Chaturaka Rodrigo, Sachith Maduranga, Milinda Withana, Deepika Fernando and Senaka Rajapakse. BMC Research Notes 2015, 8:610 doi:10.1186/s13104-015-1600-3.
McDonald FS, Zeger SL, Kolars JC. Factors associated with medical knowledge acquisition during internal medicine residency. J Gen Intern Med. 2007 Apr 28.
A study of internal medicine residents at the Mayo Clinic examined the impact of learning habits such as conference attendance and use of an electronic knowledge resource (UpToDate) on medical knowledge acquisition as measured by the Internal Medicine In-training Examination (IM-ITE). The IM-ITE assesses the medical knowledge of internal medicine residents during their three-year training program; scores increase with each year of residency reflecting the acquisition of medical knowledge during residency. Performance on the examination correlates with subsequent performance on the American Board of Internal Medicine Certification Examination. The authors correlated how much UpToDate was used by each resident (based upon usage logs) with IM-ITE scores. Using UpToDate for 20 minutes a day was associated with a comparable increase in IM-ITE scores as an entire year of residency. The model was fully adjusted and considered known covariates associated with performance on the IM-ITE, suggesting that use of UpToDate was an independent predictor of performance. A similar degree of benefit was also detected for regular conference attendance. The authors also cited a survey of 18,000 residents in which UpToDate was the most commonly used clinical resource for clinical information. These data (as well as previous studies involving UpToDate) suggest that it has an important role in medical education and in acquisition of medical knowledge.
Phua J, Lim TK. How residents and interns utilize and perceive the personal digital assistant and UpToDate. BMC Medical Education 2008, 8:39. doi:10.1186/1472-6920-8-39.
A survey study at National University Hospital in Singapore found that after 5 months of use 60% of respondents reported that UpToDate lead to a change in patient management and 95% would recommend UpToDate to a colleague.
Edson RS, Beckman TJ, West CP, Aronowitz PB, Badgett RG, Feldstein DA, Henderson MC, Kolars JC, McDonald FS. A multi-institutional survey of internal medicine residents’ learning habits. Med Teach. 2010;32(9):773-5.
95% reported UpToDate was the most effective resource for learning. 90% reported that UpToDate was their first choice for answering clinical questions.
Cooper AL, Elnicki DM. Resource utilization patterns of third-year medical students. Clin Teach. 2011 Mar;8(1):43-7.
Most students used UpToDate to prepare for attending physician rounds and to admit patients (64% and 67%, respectively), but not for exam preparation.
Darcy A. Reed, MD, MPH, Colin P. West, MD, PhD, Eric S. Holmboe, MD, Andrew J. Halvorsen, MS, Rebecca S. Lipner, PhD, Carola Jacobs, BA, and Furman S. McDonald, MD, MPH. Relationship of Electronic Medical Knowledge Resource Use and Practice Characteristics with Internal Medicine Maintenance of Certification Examination Scores. J Gen Intern Med. 2012 Feb.
Maintenance of certification (MOC) examination performance is associated with quality of care. A study at the Mayo Clinic aimed to examine relationships between electronic medical knowledge resource use, practice characteristics and examination scores among physicians recertifying in internal medicine.
Kinoshita K, Tsugawa Y, Shimizu T, Tanoue Y, Konishi R, Nishizaki Y, Shiojiri T, Tokuda Y. Impact of inpatient caseload, emergency department duties, and online learning resource on General Medicine In-Training Examination scores in Japan. International Journal of General Medicine 2015:8.
The authors conducted a survey with a clinical knowledge evaluation involving postgraduate year (PGY)-1 and -2 resident physicians at teaching hospitals offering 2-year postgraduate training programs required for residents in Japan, using the General Medicine In-Training Examination (GM-ITE).
Appropriate ED workload and inpatient caseload, as well as use of evidence-based electronic resources, were associated with greater clinical knowledge of residents.
Leff B, Harper GM, The reading habits of medicine clerks at one medical school: frequency, usefulness, and difficulties. Acad Med. 2006 May;81(5):489-94.
Among medical students at Johns Hopkins, UpToDate was the most commonly used reading source and was rated as the most useful.
