UpToDate is an electronic medical information resource available via the Web and mobile devices. With UpToDate, you can get specific, detailed information about the epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of most medical conditions. More than 600,000 clinicians around the world trust UpToDate to provide evidence-based answers to their clinical questions.
The content in UpToDate is created, reviewed, and updated by more than 5,100 physician authors and editors, all recognized leaders in their fields. UpToDate is evidence-based and uses a literature-driven updating system; more than 460 medical journals are continuously monitored. New studies are incorporated into existing knowledge after they have been through a rigorous editorial process.
UpToDate provides comprehensive coverage of 19 medical specialties, more than 9,500 medical topics, links to Medline abstracts (347,000 ) so you can review the primary literature, a drug information and interactions database, more than 1,000 patient education topics, and more than 25,000 graphics.
UpToDate does not accept money from pharmaceutical companies or other advertisers. UpToDate receives its financial support exclusively from subscriptions – which normally cost up to $499 a year for each individual subscriber.
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Tips on using your UpToDate access
UpToDate can be useful for quickly finding background and independent sources on medical and health topics. It is designed for use by clinicians and, of course, won’t have specific information on newly released reports, but it can provide the basic information and leads that will help you add context and perspective to your stories.
While we believe that you will find UpToDate helpful as you research your stories, it’s important that you understand that the site is not a news service. There is a rigorous editorial process that precludes UpToDate from responding up-to-the-minute to new studies and drug approvals. The editorial process can take several weeks, and recommendations will not be altered until it is complete. Nevertheless, UpToDate is not a misnomer. The site is much more nimble than any standard textbook or review article, and it puts new findings into context with existing research.
Here are some links you may find helpful as you begin to use UpToDate:
Some examples of how UpToDate could help you:
If you are writing about a political figure, sports star, or celebrity who has a medical condition, you can turn to UpToDate to learn about the latest treatments for that condition and find reliable statistics on its incidence and prevalence.
If you are covering the approval of a new drug or the discontinuation of an existing one, you can find out what other drugs are available to treat that condition and how the different agents compare. You can also learn all the names a drug goes by, what uses it serves, what side effects it can cause, and what it might cost.
If you find yourself describing a high-profile pathogen, such as totally drug-resistant tuberculosis or the so-called “brain-eating ameba,” you can find out what is known about the transmission, distribution, and virulence of the pathogen.
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