AHS EMS vs Handbook
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
AHS EMS
Access essential Alberta Health Services Medical Control Protocols for pre-hospital emergency medical providers. Includes adult and pediatric algorithms, reference materials, and pharmacology information.
- Alberta Health Services Protocols
- Medical Control
- Medical First Response
- Incident Response
- Adult and pediatric algorithms
- Reference material
- Pharmacology information
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The Alberta Emergency Medical Services Medical Control Protocols app for iOS devices provides emergency medical providers access to easy-to-use Alberta Health Services Protocols (Medical Control, Medical First Response, Incident Response and Critical Care Medical Control) specifically designed for use in the pre-hospital environment. This app includes adult and pediatric algorithms as well as necessary reference material and pharmacology information, including infusion charts, resource information, and provincial contacts. This app provides government-related information (from Alberta Health Services Emergency Medical Services at https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/ems/ems.aspx) that is generated and published from AHSEMS.com (https://www.ahsems.com). App information is also publicly available at https://protocols.ahsems.com.
Handbook
This app serves as the official resource for emergency medical treatment guidelines and operational content. It provides clinically accepted best practice models for paramedics, ensuring access to up-to-date information for emergency health services.
- Official BCEHS Treatment Guidelines
- BCEHS-specific operational content
- Clinically accepted best practice models
- Resource for paramedics
- Up-to-date medical information
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The BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) Handbook is the official source for the BCEHS Treatment Guidelines. In addition, it contains BCEHS-specific operational content and various clinically accepted best practice models for Paramedics.
Screenshots
Verdict
AHS EMS and Handbook are too close to call on the numbers: across 8 compared parameters — price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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.
AHS EMS ships an update every 11 months, Handbook every 14 months. Both last shipped on November 6, 2026.
| Parameter | AHS EMS | Handbook |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 34.0% of reviews — better | 33.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 11 months — better | Every 14 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 | 12 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 28 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | The Essential Talk Network Incorporated | BCEHS |
Customer experience
AHS EMS
Handbook
Bugs and requests
AHS EMS
Reported bugs
28 issues- Does not allow access if phone does not have reception
- Protocols just come up as “not found.”
- Very glitchy on IOS, requires multiple restarts to return to the main menu. Menu bars disappear once zoomed in or scrolled and don’t always reappear.
- Formatting of some protocol/med pages are warped as if an image has been inserted into the page but incorrectly sized.
- Updates will not download to be able to get in
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- App is no longer working for iPhone
- Won’t update, just freezes
- Seems to be stuck on the download update page.
- App is broken, won’t update
- Landscape mode on IPAD is not supported
- Needs an in-app update every time you open it
- Order of the protocols for the different disciplines has randomized since the last time you opened it
- Formatting is terrible once you can open a protocol. You have to zoom in to read anything
- Permanently stuck on downloading. If you leave the app it says no connection to internet and closes. Completely broken.
- Cannot download any content - fully not functional.
- Cannot download updates, or are delayed in downloading them- you can’t skip it. It just tells you “no public protocols are available.”
- App not updating and missing large sections
- Randomly stopped working on my iPhone, tried to delete it and redownload, still doesn’t work.
- After the app opens there is nothing but a white screen!
- Newest update has to be downloaded over and over, won't save to work without Internet connection.
- Requires you to download it every time you open the app.
- If you need to close the app to use the phone during a mission, all the information is gone.
- Why do I have to download the CCP guidelines everytime I open the app??
- When you down load the app on your i phone it does not allow me to see the whole protocol, The words are cut short on the right hand side.
- Portrait mode does not work for Drug section.
- Not working on iOS 7 . App won't even open. seems to work if updated over the air update but from new install, it crashes.
- Nothing comes up for this up, just null. I've got an iPhone 4.
- When I open the app everything comes up as (null). Not sure if its compatible with iPhone 5.
Requested features
9 requests- Allow offline access to downloaded content
- Improve iPad optimization for landscape mode
- Fix update download issues
- Ensure protocols are not randomized after updates
- Improve formatting for readability and protocol switching
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- Allow users to skip updates if needed
- Bring back the old version of the app
- Add protocols for dehydration, metabolic/respiratory acidosis
- Keep the app updated with protocol changes
Handbook
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
AHS EMS
No in-app purchases
Handbook
No in-app purchases
