Comparison

Pediatric Emergency Guide vs Red Book®

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

Head to head
About

Pediatric Emergency Guide

Quickly calculate pediatric emergency medicine dosages and equipment sizes based on patient weight or age. Organized by clinical situation or alphabetically, it's a vital tool for healthcare professionals treating critically-ill children.

Highlights
  • Dose pediatric emergency medicines
  • Calculate equipment sizes
  • Organized by clinical situation
  • Alphabetical list of medications
  • Includes PALS algorithms
  • Clinical protocol section
Features
Read full description

This app allows users to dose pediatric emergency medicines and equipment to patient weight or age, organized by clinical situation or alphabetical list. It is ideal for paramedics, emergency physicians, urgent care physicians, pediatric residents, transport team members, and other health care professionals who care for critically-ill children. This app was designed by a multi-disciplinary team of physicians, nurses, transport team members, and pharmacists affiliated with Children's National Health System. The updated version contains med-dosing within PALS algorithms, improved style, error corrections, a new improved menu screen, and clinical protocol section. The original release won the Blue Aster award and was an adaptation of the popular "blue card" that was disseminated in the DC metropolitan area for years before mobile health.

About

Red Book®

This app provides the latest information on pediatric infectious diseases from the American Academy of Pediatrics. It includes immunization schedules, vaccine status, influenza resources, and new chapters on COVID-19 and Mpox. Features like note-taking and enhanced search aid quick access to essential medical data.

Highlights
  • Immunization schedules
  • Vaccine status table
  • Influenza resources
  • COVID-19 and Mpox chapters
  • Note-taking and highlighting
  • Enhanced search functionality
Features
Currently charting
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** The Red Book is the foundational resource on pediatric infectious disease** Featuring content from the latest edition, the Red Book: 2024–2027 Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) provides the most up-to-date information on a wide variety of infectious diseases that physicians encounter in children. Written and edited by leading experts in the field, along with contributions from the CDC, the FDA, and hundreds of other professionals, this resource stands as the most authoritative and comprehensive available. The Red Book features: * Immunization Schedules - Recommended immunization and catch-up schedules for infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. * Vaccine Status Table - Current information about recently submitted, licensed, and recommended vaccines and biologics, including status of the FDA licensure process and related AAP/CDC recommendations. * Influenza Resources - A comprehensive collection of information on influenza, serving as a centralized reference for vaccine guidance, prevention, treatment, payment policies, news, and other relevant details for infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. * Standardized approaches to disease prevention through immunizations, antimicrobial prophylaxis, and infection-control practices have been updated throughout the Red Book. * Two new chapters on Covid-19 and Mpox have been added. * The System-Based Treatment Table has been reordered so that the grouped recommendations by body system are more easily and quickly accessed. * Greatly expanded tables, figures and algorithms enable quick access to essential information. * The Breastfeeding and Human Milk chapter was updated to align with information from the latest AAP policy statement on breastfeeding. * The listing of Codes for Commonly Administered Pediatric Vaccines, Toxoids, and Immune Globulins has been expanded. * Reference to evidence-based policy recommendations have been updated throughout the Red Book. Unbound Medicine Features: * Highlighting and note-taking within entries * “Favorites” for bookmarking important topics * Enhanced Search to find topics quickly * Prime PubMed links to the primary literature Author: Committee on Infectious Diseases Publisher: American Academy of Pediatrics Editor: David W. Kimberlin, MD, FAAP; Associate Editors: Ritu Banerjee, MD, PhD, FAAP, Elizabeth D. Barnett, MD, FAAP; Ruth Lynfield, MD, FAAP; and Mark H. Sawyer, MD, FAAP Powered By: Unbound Medicine Unbound Medicine Privacy Policy: https://www.unboundmedicine.com/privacy Unbound Medicine Terms of Use: https://www.unboundmedicine.com/end_user_license_agreement

Screenshots

Pediatric Emergency Guide4 screens
Red Book®4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Pediatric Emergency Guide at 62% against Red Book®'s 0%. Pediatric Emergency Guide also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 15.0). Red Book®'s advantage is rating (4.8 vs 4.6) and chart position (#195 vs unranked). On price, update cadence, ads 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. Red Book® sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Pediatric Emergency Guide asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Red Book® holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 21 and 71 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 62% of Pediatric Emergency Guide's written reviews are positive against 0% of Red Book®'s, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 11 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Pediatric Emergency Guide versus Red Book®: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPediatric Emergency GuideRed Book®
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (21 ratings)4.8 (71 ratings) — better
Positive reviews61.9% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings2171 — better
Update frequencyEvery 11 monthsEvery 11 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#195 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS9.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB9 MB
Age rating12+17+
DeveloperChildren's National Medical CenterUnbound Medicine, Inc.

Customer experience

Pediatric Emergency Guide

All ratings20 ratings
Positive85.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative5.0%
Written reviews42 reviews
Positive61.9%
Neutral2.4%
Negative35.7%

Red Book®

All ratings67 ratings
Positive94.0%
Neutral1.5%
Negative4.5%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral66.7%
Negative33.3%

In-app purchases

None

Pediatric Emergency Guide

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Red Book®

One-time2
  • Red Book 32e$99.99
  • Red Book$99.99

Questions

Is Pediatric Emergency Guide free?
Pediatric Emergency Guide is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Red Book® free?
Red Book® is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Pediatric Emergency Guide or Red Book®?
Red Book® is rated higher. Pediatric Emergency Guide averages 4.6 out of 5 from 21 ratings, while Red Book® averages 4.8 from 71 ratings.
Do Pediatric Emergency Guide or Red Book® have ads?
Neither Pediatric Emergency Guide nor Red Book® shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pediatric Emergency Guide or Red Book®?
Pediatric Emergency Guide ships an update every 11 months, and Red Book® every 11 months. Most recently, Pediatric Emergency Guide was updated on October 23, 2026 and Red Book® on October 25, 2026.

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