Comparison

MGH Access vs MGH Nephrology Guide

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

Head to head
About

MGH Access

Connect with Massachusetts General Hospital services and clinicians on the go. Easily find, favorite, and contact specialty provider practices for referrals and transfers. Share contact information with colleagues or friends.

Highlights
  • Connect to MGH services and clinicians
  • Find and favorite specialty practices
  • Facilitate referrals and inpatient transfers
  • Share provider contacts
  • Provide feedback to the development team
Features
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MGH Access provides a streamlined way for patients and providers to connect to Massachusetts General Hospital services and clinicians while on the go. This mobile app allows you to easily find, favorite and contact specialty provider practices within the MGH to facilitate referrals and inpatient transfers from the convenience of your mobile phone. Know someone else who could use the information? Share a contact with a colleague or friend using the share feature. This app is a resource made available to you by the Massachusetts General Hospital (“MGH”) through the Healthcare Transformation Lab, Referral Management Office and the Lab of Computer Science, all divisions of the Partners HealthCare System, Inc. (“Partners”). For questions, comments or issues, use the feedback button to communicate with us. We are available to assist.

About

MGH Nephrology Guide

A quick reference for diagnosing and managing kidney disease, electrolyte, and acid-base disorders. Developed by MGH experts, it offers over 150 topics with extensive tables, figures, and images. Stay updated with regular content delivery and access linked literature.

Highlights
  • 150+ topics in fast-read format
  • 320+ tables, charts, and figures
  • Detailed sections on dialysis and transplantation
  • Regular automatic updates
  • Highlighting and custom notes
  • Link to primary literature via Prime PubMed
  • Keyword search and bookmarking
Features
Currently charting
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The Nephrology Guide of the Massachusetts General Hospital is an up-to-date, quick reference for the diagnosis and management of patients with acute and chronic kidney disease as well as common electrolyte and acid-base disorders. It was developed for generalists—students, residents, primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants—as well as nephrology fellows, attendings, and dialysis nurses. Over 150 topics are authored by nephrology experts at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and include more than 320 tables, charts, figures, images, and carefully organized lists. Hard to find information such as considerations for special populations (e.g., patients with diabetes, cancer, lupus, HIV) are also included. The Guide is fully integrated with Unbound Medicine’s Prime PubMed allowing users to link from literature references to full citations, abstracts, and full-text journal articles provided by the publisher. With the Guide you can:  * Consult more than 150 topics in bulleted, fast-read format * Review 320+ tables with quick synopses of clinical considerations * Find detailed sections on dialysis and kidney transplantation * Stay current with regular updates delivered automatically  * Highlight and make custom notes within topics * Link to the primary literature using Prime PubMed * Search by specific keywords to find topics fast * Bookmark 'Favorites' and organize them using popular tagging feature  Purchase includes a 1-year subscription with regular content updates. Your Nephrology Guide of the Massachusetts General Hospital subscription automatically renews at the current rate of $49.99 unless auto-renew is turned off 24 hours prior to the conclusion of your current 1-year period, which can be done in account settings. This will ensure you receive all updates for the following year. Should you choose not to renew, you will be able to continue to use the content however will not receive updates. Editor: Eliot Heher, MD, Medical Director, MGH Kidney Transplant Program Powered by: Unbound Medicine Unbound Privacy Policy: www.unboundmedicine.com/privacy Unbound Terms of Use: https://www.unboundmedicine.com/end_user_license_agreement

Screenshots

MGH Access4 screens
MGH Nephrology Guide4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: MGH Access at none against MGH Nephrology Guide's 1. MGH Access also leads on iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.0). MGH Nephrology Guide's advantage is chart position (#199 vs unranked) and ratings volume (26 vs 5). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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. MGH Nephrology Guide sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $49.99 per year. MGH Access asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for MGH Access against 4.7 for MGH Nephrology Guide. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MGH Nephrology Guide has 26 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MGH Access ships an update every 8 months, MGH Nephrology Guide every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on September 10, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
MGH Access versus MGH Nephrology Guide: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMGH AccessMGH Nephrology Guide
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (5 ratings) — better4.7 (26 ratings)
Positive reviews—50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings526 — better
Update frequencyEvery 8 monthsEvery 6 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#199 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS10.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size70 MB10 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperMassachusetts General HospitalUnbound Medicine, Inc.

Customer experience

MGH Access

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

MGH Nephrology Guide

All ratings26 ratings
Positive92.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative7.7%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

In-app purchases

None

MGH Access

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

MGH Nephrology Guide

Subscriptions1
  • MGH Nephrology Guide$49.991 Year

Questions

Is MGH Access free?
MGH Access is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is MGH Nephrology Guide free?
MGH Nephrology Guide is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MGH Access or MGH Nephrology Guide?
MGH Access is rated higher. MGH Access averages 4.8 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while MGH Nephrology Guide averages 4.7 from 26 ratings.
Do MGH Access or MGH Nephrology Guide have ads?
Neither MGH Access nor MGH Nephrology Guide shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MGH Access or MGH Nephrology Guide?
MGH Access ships an update every 8 months, and MGH Nephrology Guide every 6 months. Most recently, MGH Access was updated on September 10, 2026 and MGH Nephrology Guide on September 24, 2026.

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