emedicine vs. up-to-date

[footprints]

Hi...

any opinions about how emedicine & up-to-date compare? Access to emedicine is pretty much free. I'm not sure if paying ~$140 is worth it for up-to-date. However, I've heard so many good things about up-to-date from my residents. Unfortunately, there isn't a trial period offered.

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[doepug]

I don't know about emedicine, but everyone and their mother uses Up To Date at Hopkins. If someone asks you to give a talk on something, this is the place to go. The only caveat is to check the dates at the top of the topics (might be up to a year old...) and realize that it may not include data from that big study in the New England Journal that you've been meaning to read.

Doesn't your school have an institutional subscription? You shouldn't have to pay for access... we have a proxy that allows students to log into the university's subscription from home.

Cheers -
doepug

 

[Winged Scapula]

We use Up to Date at Hershey as well, although I find emedicine very helpful.

I too am confused as to why you would have to buy a subscription. Doesn't your school have one?

 

[Scrubbs]

In theory, all schools/hospitals would have access to up-to-date... reality is that they don't. While emedicine is good for some things, up-to-date is more comprehensive, has info on more topics, and is awesome for the little "talks" you have to give as a med student. Not sure I would have paid for it, but it really is helpful... 🙄

 

[ckent]

One of the hospitals that U Maryland is affiliated with (Mercy) has a subscription to uptodate, but the main U Maryland hospital does not have a subscription to uptodate. It makes me very annoyed because my school pays a lot of money for a subscription to mdconsult, a fairly worthless website, with money that would be much better spent on uptodate IMO. A lot of the residents and fellows pay for their own subscription, it's around 150 as a group rate. If you are a pre-clinical student, I would say that emedicine is sufficient. if you are a clinical student and your school doesn't have a subscription (you should try logging on to uptodate by just going to the website on your school network), I wouldn't purchase uptodate as a student as it is expensive and you still have plenty to learn from the text books and emedicine. Also, the book "Current medical diagnosis and treatment" is published every year and is fairly up to date and almost as comprehensive, but only costs 60 dollars and you can read it at home.

 

[scootad.]

uptodate is da f*cking bomb! honestly as an MS3, i have no idea where i would be without it right now. it basically saves you hours by giving you the most current information on a specific disease with references to research articles. for people like me who can't use search engines if my life depended on it, its an amazing resource.

 

[footprints]

I'm a brand new 3rd year. Thanks for your all feedback. Unfortunately, my school does not have Up-to-Date. There are so many sources to go to that sometimes I'm not sure which is the best place to start when I want to read about my patients.

 

[Smurfette]

I bought CMDT (Current medical diagnosis and treatment) and am constantly praised by residents and attendings who love that book when they see me reading it.

UpToDate is helpful, but we don't have access to it outside of the hospital or med school here, so we can't read up on something at home.

Harrison's is available online (harrisonsonline.com)...it's a bit of clicking to find what you're looking for, but it's 1. free and 2. a solid resource.

 

[Tazmaniac]

As a medical student at a fiscally demanding school, I go for free vs. pay, any day. I actually like eMedicine a lot, and use it frequently just prior to seeing zebra patients.

-Todd USC MSIV

 

[Asher]

I prefer up-to-date since, as others have posted here, it tends to be more comprehensive in its discussion of the pathology and treatment of topics. My school has a subscription but since it can only be accessed on campus and it can be impossible to get a computer in the hospital (wouldn't want to disturb anyone's web-surfing or solitaire game) I do sometimes resort to emedicine as I can use that at home.

I strongly agree that Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment is a wonderful text for the third year medicine rotation. It strikes a balance between the overly detailed (Harrison's) and cursory (Baby Cecils) texts that are often recommended and does include treatment of conditions which is often ignored in other texts. As far as textbooks go it is relatively inexpensive and as a paperback it is more lightweight so easier to have in a backpack for downtime at the hospital.

 

[apgar7]

uptodate is great but it doesn't always have stuff I'm trying to look up. Also, emedicine will sometimes talk about something that uptodate does not and the reverse is true also. Emedicine is not as up to date but it's usually not too far behind. I recommend using one or the other or both.

