Through the drug interactions program, you can review all
interactions for a selected medication. You can also enter a
patient-specific regimen to analyze potential interactions and the
severity of the interaction. Additionally, you can select a drug
interaction result to obtain detailed information on patient management.
To access and use the drug interactions program:
From the New Search page or from the drug interactions section
of any drug information topic, click the Drug
Interactions link. Click the Click here to continue
link to close the drug information disclaimer.
Enter a drug name and click Lookup.
Enter additional drug names if you are interested in their
interactions.
Click on a single drug name to display the complete list of
interactions for that item.
Click Analyze to see potential interactions
between items in the list.
View interaction detail by clicking on a link.
If you search on a drug name in UpToDate and a Drug Interactions
link appears in the search results, you can click on that link to access
the drug interactions program with the drug name pre-populated.
An alphabetical listing of all topics in each specialty in
UpToDate is available in both the online and desktop computer versions.
To view the Table of Contents online, click the About UpToDate
link at the top of the page and then click Contents in
the left navigation menu.
For the desktop application, the Contents feature can be added to the toolbar
for quick access (Click here
for details on toolbar setup).
Click on Contents to bring you to a list of the different
medical specialties included in UpToDate. Clicking on a specialty will
bring you to a list of the sections for that specialty.
For example, select "Endocrinology and Diabetes" and then click
on "Diabetes mellitus" to view all topics included in the Diabetes
mellitus section. You can then click on a topic title in that section to
open a topic.
Our physician editors have made it easy for you to stay current
through the What's New feature. This feature provides you with a summary
of the most important updates that have been added since the last
release. These updates represent, in our editors' view, the most
important new information added in recent weeks. They
include Practice Changing UpDates, a compilation of studies with
important or immediate implications for how clinicians practice. You can
view this information by clicking What's
New on the toolbar.
For the desktop application, the What's New feature can be added to the toolbar
for quick access (Click here
for details on toolbar setup).
UpToDate offers hundreds of patient education topics about the
most common medical conditions and procedures. These topics encapsulate
the same information included in the materials provided for clinicians.
As such, they give readers the information they need to actively
participate in decisions related to their care.
Goals and objectives
For healthcare providers, our goal is to provide patient
education materials that can be easily accessed and used with patients
at the point of care, enabling shared medical decision making.
For patients, our aim is to provide information that can answer
medical questions and help the patient make informed medical decisions
in partnership with their family and healthcare team.
UpToDate patient information topics
Patients have varying information needs. Some want just a brief
overview, while others want more in-depth information. UpToDate meets
the varying information needs of patients by offering both The Basics
and Beyond the Basics:
The Basics — These topics are 1-3 pages in length and
are written in simple language. They answer the four or five most
important questions that a person might have about a medical problem.
The Basics topics are best for readers who want a general overview.
Beyond the Basics — These topics are 5-10 pages long and
are more detailed than the topics in The Basics. Beyond the Basics
topics are best for readers who want a lot of detailed information and
who are comfortable with some technical medical terms.
Our patient information topics also offer:
Integrated full-color pictures, graphics, and charts to help
the reader understand difficult medical concepts
Extensive referencing, with links to topic abstracts
Links to other related topics and related search terms in
UpToDate
Update schedule and editorial review
Like our clinician-level materials, patient information topics
are updated continuously, so they reflect the most recent medical
literature. All patient information topics are written by professional
medical writers with advanced degrees, and then edited by our in-house
physician editors. They are also reviewed by an external physician
author and section editor. Thus, our patient information is current,
accurate, and evidence-based.
Accessing UpToDate patient
information
Clinicians can access patient information topics as follows:
Through the search facility add the words 'patient info' to your
search query (for example, search on "patient info asthma").
Or when viewing search results in UpToDate on the web, in the left
hand navigation click on Patient to prioritize patient
information topics to the top of your search results list.
After logging in, click Patient Info on the
toolbar, then click on the medical category of interest.
This feature is not available on UpToDate for iPhone. Additionally, for the desktop
application, the Patient Info option must be configured to show on the toolbar.
