Skip to Main Content

UpToDate Tips Sheet: Home

FAQs about searching UpToDate

Tutorial

UpToDate App

App Instructions
1. Click on the UpToDate link at the Databases page.
2. On or off-campus you will need to enter your network username/password (the same credentials you use to log into your campus email) when prompted.
3. When the resource loads, click on "Login/Register" or if you are using an iPad, the "Log In" button.
4. Now you will need to register for a login with UpToDate. If you have already registered, log in now, but if you are a new user, fill in your information and create a username/password. Then click on the "Submit Registration" link.
5. An email will be sent to you. You can then download the UpToDate app from the App store and login with the username/password that you just created.
It is compatible with iOS, Android, Windows 10 and Windows 8 tablet devices.

The UpToDate iPad app subscription will periodically ask you to show your affiliation with KCU or your subscription will be terminated. To do this you will need to access UpToDate from the Library's website and login using your KCU network username/password at least once every 30 days. If you do not sign in to your UpToDate account for over 30 days, you will need to register again.

Citing an UpToDate Topic Review

Cite the UpToDate topic as a chapter in a book titled UpToDate, edited by Denise S. Basow, published by UpToDate in Waltham, MA. There are no page numbers to cite. Since UpToDate is continuously updated, each topic will appear (i.e., be published) in each new release, so the publication year for any topic should be the current year.

For example:

Marion, DW. Diaphragmatic pacing. In: UpToDate, Basow, DS (Ed), UpToDate, Waltham, MA, 2011.

UpToDate

 

UpToDate is the largest clinical community in the world dedicated to synthesizing knowledge for clinicians and patients. Over 4,400 expert clinicians function as authors, editors and peer reviewers, and over 400,000 users provide feedback and questions to the editorial group. UpToDate covers over 8,500 topics in 17 medical specialties and includes more than 97,000 pages of text and graphics, links to Medline abstracts, more than 385,000 references and a drug database. Physician editors and authors review and update content continuously. An updated version of UpToDate is released every four months.

You can access UpToDate via the D'Angelo Library's website through the link at the Databases tab. If you are working off-campus, you will need to enter your Library barcode/password for authentication.

Search Tips

To search for information in UpToDate:

1. In the search box, type a search phrase consisting of one or more terms. After you enter three characters, UpToDate displays a list of possible matches for your entry by recognizing common synonyms, abbreviations, acronyms and word roots. Capitalization is not important.

2. Click on an item from the list of possible matches to search for results for that item.

Note: 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.

Or, type all of the characters for your desired search phrase and then click Search.

3. Using the dropdown to the right of the search term, select one of the facets: All topics, Adult, Pediatric, Patient or Graphics. The search results will prioritize search results for All Topics, Adult, Pediatric or Patient results. For Graphics, only graphics are displayed.

4. On the Search Results page, do either of the following:

  • Click on the title of a topic to display that topic.
  • Position the mouse pointer over a topic title to display the topic outline for that topic, then click on a heading in the outline to directly access the related section of the topic.

More Tips

  • Click on New Search to search again.
  • Click on the What's New tab to read summaries of the latest major medical findings within each specialty.
  • Click on the Patient Info tab to access a list of available topics for downloading for patients.
  • Click on Help to access an online tutorial and a User Manual. Within the User Manual there is a section on Searching in UpToDate.
  • Graphics in UpToDate are denoted by phrases such as "show figure". You can access any graphic by clicking on these links. Graphics included in a topic review are also listed at the bottom of the topic outline.
  • Click on a drug name in a topic review to access usual dosage, adverse reactions and more. You can also search for a drug name by typing it into the New Search box.  
  • To export, you can use either the Print or E-mail function.

Contact Us

Need Help? Contact Us!

D'Angelo Library (KC Campus)

Dawson Library (Joplin Campus)

Graphics Search

Image/Graphics Search

Quickly and easily search high-quality graphics from UpToDate including more than 25,000 pictures, tables, illustrations, diagrams, graphs, algorithms and videos, without using a separate search engine.

After searching a clinical term, select “Graphics” from the menu in the left navigation. For even faster access, select “Graphics” from the dropdown menu in the Search box. With either approach, the resulting graphics appear in thumbnail format. Clicking a thumbnail opens a larger version of the graphic.

Each graphic references and links to related UpToDate topics under “Appears in Topics.” And from within an UpToDate topic, you can see all corresponding graphics.

Watch a brief video demonstration here to learn more about conducting a Graphics Search, sharing information with patients or colleagues, and exporting graphics to a presentation.

More Resources

Looking for more resources?