UpToDate
Medical software company
UpToDate, Inc. is a company in the Health division of Wolters Kluwer. Its main product is the eponymous UpToDate, a software system that is a point-of-care medical resource.
The system is an evidence-based clinical database that includes medical and patient information, Lexidrug drug monographs, drug-to-drug interaction tools, and medical calculators. UpToDate is written by over 7,600 physician authors, editors, and peer reviewers. It is accessible online and offline via personal computers or mobile devices, and requires a subscription.
The company was founded in 1992 by Burton Rose and Joseph Rush. The service initially covered nephrology and has since added more than 20 other medical specialties.
UpToDate's articles undergo anonymous peer review, and the platform requires content authors to disclose conflicts of interest. A 2014 study published in the Journal of Medical Ethics evaluated six entries from UpToDate and DynaMed, focusing on medical conditions with contested management strategies, or those primarily treated with brand-name drugs. The authors found that all six examined UpToDate topics involved contributors with financial ties to the manufacturers of drugs mentioned in those entries, such as consulting roles, research grants, or speaking fees. None of the DynaMed entries evaluated contained contributors with a conflict of interest.
01Access
Full access to the service requires a subscription, which costs US$579 a year as of 2026 for a physician in the United States (lower cost for longer term subscription). Through the Norwegian Electronic Health Library, people in Norway have free access to BMJ Best Practice, UpToDate (through registered employers or educational institutions), and drug database Micromedex. UpToDate was made available for free in New Zealand after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and in Nepal after the April 2015 earthquake. The Global Health Delivery Project at Harvard University administers access to UpToDate for those who offer medical care to poor or underserved populations outside the United States.
Better Evidence by Ariadne labs provides health professionals from less developed countries full access for free. One study found that UpToDate was used by 1017 US hospitals between 2004 and 2006.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “UpToDate”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
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