Important notice about upcoming changes to UpToDate

For the past year, the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Western Libraries have been reviewing the point of care options that they support. Point Of Care tools are those reference resources that a physician or other health care professional can utilize immediately at the Point-Of-Care (POC) or the bedside.

Based on financial considerations, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry and Western Libraries have mutually agreed to no longer support the UpToDate (UTD) Point of Care Tool. This is effective August 31, 2015.

Western Libraries supports a suite of tools that learners, faculty and staff will be able to access:

  • ACP Smart Medicine – a decision-support tool for rapid point-of-care delivery of up-to-date, evidence-based guidance for clinicians
  • DynaMed - a clinical reference point-of-care tool
  • E-CPS - Canadian Pharmacist Association’s online Compendium of Pharmaceuticals and Specialties (eCPS) covers Canadian drug information
  • Essential Evidence Plus - evidence-based healthcare information covering clinical content, services, tools, and calculators
  • Micromedex - Evidence based clinical decision support (CDS) for medication, toxicology, disease, acute care and alternative medicine
  • Natural Medicines - authoritative resource on dietary supplements, natural medicines, and complementary alternative and integrative therapies

All POC tools are available remotely via proxy access and have mobile capabilities, ensuring equitable availability to Western students, residents and affiliated clinical educators, regardless of location including the Schulich Windsor satellite campus.

Usage statistics show a major use of UTD is for drug information. Other resources such as DynaMed in the POC tool suite can provide similar information.

A number of Canadian medical education programs do not subscribe to UTD.

Western’s existing POC tools resources compare favourably to UpToDate.

Based on Western Libraries’ resource selection process, our assessment shows that even with the cancelation of UTD, UME students will have access to a point of care tools suite that meets educational program requirements.

Questions/Answers

What other point of care tools will be available to me?
Western Libraries provides those with Western affiliation with access to the following suite of POC tools:

ACP Smart Medicine – a decision-support tool for rapid point-of-care delivery of up-to-date, evidence-based guidance for clinicians

DynaMed - a clinical reference point-of-care tool

E-CPS - Canadian Pharmacist Association’s online Compendium of Pharmaceuticals and Specialties (eCPS) covers Canadian drug information

Essential Evidence Plus - evidence-based healthcare information covering clinical content, services, tools, and calculators

Micromedex - Evidence based clinical decision support (CDS) for medication, toxicology, disease, acute care and alternative medicine

Natural Medicines - authoritative resource on dietary supplements, natural medicines, and complementary alternative and integrative therapies

See the Western Libraries clinical outreach guide at: http://guides.lib.uwo.ca/clinicaloutreach

Is there a preferred one that is being recommended?
Western Libraries provides access to a suite of tools to ensure that learners are exposed to a range of options. Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry does not recommend a specific point of care tool.

I used to be able to access Up-to-date in the hospital will that option still be available to me?
As of now, the London-based hospitals have supported the decision made by Schulich Medicine & Dentistry and Western Libraries. There will no longer be institutional access to UpToDate provided by Western in the London hospitals. Some of our regional hospitals have their own institutional licenses. Our decision has no effect on those licenses.

What if I want to purchase UpToDate on my own?
This is your choice. Information concerning personal subscriptions can be found at: http://www.uptodate.com/home/subscription-options.

I have CME credits on UpToDate. What will happen to them?
Faculty members who have been tracking CME credits through UpToDate are advised to login to their UpToDate accounts and download their credit information prior to the expiration of Western's license on August 31, 2015. Access to individual accounts cannot be guaranteed after Western's license expires.

How can I find out more about other options?
Questions related to the point of care tools suite provided by Western Libraries can be sent to Kim Cornel, Assistant University Librarian, Allyn and Betty Taylor Library. Other questions can be sent to Patricia Potter, Manager Distributed Education.

For more information on Point of Care Tools please refer to the following comparison studies:

  • Banzi, R., Liberati, A., Moschetti, I., Tagliabue, L., & Moja, L. (2010). A review of online evidence-based practice point-of-care information summary providers. Journal of medical Internet research, 12(3). http://www.jmir.org/article/viewFile/jmir_v12i3e26/2
  • Prorok JC, Iserman EC, Wilczynski NL, Haynes RB. The quality, breadth, and timeliness of content updating vary substantially for 10 online medical texts: an analytic survey. J Clin Epidemiol. 2012 Dec;65(12):1289-95. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2012.05.003