MDCalc is the clinical calculator reference most clinicians already have bookmarked. It is free for clinicians on the web and in its apps, its supporting content is written by a physician or pharmacist and goes through an extensive review process, and it describes its tools as covering more than 50 specialties and 200 patient conditions. If you know which score you want and need to run it, MDCalc does that well, at no cost, and Pogosh is not trying to replace it.
FACTS VERIFIED AGAINST MDCALC SOURCES · OCTOBER 2026Usually not because MDCalc is lacking. The common reasons are workflow ones: wanting the right score to surface without having to remember it, wanting the result to sit next to the orders it implies, or needing calculators inside a product through an API. If your need is simply a trustworthy, free place to run a named score, MDCalc is the better answer and we would tell you so.
Pogosh has a free public library of clinical calculators at pogosh.com/calculators, each with its primary references and the version it implements (for example MELD 3.0 with the OPTN bounds, PREVENT alongside the Pooled Cohort Equations). In the note workflow at pogosh.com/try, the relevant calculators are offered when the note warrants them. They are offers, not results: nothing is computed until the clinician presses Calculate, and the note itself is never sent to a calculator.
Each opens a form you fill in and run yourself, with its primary references: the ASCVD risk calculator, the AHA PREVENT calculator, the HEART score, Wells criteria for PE, the PERC rule, CURB-65, CHA2DS2-VASc, the MELD score (MELD 3.0), the Glasgow Coma Scale, the NIH Stroke Scale, eGFR (CKD-EPI 2021), the anion gap, corrected calcium, SIRS criteria and the Bishop score. The full list is at pogosh.com/calculators.
With MDCalc, the clinician recognizes that a score applies, finds it and enters the values. MDCalc also sells an EHR integration to health systems that writes results back to the chart. Pogosh starts from the note: it recognizes the clinical situation, offers the calculators that apply (Wells, PERC and the age-adjusted D-dimer for suspected PE; HEART for chest pain; MELD 3.0 for cirrhosis) and places them alongside the coded next steps: labs with LOINC codes, imaging with RadLex codes, routing and escalation criteria. Pogosh never runs a calculator on its own; the clinician chooses to run it and decides what the result means.
We would rather you picked the right tool than picked ours. These lists are meant to be used honestly.
Only rows that can be checked against a public source. Rows where Pogosh CDS is the weaker option are included on purpose.
| Pogosh CDS | MDCalc | |
|---|---|---|
| How a calculator is reached | Offered automatically from the note; also a browsable library | The clinician searches for or selects the score |
| Cost to an individual clinician | Calculator library free; note workflow free to try; API from $149 per month | Free on web and apps |
| What surrounds the result | Coded labs (LOINC), imaging (RadLex), routing, escalation, note draft | Supporting content on use, evidence and next steps for that score |
| Auto-runs calculators | Never; the clinician runs them | No; the clinician enters values |
| EHR integration | REST API with HIPAA BAA on AWS; OpenEMR module | SMART on FHIR integration for health systems; API partnerships by inquiry |
| CME | None | Paid CME plans |
| Breadth of calculators | A smaller library, each built from primary sources | Hundreds of calculators across 50+ specialties, by its own description |
| Independent validation | None published yet | Not evaluated here |
Verified against MDCalc public sources in October 2026. Where a figure is not published by the vendor we say so rather than estimate. Products change — if something here is out of date or unfair, email support@pogosh.com and we will correct it.
Partly. Pogosh's calculator library at pogosh.com/calculators is free, and the note workflow at pogosh.com/try is free to try without patient identifiers. But MDCalc is also free for clinicians and has the larger library, so if a free calculator reference is all you need, MDCalc is the established choice.
No. Pogosh offers the calculators that apply to the note, and the clinician decides whether to run them and enters or confirms the values. Nothing is computed silently, and the result is advisory.
MDCalc offers an EHR integration (SMART on FHIR) to health systems, and its FAQ invites partnership or API inquiries by email. We did not find published API pricing on its site as of October 2026.
Paste a real note and judge the reasoning yourself.