 

[DoctorG]

I use both whenever I have free access to UpToDate at the hospital but use emedicine at home since it is free.

 

[carrigallen]

Our schools has mdconsult; probably because the fees are much less than UptoDate.

I wonder if it is possible to use UptoDate through an interlibrary loan or through Proxy. Perhaps as students we could suggest to the library that we try out UptoDate for a half-year trial period. Sorry, thinking aloud. 😀

 

[Jaded Soul]

I wonder if it is possible to use UptoDate through an interlibrary loan or through Proxy. Perhaps as students we could suggest to the library that we try out UptoDate for a half-year trial period. Sorry, thinking aloud. 😀

At my school, UpToDate doesn't allow VPN access from off-campus locations, even though you are spoofing an IP adress that should allow access. I dont' know if it's just not possible or if the school didn't purchase the type of license that allows it.

Anyways, UpToDate > eMedicine. Far better incorporation of current evidence from clinical trials.

Wow..talk about digging up an old thread.

 

[ibwood]

Actually, UpToDate does have a free trial. Get someone to look up an article on UpToDate and have them use the "email to a colleague" function. It will ask them if they want to send a free 30-day trial along with the article. The nice thing about UpToDate is that the subscription service involves sending you everything on CDs that are updated a few times a year. Once your subscription runs out, you can still use the CDs, they just won't be kept current (kind of like a textbook). They will also give you everything in a format for your windows-based PDA (however, it takes a 1G data card). I think UpToDate is better than emedicine, especially once youa re doing rotations.

However, with all of that praise for UpToDate, I will admit that it is tough to part with that much money!!

Hope this helps!

Ira Wood

Hi...

any opinions about how emedicine & up-to-date compare? Access to emedicine is pretty much free. I'm not sure if paying ~$140 is worth it for up-to-date. However, I've heard so many good things about up-to-date from my residents. Unfortunately, there isn't a trial period offered.

 

[krisg]

Up to date saves me on medicine wards! It distills the information into exactly what you need to know to care for your patient and gives you all this epidemiologic data and stuff you'd get pimped on. I paid for it in my 3rd year, and now my IM program buys it for all their residents.

If you send me your email address, I'll send you an article with the free 30 day trial. I do that all the time.

I'm just adding that I don't mind sending out several of these, but let's try NOT to make me the supplier for everyone on SDN. 😱 I'm not even here that often! If you know someone with up to date, I'd ask them first, otherwise, I'm happy to try to oblige. If I were you, I'd try to get it for the month you're on medicine wards.

~kris

 

[edfig99]

i use both MDconsult and Uptodate about the same, since they are used for different purposes. I've also used e-medicine. I use Uptodate at the point of service, for a quick clinical answer...but I actually prefer MDConsult as my primary search tool because of the full-text textbooks and journal articles that I eventually end up reading, or the patient handouts I print out for my patients.

While Uptodate does have excellent clinical reviews, they are just that...reviews and sometimes it helps to go back to primary data sources. Also I'm not in love with the fact that the chapters in uptodate are usually solo author. Nonetheless it's an excellent clinical resource. Is it worth the money? I dunno...I guess so. I think you get more bang for your buck on mdconsult, and even more on emedicine since it's free. there are also great review articles on medscape. which is also free

choose the one that you think meets your needs the most. as a student living on a tight budget...emedicine is the way to go. if you have someone that wants to get you a moderately priced gift, have them buy you a subscription to either mdconsult or uptodate and then go for somewhere on rotations or residency that provides it for all their residents.

 

[doc05]

wow. I'm really surprised that your schools don't offer off-campus proxy service for uptodate. but honestly, emedicine is good enough, and for many surgical topics I have found it to be better.

 

[Mumpu]

UpToDate doesn't cover some of the more rare diseases. I used to use MD Consult all the time before I got a copy of Ferri's -- now it's good mostly only for occasional peeks at ID books (hey, easier than going to the library 😛).