Certificate Program.) Please stay tuned for upcoming announcements about the final release date.

Thank you for your attention,

The ePocrates Team

by MacNN Staff