UpToDate clinical information resource renewed

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

In consultation and with support from Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western Libraries have signed a four-year license for the information product UpToDate which will go into effect immediately.

The new UpToDate license will include remote access, meaning that Western-affiliated students (including those in the Windsor Program), faculty, SWOMEN members, or staff persons may use UpToDate from any location using their Western Identity (user name and password) to log in to Western Libraries' proxy servers.

The license will also include on-site access at The University of Western Ontario, London Health Sciences Centre, and St. Joseph's Health Care, including these locations: Byron Family Medical Centre, Children's Hospital, Parkwood Hospital, Regional Mental Health Care London, Regional Mental Health Care St. Thomas, South Street Hospital, St. Joseph's Hospital, Victoria Family Medical Centre, Victoria Hospital and University Hospital. Any individual at these sites may access UpToDate without having to log in to Western's proxy servers, provided they are on a networked computer belonging to the institutions' IP ranges.
Access to this heavily-used information product will continue until 2014, but the long-term sustainability of Western's arrangement with UpToDate is a cause for concern to both Western Libraries and Schulich. The cost to license UpToDate for our large community has stretched the capacity of current budgets, and over the next four years, in consultation with Schulich, Western Libraries will be evaluating alternative clinical information products.

To access Western-subscribed, point-of-care information tools, please see the "Clinical Tools" tab on Western Libraries' Clinical Outreach page: http://www.lib.uwo.ca/programs/clinicaloutreach/

Please direct any comments or questions about UpToDate or any other clinical information tools to Robin Featherstone, Clinical Medicine Librarian, at rfeathe@uwo.ca