Read by QxMD vs Elna
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Read by QxMD
Access and organize the latest medical research and topic reviews in a personalized digital journal. Stay updated with new scientific findings and easily retrieve full-text PDFs from PubMed and other sources.
- Personalized digital medical journal
- Access latest medical research
- Read topic reviews
- Search PubMed
- Full-text PDF access
- Organize article collection
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'Read by QxMD' provides a single place to keep up with new medical & scientific research, read outstanding topic reviews and search PubMed. This iPhone & iPad app provides a simple interface that drives discovery and seamless access to the medical literature by reformatting it into a personalized digital journal. Praise for Read: 5 stars: "Stellar. The future of medical literature review... This could be the best application to stay up-to-date in medicine since, well, UpToDate." - User Review 4¾ stars: "The Flipboard for medical journals has arrived" and among "...the most innovative medical apps" - iMedicalApps.com On Apple's 'What's Hot' list in >60 countries, as well as Medical Essentials & Apps for Healthcare Professionals. Featured in Apple iBook: "iOS in Healthcare: Revolutionizing Healthcare Productivity" Features: - Get full text PDFs with one tap - Keep up with the latest new research that will impact your practice - Browse through 1000s of outstanding topic reviews - Search millions of articles from PubMed and our database of outstanding topic reviews - Read your favorite journals or browse article collections. - Access full text through your university/institutional subscription or via open access publishers - Share articles with colleagues over email, Twitter and Facebook - Organize and review your personal collection of articles Why did we build 'Read by QxMD'? Health care professionals need to stay up to date on the latest medical research and topic reviews to provide optimal care. Unfortunately, the process of content discovery is broken with research artificially compartmentalized by publishers and hidden behind countless institutional pay walls. At QxMD, we believe that knowledge translation– the process by which new knowledge is incorporated into clinical practice – is an important and unsolved challenge for our health care system. We hope that ‘Read by QxMD’ will be a part of the solution. Seamless 1-tap access available at thousands of institutions. Sources: From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Founded by medical professionals, QxMD is dedicated to creating high quality point-of-care tools for practicing health care professionals.
Elna
This clinical intelligence app provides doctors and nurses with quick, concise answers based on trusted medical sources and guidelines. It's designed for fast decision-making at the point of care, offering glanceable insights to support clinical judgment during busy shifts.
- Instant, glanceable answers
- Evidence-grounded insights
- Trusted medical sources
- Mobile-first design
- Fast decision-making support
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Elna is a clinical intelligence app built to help doctors and nurses get the right evidence in seconds, right when they need it. Instead of digging through long articles and guidelines or wading through verbose summaries, Elna gives you clear, concise, and glanceable answers designed for real-world clinical work.Each response highlights the essentials, surfaces what matters most, and keeps you moving during consultations, rounds, or on-call shifts.Every answer is built from trusted medical sources and authoritative clinical guidelines, with clear references. Why clinicians choose Elna: - Instant, glanceable answers built for fast decision-making at the point of care. - Actionable, evidence-grounded insights drawn only from reliable, independent clinical sources. - Mobile-first design so high-quality evidence is always within reach: across wards, clinics, or home visits. Elna is built for healthcare professionals who need to make better decisions, faster, while maintaining high standards of safety and evidence quality. It is not intended for patients or for self‑diagnosis and should always be used to support, not replace, clinical judgment.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Read by QxMD at 89% against Elna's 0%. Read by QxMD also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.0) and update cadence (monthly vs every 10 months). Elna's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and monetization model (ad-supported vs free with in-app purchases). On price, 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.
Read by QxMD holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Read by QxMD has 6K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 89% of Read by QxMD's written reviews are positive against 0% of Elna's.
Read by QxMD ships an update monthly, Elna every 10 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Read by QxMD | Elna |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (6K ratings) — better | 3.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 89.0% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 6K — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 10 months |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Ad-supported — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 205 MB | 28 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | WebMD | Elna |
Customer experience
Read by QxMD
Elna
Bugs and requests
Read by QxMD
Reported bugs
5 issues- Login and authentication problems
- Inconsistent app performance after updates
- Inability to access full-text articles
- Syncing issues between devices
- Unreliable article refresh functionality
Requested features
6 requests- Dark mode option
- Ability to annotate and highlight PDFs
- Improved article organization and collections
- Integration with reference managers (e.g. Zotero, Mendeley)
- Enhanced search and filtering capabilities
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- Offline access to saved articles
Elna
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Read by QxMD
No in-app purchases
Elna
No in-app purchases









