UpToDate 2.0 Revision 042018 | 4.4 Gb

The Wolters Kluwer product team has unveiled UpToDate 2.0 Revision 042018, is standalone version a subscription-based resource designed to provide physicians access to current clinical information.

About UpToDate.

UpToDate is a subscription-based resource designed to provide physicians access to current clinical information. It addresses specific clinical issues in the form of topic reviews. According to UpToDate, it “is designed to get physicians the concise, practical answers they need when they need them most—at the point of care.” Topic reviews are written by physician experts who review the literature then synthesize the information into specific recommendations for diagnosis, management, and therapy.

Topic reviews include very specific clinical titles such as “treatment of dementia,” “clinical use of Warfarin,” and “diagnosis and management of solitary plasmacytoma.” Each includes navigational links to the left of the text, so users can proceed to the specific section of the document that answers their questions. Text includes embedded links to MEDLINE abstracts of referenced studies and other related topic reviews. Reviews may also include links to charts, X rays, photographs, movies, and drug information.

UpToDate covers primarily internal medicine and its subspecialties. Currently, UpToDate includes information for the following: adult primary care and internal medicine, cardiovascular medicine, endocrinology and diabetes, family practice, gastroenterology and hepatology, hematology, infectious diseases, nephrology and hypertension, obstetrics, gynecology and women's health, oncology, pulmonary and critical care, and rheumatology. UpToDate is in the process of developing topic reviews for allergy and immunology, neurology, and pediatrics.

The UpToDate interface is fairly easy to navigate. Users have the option of browsing topic reviews for a specialty by selecting it from the table of contents or performing a search by clicking on “new search” and entering a term in the box provided. Search terms are mapped to keywords. Users can then select the appropriate keyword to view a list of topic reviews that match. Searches can be narrowed by using modifiers such as diagnosis, monitoring, treatment, and so on or by entering secondary search terms. Because the database only contains a little more than 4,500 topic reviews, these simple search options are enough to provide users with relevant search results.

For instance, typing “a fib” into the search box maps users to the keyword “A fib (atrial fibrillation).” Selecting this term retrieves 136 matches, separated into two categories: thirty most-relevant topics and 106 related topics. Further modifying the search with the secondary term “arrhythmias” narrows the results to sixty-nine topics. Of the twenty-seven most relevant, the first topic listed is “Arrythmias after cardiac surgery. Atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter.”

More than 6,900 physician authors participate in creating this resource that claims to contain the equivalent of “100,000 pages of original, peer-reviewed text.” Physician editors monitor journals for new findings that are then added to relevant topic reviews after going through a peer-review process. A new updated release is issued every four months. The top of each review contains author information and the date the review was last changed, as well as when the last literature review was completed.

UpToDate is often referred to as an evidence-based resource, however the resource is not strictly evidence based. While UpToDate topic reviews are based on the literature and incorporate findings into the information provided, the authors do not perform systematic reviews of the literature on a topic. Rather, they combine a synthesis of selected literature and their own expert knowledge to form patient care recommendations. UpToDate does not share how it monitors journals or how it performs its literature searches, so there is no way of knowing whether important studies have been missed or overlooked. That being said, medical students and residents tend to appreciate this resource for its reliable information, ease of use, readable format, and access to quick answers to clinical questions.

UpToDate improves patient care and reduces the needs for consultants and unnecessary tests.

About Wolters Kluwer.

Wolters Kluwer N.V. is a global leader in information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer Health is a leading global provider of information and point of care solutions for the healthcare industry.

Product:

UpToDate

Version:

2.0 Revision 042018

Supported Architectures:

32bit / 64bit

Language:

english

System Requirements:

PC *

Supported Operating Systems:

*

Size:

4.4 Gb

* System Requirements:

The minimum requirements for installing UpToDate on a desktop or laptop computer are as follows:

- Windows PC with a 500 MHz or greater Pentium-class processor running Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7.

- 256 MB of RAM or greater (512 MB recommended).

- 6.0 GB free hard drive space.

- Internet connection.

- Browser with support HTML5 and JavaScript

- Monitor supporting 1024 X 768 or greater resolution with at least 256 colors.