Comparison

MDPhD vs Research Notes

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

MDPhD

This app summarizes clinical abstracts from PubMed, providing key evidence-based medicine insights. It helps health professionals make smarter decisions and improve patient care faster through data visualizations and personalized feeds. Unlock collaborative features for institutions to integrate EBM into workflows.

Highlights
  • Clinical abstract summarization
  • Evidence-based medicine insights
  • Data visualizations
  • Personalized journal feed
  • Semantic search engine
  • Team collaboration features
Features
Read full description

MDPhD automatically summarizes and organizes clinical abstracts from PubMed (a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine) days after publication. With MDPhD in your hands you do less reading, make smarter decisions and give better patient care, faster. Each of our summaries contain key evidence based medicine insights. Our data visualizations help you see the big picture and connect the dots. We are constantly improving our algorithms to make MDPhD the fastest way to consume evidence based medicine. MDPhD keeps health professionals current like never before. Our features help you rapidly translate research from the benchside to the bedside! 'MDPhD' For Individuals * Best Evidence daily * Semantic Search Engine * Personalized Journal Feed * Visualize your search results with graphs * Share Best Evidence with colleagues * EBM video tutorials 'MDPhD Teams' For Instituions: Available for Health Institutions like clinics, hospitals, medical schools and academic centres. Please ask your medical librarian or institutional admin to give your institution access. Sign up at https://www.mdphd.ca or email us at info@mifisi.com for more information. Unlock all the collaborative features of MDPhD for all your health staff and sign up for MDPhD Teams today! * Empower your health staff to become agents of change * Transform your institution into a data driven ecosystem * Integrate EBM into your clinical workflows * Deliver high quality healthcare * Deliver high value healthcare * Less reading, smarter decisions * Team Collaboration * More Data * More Insights * More Analytics * Institutional access Please visit our website https://mdphd.ca to review our introductory video tutorials and blogs on general app workflow. Our organization, MIFISI Inc., is a healthcare data science company operating out of Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. Our Mission: * Unlocking the scientist in every health professional. * Turning healthcare organizations into data driven ecosystems. * Helping patients with high value, high quality healthcare.

About

Research Notes

Access RSS feeds from hundreds of scientific journals across various subject categories. Download PDFs and utilize a text-to-speech feature for articles. Organize your favorite journals and discover new ones.

Highlights
  • Hundreds of journal RSS feeds
  • Subject category filtering
  • PDF download functionality
  • Text-to-speech for articles
  • Favorite journals section
  • New journal additions
Features
Read full description

Research Notes brings the latest articles from the journals you follow into one clean reading list. FOLLOW JOURNALS • Choose from nearly 700 journals across 29 fields, from cardiology and oncology to genomics and public health • Start with the must-reads, or follow a whole field in a tap • Find any journal by name or publisher TODAY • The latest articles, newest first and grouped by day, each with a short summary • Switch to By journal for a table of contents, one journal at a time • A dot marks what you haven't seen yet, and each journal shows its count for the week • Search everything you follow READ • Read the summary, then the full article on the publisher's site, without leaving the app • Share an article in a tap SAVED • Save the articles you want to come back to • Your journals and saved articles stay on your device, with no account to create MADE FOR iPHONE AND iPAD • On iPad, your journals sit in a sidebar and the article opens beside your list • Clear, large type in light or dark mode Free, with ads.

Screenshots

MDPhD4 screens
Research Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: MDPhD at 5.0 against Research Notes's 4.0. MDPhD also leads on ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (14.1 vs 17.0). Research Notes's advantage is review sentiment (71% vs 50%) and update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. MDPhD sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Research Notes sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $7.49 per 6 months. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

MDPhD holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 4 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 50% of MDPhD's written reviews are positive against 71% of Research Notes's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MDPhD ships an update every 3 weeks, Research Notes weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
MDPhD versus Research Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMDPhDResearch Notes
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.0 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews71.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings14 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS14.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB6 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperMIFISI Inc.Omelette Inc

Customer experience

MDPhD

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative0.0%

Research Notes

All ratings4 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive71.4%
Neutral14.3%
Negative14.3%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

MDPhD

Subscriptions2
  • App access$9.991 Month
  • Full App Access$99.991 Year
3 purchases

Research Notes

Subscriptions2
  • PDF to Audio for 6 months$7.496 Months
  • PDF to Audio for 12 Months$11.991 Year
One-time1
  • Research Notes$4.99

Questions

Is MDPhD free?
MDPhD is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Research Notes free?
Research Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MDPhD or Research Notes?
MDPhD is rated higher. MDPhD averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Research Notes averages 4.0 from 4 ratings.
Do MDPhD or Research Notes have ads?
Research Notes shows ads; MDPhD does not.
Which is updated more often, MDPhD or Research Notes?
MDPhD ships an update every 3 weeks, and Research Notes weekly. Most recently, MDPhD was updated on October 8, 2026 and Research Notes on October 24, 2026.

Other comparisons