Attention pharmacy friends (especially those frustrated with current drug shortages) — earlier this month, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a mobile app that helps you track drug shortages, check on resolved drug shortages, and even report actual or potential drug shortages. I’ve tried the app out, and the functionality is great. The app is very easy to navigate, and doesn’t have a lot of unnecessary bells and whistles.

When you first download the app, which is available as a free download for iOS and Android, you’ll arrive at the simple Home screen:

From here, you can access the different menus, which allow you to browse by drug name, browse by therapeutic category, search by drug name, or report a shortage.

Browse by Drug Name

From this menu, you can easily view drug shortages listed by drug name. You can also look at resolved drug shortages and drugs that have been discontinued. One thing I noticed when browsing the drugs is that most of the drugs listed are hospital (inpatient) drugs. Hopefully the FDA will expand the functionality of this app to include more retail (outpatient) drugs.

After tapping on a drug, you’ll be taken to a screen that contains the drug name, current status, the date the shortage was first reported, and the therapeutic category. Information for each manufacturer involved in the shortage (likely more than one if the problem is a nationwide or raw material shortage) and their phone number. Following that, there’s a plethora of information about the drug in shortage, including everything from the NDC to the shortage reason and other notes about the shortage. Some drugs even list an expected release date when the product will return to market.

Browse by Therapeutic Category

In this menu, you can access a list of the drugs sorted by therapeutic class. Once you tap on a drug, you’ll be taken to the same screen with the same information I discussed previously.

Search By Drug Name

This section is as simple as it sounds. If you enter a drug name that is not currently in shortage, you’ll receive an error message of “There were no results returned.”

Report a Shortage

Surprisingly, FDA does not allow you to report a shortage directly from within the app. You’ll need to e-mail or call FDA directly with the contact information listed in this section. I guess this prevents pesky kids from downloading the app and inundating FDA with false reports.

Help & Support Links

This section obviously contains various links for help within the app, but it also provides links to an RSS Feed and to sign up for e-mail alerts of drug shortages, which is pretty nifty.

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Overall Review

Pros: This app is a handy reference to have in your pocket that outlines the current drug shortages without having to search the Internet or rely on your wholesaler to let you know which drugs are in shortage. The app is very easy to navigate and has a good deal of information about each drug currently in shortage. The functionality to browse by drug name, therapeutic class, or search is also helpful. It’s also great to see FDA taking a proactive step towards monitoring drug shortages and making that information readily available to healthcare professionals.

Cons: The app menu is in the upper right corner of the app, and is the only way to navigate. It seems unnatural for me to keep tapping in that corner to work my way around the app. The addition of a “Back” button in the upper left corner would be an improvement. Also, like I mentioned earlier, most of the drugs in the app are hospital drugs, so a better representation of retail prescriptions in shortage would be helpful to a wider audience. Of the drugs I looked at, not many had a direct reason for shortage (most listed as “Other”), and did not have a release date (or listed as “TBD”). This data would be incredibly helpful for practitioners and inventory specialists alike.

Questions: How often are the shortages listed in the app updated? Is the app real time, or does it update as needed?

Suggestions: Push notifications for new drug shortages.

Bottom Line

If you’re a practicing healthcare professional and can spare some space on your mobile device, I would download this app. If you work in a setting where drug shortages are of little concern, or if you have a wholesaler who notifies you of shortages on their website, you can probably survive without it.

Thanks for reading! I would love to hear your comments on this app once you’ve downloaded and used it.