EM Reviews

As with most Apps and many sites, the Font is simply too small. Yep, you can note cone down, so no way to see without reading glasses! Good luck when the editors are 45. Could this be why Mel is no longer around, after all, he hit 50 a few years back, with much fan fare.

Another pet peeve along the same lines. Enough with grey color font and as pertains to this one, a lighter shade of red. Again, hard to read. B&W is the standard for a reason.

Secondly, agree with others, no way to search.

How about being able to create my own playlist for up coming drive?

Better apps exist out there, say Teaching Company, though they too use too small a font. Also, they use a white font on black background, actually the best. And you can erase old stuff.

Content is over the top though.

I’ve listened to literally every episode, often multiple times. There is no better CME content for emergency medicine. EM functionality is rudimentary at best, however. I abandoned it in favor of the native iOS app, though I can only access content going back a year with that app. To be useful, EM must:
1) Remember where you left off. Having to scroll back years of content to restart an episode you started (and have to select the chapter to boot!) is too frustrating to be worth it.
2) Remember your speed preference. I like to listen at 1.5 speed. I have to reset the speed each time I open EM .
3) (less pressing but would be great) Let you complete CME within EM .
Mel & Co., please address these deficiencies so your listeners can take full advantage of your awesome content!!

I love listening to EMRAP and EMA every month and have been doing so for years. Ever since EM “revamp” it has been increasingly terrible to use. Downloads are in process forever and never download, downloads are impossible to cancel, it plays one segment at a time, lots of wasted space on each screen, have to log in to the website in a browser to access written segment summaries, and when they say things like “see the photo associated with what we are talking about” in the details, i never can. I am sure they spent a lot on EM development but there is a lot to learn from more effective podcast apps like Overcast. Even updated this morning again to see if that helped to minimal avail. App problems ongoing for months

The new update as made EM even more unusable than it used to be. Every episode has tripled in size (stating it’s 11 hours long instead of the typical 3-4), the layout makes it impossible to see what I have and haven’t listened to or what new content may be available. If they release a new procedure video but I don’t know it exists, I won’t know to use EM as a resource on shift. It also now states that every episode I have completed is now incomplete. AND it takes 15 seconds to load EM every time you use it. It’s honestly so dysfunctional I can’t see myself renewing anymore unless it’s fixed.

Amazing content, but the lack of rewind and fastforward is beyond annoying. Driving and then searching for a tiny rw/ff in between the skip tracks, only visible from the unlocked phone is not practical. I delayed the new format of EM for a while and after updating I rarely listen now since it’s not practical (or safe!!)

My solution for lost playback position: Open app and stop from there. It updates the position to where you’re at.

Thanks!

EM is failing! Downloads don’t work! I specifically purchased a subscription because I have a 2 hour commute yet I can’t download, much less listen to the content. I have contacted customer service via email and they blame it on my internet connection yet I can stream Netflix just fine and my Audible books download and play beautifully. It’s disappointing to find reviews from a year ago that mention these same problems and still no resolution. Come on Emrap! You guys are better than this!

I love EMRAP content and the website, can’t say enough good about it, but I find the updated version of EM awful to use. It takes a long time to load, doesn’t save my place very well, and most importantly to me, does not allow me to download episodes. There is a function to download each segment individually but it does not work at all for me, it just gives an eternal spinning wheel with no progress. As I often use EM to listen while traveling outside of cell reception, this is a huge frustration!

The big problem with EM is the playback. It often forgets where it last stopped and rarely resumes at the correct spot. It doesn’t multitask well. If you keep it running in the background and play is interrupted for some reason, when you reopen EM it brings you to the homepage, not what’s currently playing. It would also be nice if the 15-second forward and back buttons were integrated into the control center of iOS, like Overcast does. Just study Overcast and that’s how playback should be! Great content and I like the written summaries, but certainly lots of room for improvement.

