As COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world, the need for access to credible, evidence-based information has become more important than ever. Providers on the frontlines are relying on UpToDate, an online, evidence-based clinical resource, to provide them with the latest information on how best to treat patients and protect themselves from infection. Several beneficiaries of The Better Evidence for Providers program have shared how UpToDate has been a critical tool. Below is some of their testimony.
February 8, 2020: ‘With the current global issue…Coronavirus pandemic, I have educated myself and my colleagues about the virus, its clinical presentations and care of a suspected patient. As people are still travelling to and from China from Ethiopia, we are labelled as one of the high risk countries by WHO and we are trying to educate ourselves about the subject matter. In fact, I copied and forwarded the updates you emailed me on Jan 31 to a fellow resident who had presentation last Friday and it was such a vital resource.” (Resident physician, Ethiopia)
February 23, 2020: “I went to Wuhan, China to evacuate 312 Bangladeshi people to their home[s]. UpToDate gave me current updates about COVID-19. Though most updated investigations are not available in our country, it is still the individual physician’s responsibility to keep himself updated. UpToDate is a good source of latest knowledge.” (Physician, Bangladesh)
March 21, 2020: “During this period of the COVID-19 pandemic, UpToDate has been an invaluable source of information. We have been using it as a training tool for healthcare workers to learn how to protect ourselves and prepare ourselves in the eventuality that cases rise in Kenya.” (Resident, Kenya)
April 3, 2020: “These days people are confused about COVID-19 because there are many [sic] fake news without proof. I use UpToDate to check this information. I share this information with my friends, patients, and colleagues.” (Resident physician, Jordan)
April 5, 2020: “I am one of the first consultants to handle COVID-19 in our region. During this time no consensus/clinical guidelines from our infectious disease society [were] given. UpToDate helped me get reliable, quick, concise and evidence-based data regarding this new disease that helped me manage my patients.” (Physician, Philippines)
April 4, 2020: “The whole world is fighting against COVID-19 now, there is…misleading information about this disease [on] the internet now, but UpToDate is the only reliable source [that] I can fully depend upon.” (Medical Registrar, Nepal)
April 7, 2020: “Recent updates on clinical management in different disease conditions and also many other updates and research updates on emerging diseases and epidemiological and pandemic diseases helped me so much to change my approach as a physician. I am especially thankful [for] the ongoing updates on the COVID-19 pandemic which is a global emergency. Sometimes in local settings we are unable to find the FDA-approved treatment. But we are able to adjust the treatment modalities to the local setting looking at all the research data and disease mechanism.” (Physician, Sri Lanka)
April 16, 2020: “UpToDate has been my companion. Whenever I face confusing medical problems, I take time to search information in UpToDate. For example, with [the] current outbreak of COVID-19, there is a lot of conflicting information regarding [the] use of masks (surgical VS N95) for health workers attending COVID-19 patients…UpToDate is where I [saw] that the WHO was recommending surgical mask for health workers unless otherwise doing specific procedures and the CDC was recommending N95 to all health workers attending COVID-19.” (Physician, Tanzania)
April 24, 2020: “The most recent example I have was a suspicious case of COVID-19 we had in the month of February back on Roatan. A male patient of 32 presented to the center with a mild fever, head and body aches, non-productive cough with no history of recent trips outside the country…We didn’t have the tools make a correct diagnosis on the island, and in fact my superiors didn’t have the knowledge of what test they needed to run on the sample. I went through UpToDate, found that the test we needed to run was a RT-PCR and [sent] the sample to mainland to get it done…turns out it was negative, it was dengue fever.” (Physician, Honduras)
April 25, 2020: “A middle aged male presented with acute stroke. A recent reading from UpToDate reminded me to check for COVID-19 and the test came positive! The patient received tPA and luckily never needed mechanical ventilation. Currently, he is doing well.” (Physician, India)
UpToDate, the world’s leading evidence-based clinical resource, is providing free access to COVID-19 resources and tools, including access to the COVID-19 clinical topic cards: https://www.uptodate.com/home/covid-19-access
For free access to the entire UpToDate tool, please check if you qualify for our Better Evidence-UpToDate donation program: https://www.ariadnelabs.org/better-evidence/apply/