Alisha764

A recent post on iMedical Apps alerted me to the latest highly anticipated medical app:

UpToDate

Normally when you say this name among medical librarians it brings cringes of pain, bad memories of fee negotiations, and overall frustration. I admit when I saw this post my immediate thought was this will never be available in an institution that does not pay for remote access to UpToDate. Or it will be an additional charge such as the remote access charge.

I know, UpToDate does provide free integration with EMR systems; however, it still will not work remotely without the extra fee and I have heard rumors & stories of price increases after implementing.

Now with all this being said I still think this is great news. As, Dr. Mistakes, the writer, stated on iMedical Apps  UpToDate is one of the most used resources of students and residents. When I have rounded with a team there were many times that UpToDate offered answers where other databases did not. But alas, the new app will not be available for institutions yet:

However, institutional subscribers (myself included) have a longer wait ahead of them. There is not a clear timeline yet for launch of mobile solutions for institutional subscribers. The problem, according to Ms. Brown, is significant variability in how UptoDate is implemented. For example, in some institutions, it is integrated into an EMR, which raises issues regarding data security. There are additionally uncertainties about the process for deploying across an institution as the enterprise component of mobile health is still in its early stages.

Very interesting. Yes institutions have different contracts with UpToDate but if I am not mistaken even with EMR access it still requires and means you have access online from UpToDate’s website. The EMR access is an add on to your subscription. So why the delay?

My guess is to figure out the price increase for this new feature. Plus I cannot see this app being available for institutions that do not have remote access to UpToDate.

Dr. Misra says institutions with big pockets will be able to afford this new app. I am not sure I agree. At a time when many institutions are cutting their resources as a result of economic issues and also dealing with changes from HITECH (meaningful use), I see few being able to afford an increase. I also think more institutions would opt for the EMR integration.

Yes vendors need to offer more Apps and mobile resources for institutions… the question is can institutions afford new fees for new services?

I often prefer a good mobile website over an app anyway. Why? It means you can use the institutions’ WIFI to access creating less of a licensing headache or fee increase, and it works for all devices. By the way, where is the Android love UpToDate?
  
Please note the above post are my, Alisha Miles, comments and opinion.