I use EM a lot. Between this app:RAP and EMA, I listened to 176 hours in the last two years. I don’t like the new weekly format but I understand why it happened. Two things just need to be fixed:

1. CME needs to be in EM . There’s just no reason in 2025 that we don’t have this yet. Show us that this is a priority.

2. Those of us who listen to the monthly recap still have to go and individually check off the sections we listened to before we can get CME credit. This should be an easy fix.

Podcast can’t be beat in terms of medical education.
I used to listen to this in my car on the way to shifts but it will only play one section at a time before stopping and if you skip forward or back, the sections stops all together and you can’t even start a different section. The only way to fix it is to shut down EM which isn’t possible while driving.

The great content is good enough that I put up with EM .

1. EM takes too long to open.

2. The episodes will not down load to my iPhone. They play fine as long as I have a cell signal, but I drive through the mountains a lot. Without a cell signal, there is no playback.

3. Daily dose takes too long to load and the video is usually pointless. How about an audio only versus of the daily dose.

4. After pausing an episode, playback frequently does not start properly. It will play for 10 second then pause again. Hit play again and the same 10 seconds play and it pauses again. Same 10 seconds over and over

Things I love: ability to skip ahead/back from lock screen
Things I hate: loading animation (“asking the server to cough...”) Why, oh why does it take sooooo long to load?? I’m usually pulling it up as I get in my car and this is a huge turn off. Kills the mood. Even does it if I switch to/from another app. 😕

I’ve been listening to EmRap for probably 15 years. However the new app was really a step backwards. Takes forever to load, for some thing that I’m using to stream it takes up a ton of space on my phone. The content is absolutely top-notch, the best an emergency medicine but EM is really holding the service back.

this app:Rap came highly recommend, and the content really lives up to it. There are a lot of free medical education sources, but this is worth the money. Unfortunately, EM still holds it back a little (and it isn't a completely unusable app or anything). If these three things were resolved I'd definitely give it 5/5
Big kudos to the recent update that allowed in-app searching!
1) the most annoying thing that needs to be fixed is to change the lockscreen control to back and forward 15 seconds, not back and forward tracks. When I'm driving and listening and I miss something, I don't want the distraction of having to unlock my phone, open EM , open the player, and then hit back 15 seconds.
2) maybe it works for other people, but I haven't been able to view videos on EM . Even the mobile version of the website has a video option.
3) annoying, but the least of my concerns thus far, it isn't very good at remembering where I left off

Love the content.
Since the major app update it’s pretty annoying have to load for like 30 seconds before can start listening to content even though I’ve saved it for offline.
Also, although the organization and categories makes sense with the update, it’s actually not as simple to navigate and find content as the simple chronological single page

It would be excellent to have a feature in EM , like a button on the upper right or something, to be able to toggle to “On my Device” or “Downloaded”. As I’m simultaneously viewing new EMRAPs and catching up on old, it would be great to be able to see the list of episodes that I have downloaded to my device (without having to scroll way down the lists of episodes).

Thanks for doing what you do, EMRAP is great and keeps me learning!!!

Been with EMRAP for years. At this point, it’s a core source of info and staying up to date with emergency medicine. Good production goes into the audio and videos. That said, EM is buggy at times. Sometimes long load times. Although improved recently. More recent problem since upgrading to iPhone 15. The video playlist won’t completely load. So I can watch the videos visible on the screen and can’t scroll down further, cutting me off from using a lot of videos on shift. Keeps it from being a 5/5

I am a paid subscriber. When I visit the site I cannot find a prompt anywhere to sign-in. Today , when I finally found a place to sign-in, it did not recognize my password. I tried the “ free” site just so I could view something and I was told “you already have an account”. Maddening

App is great. Always improving. Great content. I would love an option for EM to continue playing what was most recently played by default upon opening EM .

Incredible amount of content (impossible to study it all or listen to each month’s new stuff and practice full time). And great quality. Reliable. App is pretty good. Sometimes hard to control, organize, or sort through so much stuff I want to listen to!!