Category Archive: Third Year

Throughout your third and fourth year of medical school you will frequently be told to “read about your patients.” Uptodate.com is one of your best resources for succinct, up to date, and easy to manage medical information.  The site contains  review articles written by experts in the field and covers nearly all important topics in medicine.  Most large hospitals and medical centers have access to the database through their network.  There is a useful app too, but you may not be able to access it through wi-fi even within the hospital, due to some site restrictions.  But, DON’T PAY for it.  More than likely, there is a way to access it through your medical school.

http://www.uptodate.com/index

How to Use:

Read about your patient before rounds or at night.  Learn the ins and outs of the disease process well to better treat your patient and to better answer questions when you are pimped.  See if your team is doing everything suggested by the review article.  If you find something to add, mention this on rounds or to your residents and mention where you learned it (uptodate).  Everyone in medicine respects the review articles on uptodate.  If you mention that your information comes from uptodate, everyone will now it is reliable.  In the same vein, NEVER admit you learned something from wikipedia…even if it is a great resource sometimes.