Click Patient in the topic tools area at
upper-right in a topic to go directly to the Information for Patients
section, where you will find links to any related patient information
topics.
Note: The Patient tool is
available only in professional-level topics for which there is related
patient information.
Our Beyond the Basics patient information topics are also
available free to the public at www.uptodate.com/patients.
Patients can search for information using the search facility. Patients
can also click on "view patient-level table of contents" directly below
the Search box to view all of our patient information topics by medical
category.
You can display a list of recently-run searches and
recently-viewed topics from which you can click on a search entry to
rerun the search or click on a topic title to redisplay the topic, as
follows:
In UpToDate online, click the arrow control located at the right
side of the search box, then select the desired search entry or topic title from the drop-down list.
From a desktop computer installation, use the History button on the top navigation bar to
display a popup of recent searches and topics. Click any of the items in the History popup
to be directed to the results (click here for details on toolbar setup).
Additionally, at any search box, as you begin entering a search expression,
your recent searches will be displayed at the top as you type. You can select the recent search
to see the results. Or you can prevent this recent search from displaying again by clicking remove.
On the UpToDate app for iPhone, click the History icon on the UpToDate home screen menu to access a list of
all recently viewed topics. Click on the topic title to view the topic again. To clear this list,
click Clear in the upper right
UpToDate includes electrocardiograms that can be accessed from some
topics that discuss specific diseases or arrhythmia. You can test your
knowledge by running a self-test, as follows:
Click New Search on the toolbar to display the New Search
page.
Type ECG test in the search box.
Click Go to display a list of matching search results.
Choose one of the ECG test topics (for example, "Intermediate
ECG test") by clicking on the title.
After reading the first case history, click the show ECG
question 1 link to open a window that displays the Intermediate case 1
ECG strip, along with a normal ECG strip.
Try to make an accurate diagnosis based on the Intermediate
ECG case 1 strip, then close the window that displays the ECG strips.
To see if your diagnosis is correct, click the show ECG answer
1 link.
Close the answer window, then continue with the next test
question.
UpToDate includes interactive topics that allow you to
enter the values in commonly used formulas to obtain numerical data,
such as urinary protein excretion estimation or results for LDL based on
the Friedewald equation for low density lipoprotein. There are also
topics that allow you to estimate the severity of community acquired
pneumonia in a given patient based upon the presence or absence of major
risk factors.
To access calculator topics, click Calculators
on the toolbar to display the Contents: Calculators page. From there,
you can click All Calculators to view the calculator
topics for every specialty, or you can click on a particular specialty
to view the calculator topics related to that specialty.
You can also access calculator topics by clicking on Calculators
in the Table of Contents, by searching on the term "calculators", or by
searching on a particular subject.
The following procedure provides an example of how to access and
use a calculator topic:
Click Calculators on the toolbar to display
the Contents: Calculators page.
Click All Calculators.
Scroll to the Cardiology calculators section and click on
the title of the topic "Calculator: Friedewald equation for low density
lipoprotein (LDL)".
Specify the total cholesterol, HDL, and triglyceride levels.
Use the drop-down lists to select the appropriate units in each case.
The calculator displays the LDL level, based on the values you
have specified. If desired, you can change the units in which the
result is displayed by selecting a different value from the drop-down
list.
If you want to display the results to a different level of
decimal precision, select the desired number of decimal places in the
Decimal Precision box.
You can add/edit links that will appear in the header navigation.
Just go to My Account (on the top right side) and go to 'Toolbar Options'.
You can select from the items show below and make changes at any time.
This allows you to place your most helpful and frequently used site resources within easy access.
If you are located within Japan, UpToDate supports searching using
English or Japanese. You can switch your default view to display navigation
headers and topic title lists in either Japanese or in English.
Click on the language option in the upper right navigation to change language.
Additionally, you can enter your search term in Japanese. The topic title list
in search results will be displayed in Japanese.
NOTE: Topic content will always be in English. Only navigation items, search
terms and topic titles will be available in Japanese.
Within My Account, you can set your default language under the Language selector.
User Manual
