Comparison

boostEM vs CorePendium

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

Head to head
About

boostEM

A medical calculator for emergency physicians, offering over 60 clinical decision rules and rapid medication doses. Includes tools like a pupillometer and visual acuity chart, functioning offline without ads.

Highlights
  • 60+ clinical decision rule calculators
  • Rapid medication doses
  • Pupillometer
  • Estimated gestational age calculator
  • Visual acuity chart
  • Offline functionality
Read full description

boostEM is a medical calculator designed from the ground-up for emergency physicians. The app is designed to be the fastest tool in your pocket for clinical decision rules in the emergency room. • Score calculators for over 60 clinical decision rules • Rapid medication doses • Tools including pupillometer, estimated gestational age, visual acuity (Snellen chart), and optokinetic drum • No internet connection required • No ads Examples of clinical decision rules included: • Critical Care: CURB-65, PESI, PORT, Ranson's, Well's, ABG calculator • Cardiology: HEART, CHADS2Vasc, Brugada, Sgarbossa, TIMI • Trauma: Canadian rules, NEXUS, PECARN, Parkland, GCS • Pediatrics: bilirubin tool for neonatal jaundice, Centor, respiratory score • Neurology: NIH stroke scale, ABCD2, MMSE • Toxicology: osmolal gap, modified Rumack-Matthews If you like this app, please give it a good review and spread the word! Please email us with suggestions. Note: This application is designed for medical professionals only. It is not for use by the lay public or non-specialists. In addition, dosing of medications is designed as a guide and should be verified prior to administration. This medication guide is not designed for patients with organ failure, immunocompromised states, other significant comorbidities, or extremes of age. Information provided in this app does not supercede appropriate clinical judgement.

About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read 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.

Screenshots

boostEM4 screens
CorePendium4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: boostEM at 100% against CorePendium's 67%. boostEM also leads on monetization model (free vs freemium) and iOS requirement (7.1 vs 15.1). CorePendium's advantage is ratings volume (1.4K vs 9) and rating (4.9 vs 4.6). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

CorePendium holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: CorePendium has 1.4K ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 100% of boostEM's written reviews are positive against 67% of CorePendium's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

boostEM ships an update every 3 weeks, CorePendium monthly. The most recent releases landed on June 6, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
boostEM versus CorePendium: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterboostEMCorePendium
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (9 ratings)4.9 (1.4K ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better66.7% of reviews
Number of ratings91.4K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS7.1 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size20 MB49 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperDirkes Medical, PLLCEM:RAP, Inc.

Customer experience

boostEM

All ratings9 ratings
Positive88.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative11.1%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

CorePendium

All ratings1,435 ratings
Positive98.0%
Neutral1.0%
Negative1.0%
Written reviews12 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral8.3%
Negative25.0%

Bugs and requests

boostEM

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or 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)

In-app purchases

None

boostEM

No in-app purchases

None

CorePendium

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is boostEM free?
boostEM is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is CorePendium free?
CorePendium is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, boostEM or CorePendium?
CorePendium is rated higher. boostEM averages 4.6 out of 5 from 9 ratings, while CorePendium averages 4.9 from 1.4K ratings.
Do boostEM or CorePendium have ads?
Neither boostEM nor CorePendium shows ads.
Which is updated more often, boostEM or CorePendium?
boostEM ships an update every 3 weeks, and CorePendium monthly. Most recently, boostEM was updated on June 6, 2026 and CorePendium on September 23, 2026.

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