CorePendium vs LCAST
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
CorePendium
This app provides a comprehensive, continuously updated, and peer-reviewed clinical reference for Emergency and Urgent Care Medicine. It features integrated multimedia, offline access, intuitive navigation, and medical calculators, making it an essential tool for medical professionals on the go.
- Expert-backed, continuously revised content
- Integrated media library (ECGs, X-rays, videos, audio)
- Offline access to all content
- Intuitive navigation with Rapid Access and Deep Dive sections
- Integrated medical calculators
- Links to EM:RAP knowledge base content
Read full descriptionHide full description
The textbook is dead. Long live CorePendium! CorePendium is the first truly comprehensive, continuously updated, peer-reviewed, multimedia clinical reference for Emergency and Urgent Care Medicine. Download the CorePendium App and bring the best clinical reference text with you anywhere in the world, regardless of connectivity. With your EM:RAP account, the CorePendium App allows you to join over 65,000 members of the CorePendium community. The CorePendium App gives you… • EXPERT-BACKED CONTENT — Written, edited, and peer-reviewed by a team of over 800 leading academics and practitioners, every CorePendium chapter is continuously revised by leading experts in emergency medicine and beyond. • INTEGRATED MEDIA — Comprehensive learning requires more than just words. Dive into our constantly growing media library of ECG’s and X-rays, as well as expertly-produced videos and audio segments. Look, listen, and learn, all without leaving the CorePendium App. • OFFLINE MODE — With new chapters being added and updated frequently to reflect the latest literature and practice guidelines, the CorePendium App makes sure you always have the newest information at your fingertips, 24 hours a day. The app looks for updates to its offline database every time you’re active online, so that you have the answers you need, no matter what. Do you want access to our skillfully-shot procedure videos and expert commentary away from a wireless connection? You can choose to download our audio and video content to ensure access when you need it most. • INTUITIVE NAVIGATION — Designed to prioritize all of the crucial information and media needed for the critical patient, CorePendium’s ‹Rapid Access› section gives you the quick insights you’ll need at the bedside. If you are looking for more background, the ‹Deep Dive› section provides all the information you’ll need to know about a topic. Sleek chapter sidebars, internal searches, search filters, and curated tabs ensure you can find what you need when you need it. • MEDICAL CALCULATORS — Get all of the commonly used clinical scoring and decision tools you need, with important interpretation data compiled by some of medicine’s foremost experts just a thumb slide away. Our calculators are also integrated with the content that uses it most. • PART OF THE EM:RAP KNOWLEDGE BASE — CorePendium is just one piece of the EM:RAP universe. The CorePendium App takes full advantage of its special connection to the most listened to programs in Emergency and Urgent Care Medicine by integrating that content. With continuously updated links to video, conference content, and podcasts you’ll always get the most cutting-edge answers. • INTERNATIONAL — CorePendium is for the whole world. We have an international advisory board that aims to address emergency care for patients and practitioners in all of the various environments where it is practiced. • EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE — CorePendium is written by clinicians for clinicians, without the support of advertising or industry. With the CorePendium App you just get the best information, current and expertly reviewed. • THE REFERENCE OF RECORD — Accessed millions of times, CorePendium is already the reference textbook used by residency training programs and frontline clinicians the world over.
LCAST
This medical tool aids healthcare professionals in assessing the plausibility of bruising in young children. It utilizes a validated clinical decision rule to help identify potential abuse by analyzing bruise characteristics and body locations. The app serves as a screening tool to inform decision-making and educate users on bruising patterns.
- Bruising clinical decision rule (TEN-4-FACESp)
- Interactive 3D body model for inputting observations
- Compares bruise findings to published evidence
- Screening tool for children under 4.0 years
- Educational tool for healthcare providers
- Data based on multi-center NIH-funded study
Read full descriptionHide full description
The Lurie Children’s Child Injury Plausibility Assessment Support Tool (LCAST) is an app based on a validated Bruising Clinical Decision Rule (BCDR) called the TEN-4-FACESp. Use of this tool has the potential to improve recognition of abuse in young children with bruising. This app functions only as a screening tool and cannot be used to diagnose abuse. The app applies to children less than 4.0 years of age with bruising. If the child is older than 4.0 and/or bruising is not present, this tool cannot be used. In those circumstances, alternative methods of screening for abuse are needed. WHY FOCUS ON BRUISING? Bruising is the most common injury resulting from physical abuse and is the most overlooked or misdiagnosed antecedent injury prior to an abuse-related fatality or near-fatality in a young child. Bruising occurs from both accidental and abusive trauma, but differences identified by the TEN-4-FACESp bruising clinical decision rule may allow improved and earlier recognition of the abused child. ABOUT THE APP: The app is intended for clinical use by licensed healthcare professionals and providers. The app can inform decision-making and be used as an educational tool for learning about bruising characteristics that commonly result from abusive and accidental injury. The core feature of the app is an interactive 3D body model that allows the user to utilize visual cues of the human body to input clinical observations. The result is the opportunity to compare a child’s bruise findings to the published evidence resulting from a NIH-funded multi-center study. The data that drive the app are based on 2,161 patients of which 410 (19%) were classified by a multi-disciplinary panel of medical experts as abuse and 1,713 (79%) as accident. The TEN-4-FACESp bruising clinical decision rule resulted from analysis of 35 body regions and is 96% specific and 87% sensitive for distinguishing bruising from abuse versus accident. The TEN-4-FACESp has three components based on: 1) specific body regions with bruising, 2) patterned bruising, and 3) bruising anywhere on non-mobile infants. An affirmative finding for any one of the three TEN-4-FACESp components without a clear and reasonable explanation indicates a potential risk for abuse. The child may warrant further evaluation and consultation with an expert in child abuse should be considered. In addition to using the data in this app, the user should always check with a doctor before making any medical decisions.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: CorePendium at 67% against LCAST's 0%. CorePendium also leads on rating (4.9 vs 4.3) and update cadence (monthly vs every 21 months). LCAST's advantage is monetization model (free vs freemium) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 15.1). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
CorePendium holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: CorePendium has 1.4K ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of CorePendium's written reviews are positive against 0% of LCAST's.
CorePendium ships an update monthly, LCAST every 21 months. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and August 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | CorePendium | LCAST |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (1.4K ratings) — better | 4.3 (8 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1.4K — better | 8 |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 21 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 9.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 49 MB | 146 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | EM:RAP, Inc. | igNew, LLC dba Slingshot |
Customer experience
CorePendium
LCAST
Bugs and requests
CorePendium
Reported bugs
2 issues- Crashes on launch
- Compatibility issues with older devices
Requested features
3 requests- iPad version
- Ability to track progress and bookmark content
- Video playback controls (speed, rewind)
LCAST
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
CorePendium
No in-app purchases
LCAST
No in-app purchases








