How “evidence-based” is Up-to-Date, really?

From LaikasMEDlibLog–http://laikaspoetnik.wordpress.com/

KevinMD or Kevin Pho is one of the top physician bloggers. He writes many posts per day, often provocatively commenting on breaking medical news or other blogposts.

A few weeks ago Kevin wrote a post on comparative effectiveness research [5] (tweet below), which is “(funded) research to evaluate and compare clinical outcomes, effectiveness, risk, and benefits of two or more medical treatments or services that address a particular medical condition” (definition from DB Medical Rants).

Kevin stated that doctors certainly need an authoritative, unbiased, source to base their decisions on and that that kind of information is already there in the form of UpToDate®. According to Kevin:

For those who don’t know, UpToDate is a peer-reviewed, evidence-based, medical encyclopedia [1] available via DVD or online that’s revised every 3 months. It does not carry advertisements, and is funded entirely via paid subscriptions [3]. I am a big proponent, and like many other doctors, could not practice medicine effectively without it by my side.” [2]

Kevin Pho also refers to a recent study showing that hospitals who used UpToDate scored better on patient safety and complication measures, as well as length of stay, when compared to institutions who did not use the resource.[4]

Read entire post at  http://laikaspoetnik.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/how-evidence-based-is-uptodate-really/