ePocrates Inc.

In a crowded field of companies marketing web-based handheld devices that allow physicians to perform a myriad of functions—from prescribing to ordering lab tests to checking for drug interactions—ePocrates Inc. is trying to differentiate itself by offering less than its competition. Perhaps more to the point, the company's management is initially producing a narrow set of easy-to-use applications that it hopes will attract a broad practitioner customer base to which it eventually hopes to sell more sophisticated features. The idea is to ease physicians, who have proven surprisingly resistant to incorporating Internet technologies in their practices, into using web-enabled devices with a package of prescription drug information (e.g., dosing, counterindications, adverse reactions) that can readily be accessed at the point-of-care.

Major e-health companies like WebMDCorp.have learned the hard way that the single biggest barrier to creating the proverbial "seamless web"...