Clinical Resource Toolkit: UpToDate

UpToDate contains specialty content for primary care, OB/GYN, pediatrics, internal medicine, and more. This includes internal medicine sub-specialties at a level that meets the clinical sub-specialist's needs. View a full listing and detailed information about all specialties available in UpToDate, at UpToDate: Specialties.

UpToDate also features a What's New section that provides the latest information in each specialty, by specialty.

UpToDate organizes Diseases into topics; over 11,000 topics in over 25 specialties are available in UpToDate. Users can search for Diseases by name, acronym, or symptom. Searching can be done from the UpToDate Homepage or any other UpToDate page that displays the Search bar at the top.

UpToDate permits users to email Disease Topic information by selecting the "Email" option on the far-right of the Topic toolbar.

Drug Information

UpToDate has partnered with Lexicomp to place more than 6,000 in-depth drug monographs at user's fingertips. When a drug appears in an UpToDate topic, clicking the link takes the user straight to the drug's monograph. Finding the right medication is easy because every drug is cross-referenced with it's generic alternatives and it's U.S., Canadian, and international brand names.

Drug Interactions

UpToDate provides access to Lexi-Interact Online through it's partnership with Lexicomp. Lexi-Interact is a complete drug and herbal interaction analysis program capable of assessing potential interactions for: Drug/Drug, Drug/Allergy, & Duplicate Therapy. The interactions tool allows users to enter medications (prescription & OTC), natural products, foods, and alcohol. Allergies may be entered by medication name (e.g., aspirin) or by the pharmacologic class (e.g., salicylates). Patient-specific regimens can also be analyzed and interactions can be examined to obtain detailed information on patient management.

UpToDate provides access to a variety of medical calculators. Calculators can be used to enter values in commonly used formulas to obtain numerical data, or to assess the severity of a condition and identify the presence or absence of major risk factors. UpToDate calculators allow users to customize the result values to their needs; values can be changed to different units and decimal returns can be set to greater or lesser values in the Decimal Precision box.

UpToDate's calculators can be accessed from the Calculators option on the menu bar, by searching for "calculators" in the search box or bar, or by clicking Contents then selecting Calculators in the side-menu.

UpToDate integrates Laboratory Tests in the Clinical Manifestations area of each topic. This area contains information on all relevent laboratory tests, values, and findings for the particular topic referenced. Specific laboratory tests can be searched for from the Search box/bar, but UpToDate does not have a specific laboratory section to browse.

UpToDate provides information on over 1,500 Patient Education topics. The information included in UpToDate's Patient Education material, includes the same information provided for clinicians; allowing patients access to the information they need to actively participate in discussions related to their care and preferences. Topics comply with HONcode standards and included full-color pictures, graphics, charts, reference links, related topics, and search terms for patient & clinical use.

Patient Education Topic Levels

Since patients have different levels of information needs, UpToDate provides two different levels of Patient Information; The Basics and Beyond the Basics.

• The Basics: Topics are 1 - 3 pages in length and written in simple language. They address the four or five most important questions that patients might have regarding their diagnosis. These topics are best for patients who want a general overview of their condition.
• Beyond the Basics: Topics are 3 - 5 pages in length and are more detailed than The Basics. These topics are best for patients who want a lot of detailed information on their conditions and are comfortable with some technical medical terms.

UpToDate provides images, graphics, and charts embedded in their topics. Users can also search for graphics by searching for their topic and then click on the "Graphics" link in the menu bar at the top of the search to filter the search to only show the images.

VisualDX Integration

UpToDate has partnered with VisualDX to allow users to access VisualDX images and clinical diagnostic support system. VisualDX provides UpToDate users with high-quality images showing disease variations in age, skin type, and disease stage. The clinical diagnostic decision support system also allows users to enter patient findings to build a visual differential diagnosis of various conditions.

Exporting Graphics

Graphics can be emailed to users by selecting the "Email" option in the top tool bar. UpToDate also permits users to export graphics using their Export to PowerPoint tool. Instructions for Mac and PC users can be found here: Using UpToDate Graphics in Presentations