Library Notes

The Galter Library is pleased to provide access to UpToDate, the popular evidence-based clinical information resource. Many of you are probably already familiar with UpToDate from using it at NMH. UpToDate contains topic reviews covering internal medicine, endocrinology, family medicine, oncology, and several other specialties. The spare, almost Google-like search interface allows for simple searching of single concepts and the ability to modify your search by adding secondary search terms such as diagnosis and prevention. For more information on searching UpToDate please see the UpToDate user manual.

Access to UpToDate is limited to the Northwestern University network and Northwestern Memorial Hospital. You will not be able to access UpToDate from locations outside of these IP ranges and access is not available via the Galter Library proxy server or NU-VPN. Since logging in to the NU-VPN is required for wireless access on campus, you will not be able to access UpToDate using a wireless connection. For more information on UpToDate please see http://www.uptodate.com/.

acppier PIER, the Physicians' Information and Education Resource is an evidence-based guide to clinical decision making, available from the American College of Physicians. It is accessible through the Stat!Ref interface. The information in PIER is divided into five categories:

Diseases
Screening and Prevention
Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Ethical and Legal Issues
Procedures

Within each category are several modules. For example, the diseases category contains modules on numerous diseases and conditions which can be browsed alphabetically or searched using the Stat!Ref search interface. Searches will encompass all Stat!Ref resources not just ACP PIER. Disease modules are consistently structured so the same types of clinical information will be available for each disease including prevention, screening, diagnosis, drug therapy, etc.

Each module also contains an extensive bibliography, a glossary, and lists of contributors and additional resources. Included with ACP PIER is AHFS Drug Information (American Hospital Formulary Service). For more information please see http://www.statref.com/ourproducts/ebm/pier.htm or go to ACP Pier now.

Clin-eguide is a clinical decision-making tool licensed through Ovid Technologies. The ultimate goal of Clin-eguide is to improve the physician decision-making process by providing accurate and relevant information at the point-of-care. Like ACP PIER, Clin-eguide is a highly-structured database which can be searched or browsed. The major categories in Clin-eguide are disease, drug, laboratory, and performance. For each disease category there are sections covering disease management, disease characteristics, diagnosis, therapy, etc.

The drug category can be searched and browsed by drug name or class name. After choosing a drug name you can find the Clin-eguide suggested dosage for specific conditions as well as manufacturer’s dosage, indications, interactions, and other information from A-Z Drug Facts.

The laboratory category provides reference ranges, and the clinical significance of laboratory results for many of the most commonly-ordered laboratory tests. Lab tests can be searched or browsed.

Clin-eguide is updated every eight weeks. Direct links to Ovid MEDLINE references are included in the bibliographies of each section. For more information on Clin-eguide please see http://www.clineguide.com/ or go to Clin-eguide now.