One search box. Imprint, NDC, generic, brand — same answer.
Patient brings in a ziploc of unlabeled pills. Type or photograph the imprint, paste an NDC, or type a generic name — RN PocketPal routes you to the right answer. Bundled NLM Pillbox offline, FDA Drug Label corpus online.
Med rec at admission is brutal when the patient hands over a sandwich bag of unlabeled pills. Other pill-ID apps are slow, ad-saturated, or want you to remember the difference between “round” and “biconvex.” And when the patient just remembers “the little pink one for blood pressure,” none of them help.
Pill Imprint takes any of the four inputs you actually have at the bedside — imprint code, NDC from a partial label, generic name, brand name — and routes to the right dataset. The clinical advisory team specifically reviewed the workflow so med-rec time drops without losing the verify-with-pharmacy backstop.
What RN PocketPal does
- Imprint search. Type or photograph the imprint; on-device Vision OCR reads it. Matches against the ~32,000-pill NLM Pillbox dataset (bundled offline).
- NDC lookup. Paste an NDC from a partial label or pharmacy bottle; resolves against the FDA NDC Directory.
- Name lookup. Type generic or brand. Routes to the FDA Drug Label corpus for the matching label.
- Top-N matches. Returns up to 5 candidates with shape + color + imprint, ranked by match confidence.
- Poison Control quick-dial.1-800-222-1222 button on every screen — because if you’re identifying an unknown pill at the bedside, this is sometimes why.
- Local-only history. Recent searches stay on-device; nothing syncs to the cloud without explicit opt-in.
Who it’s for
ED RNs, admission RNs, home-health RNs, school nurses, and anyone who has to figure out what the patient is actually taking. Verify every match with pharmacy before any administration decision.
Frequently asked questions
- Does the bundled NLM Pillbox database stay current?
- It ships with the latest verified release and is updated with each app build. For brand-new approvals (last 90 days), the FDA Drug Label corpus (live) catches them.
- Can I rely on this for med administration?
- No. It’s educational. Every match must be verified with pharmacy + the original prescription before any administration decision. Wrong-pill harm is real.
- Does the photo OCR run on-device?
- Yes. The OCR runs on-device via the system Vision framework. Imprint photos never leave your phone.
- What if I can't read the imprint?
- Fall back to shape + color search, or photograph the partial label and use NDC lookup. If none of the four inputs resolve it, the answer is "verify with pharmacy" — the app explicitly tells you that.
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Recent updates to the RN PocketPal nurse toolkit across iOS, Android, and web — new features, improvements, and what shipped when.
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Every RN PocketPal feature in one place. Built by working bedside RNs.
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Reviewed by RN PocketPal Clinical Team, RN. Last reviewed .