What's a good alternative to UpToDate?

[ZincFingers]

...assuming both you and your hospital are too cheap to spring for it?

Right now I use emedicine as my go-to site. Not great, but certainly a hell of a lot better than DynaSuck.

Any other suggestions? 🙂

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[DrJosephKim]

Many people still like to use MD Consult.

eMedicine is also a FREE alternative.

These don't compare fairly to UTD, but they are popular alternatives.

 

[Man In White]

Sorry, UpToDate just kicks ass. Wiki is pretty good (if not as credible). +1 to emedicine from above poster.

Of course I'm not suggesting copyright infringement but if you happen to find a pirated copy of the entire UTD collection floating around out there you could pick that up. ::cough:: 😉

 

[edmadison]

I too am a big fan of UTD. However, if I want a quick answer to a question, I find eMedicine as nice alternative. I also like it because (at least for peds) it has more subjects than UTD.

Ed

 

[primadonna22274]

eMedicine is really pretty good--and free.

I like MDConsult a lot, and had it when I was a PA student (very cheap for students), and a couple of years in practice when I had a decent CME budget, but right now I've let it lapse. I think it runs about $200 or so a year for a practicing PA/NP/MD/DO (it's been a while since I checked). If I recall I paid about $10/year as a student but this was a decade ago. It's definitely FAR cheaper than UTD.

Fortunately I still work per diem in the ED so I have my hospital signon and I can use the hospital's UTD 😍

good luck!

 

[obiwan]

too bad the attendings aren't big fans of UTD at the hospital i'm working at

 

[ZincFingers]

Thanks guys!

My hospital is talking about bringing UTD back... let's hope! 🙂

 

[edmadison]

too bad the attendings aren't big fans of UTD at the hospital i'm working at

I'm curious as to why your attendings didn't like UTD. When I was in residency, our attendings would caution us about UTD. There criticism was valid: UTD is essentially a textbook and has many of the same drawbacks as Harrison's of Nelson's. It's just more current. They wanted us to go look a the primary literature. I think a big part of their dislike was jealousy -- we could get information very fast and they couldn't do that when they were in training. Their point is well taken, however.

Ed

 

[scpod]

I'm curious as to why your attendings didn't like UTD. When I was in residency, our attendings would caution us about UTD. There criticism was valid: UTD is essentially a textbook and has many of the same drawbacks as Harrison's of Nelson's. It's just more current.

I disagree in that it's like a textbook because textbooks are 7 or 8 years behind and don't typically include the evidence level of their recommendations. It's more like a meta-analysis of the most current literature available-- thus, one of the most accurate resourrces you can find. You generally get the current 1A recommendations at the end of every article, and it's typicaly been updated within the last year. What more could you really ask for?

The problem with a lot of the attendings at my hospital is that UTD has only been available for a year. A lot of them still haven't even tried it yet. They had a staff meeting the other day and the UTD subscription was on the agenda-- whether to renew it or not. I can't imagine life in the hospital without it.

 

[Tired]

I still don't understand the facination with UpToDate. Personally, I find it weak and poorly referenced. I much prefer eMedicine, which is far more current. The only real "plus" for UpToDate in my mind is that they have articles specific to certain clinical questions, rather than only general subject-matter papers on conditions like eMed.

 

[thatuvicguy]

I still don't understand the facination with UpToDate. Personally, I find it weak and poorly referenced. I much prefer eMedicine, which is far more current.

Um, no.

 

[ranmyaku]

I still don't understand the facination with UpToDate. Personally, I find it weak and poorly referenced. I much prefer eMedicine, which is far more current. The only real "plus" for UpToDate in my mind is that they have articles specific to certain clinical questions, rather than only general subject-matter papers on conditions like eMed.

Poorly referenced? i lol'd.

 

[ZincFingers]

UTD is king. My only worry is that I might use it too much as a crutch if my hospital ever brings it back.

 

[fakin' the funk]

Many people still like to use MD Consult.

eMedicine is also a FREE alternative.

These don't compare fairly to UTD, but they are popular alternatives.

"Still" ?

I won't argue for eMedicine, but MDConsult is a fantastic resource and I use it in conjunction w/ UTD.

 

[J-Rad]

I like UTD but it has failed me on enough occasions that I don't like it for primary research (esp. for peds). Ditto my respect for emedicine. It's still "up to date" but less wordy than UTD without sacrificing quality (sometimes I'm in a hurry for info). Have long loved mdconsut for more in depth research. Always like to peruse the titles in Clinics of North America and copy/paste it into a mdconsult search to get some great extended reviews on a plethora of subjects. For any fans of emedicine I always recommend checking if your institution has an institutional subscription to imedicine.com (the mirror to emedicine) if you have a PDA. If you have an institutional log in, the whole content is available for download in mobipocket format.

 

[jocg27]

I wouldn't say it's exactly an alternative because it has a bit of a different role, but the American College of Physicians Journal Club - acpjc.org - is a terrific resource that I only recently found out about. Check it out.

 

[ZagDoc]

Second eMedicine. We can only access UTD from on-campus terminals, so when I need a thorough rundown when accessing from elsewhere eMedicine normally fits the bill.

UTD blows everything else out of the water when it comes to rundown of treatment strategies though.