Research Guides: Medicine: Point of Care Tools

Medical calculators: Did you know?

Many drug resources and point of care tools include medical/clinical calculators. EBMcalc (previously Med Calc) is available through Stat!Ref under tools.

What are Point of Care Tools?

Syntheses of current evidence for diagnosis, tests and interventions (e.g. treatments, drugs)

Designed for rapid consultation at the point of patient care

Evidence-based and frequently updated, with links to relevant literature

May include drug information, ICD coding, information for patients, and provision for links to electronic health records

Point of Care Tools

BMJ Best Practice
Best Practice combines the latest research evidence, guidelines and expert opinion – presented in a step-by-step approach, covering prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. Best Practice provides a second opinion in an instant, without the need for checking multiple resources. Its unique patient-focused approach represents a major new advancement in information delivery at the point of care. Mobile access available.

DynaMed
DynaMed is a clinical reference resource useful for getting answers to clinical questions quickly and easily. Content is written and reviewed by a team of physicians who synthesize the evidence and provide objective analysis. Dynamed includes: Overviews and Recommendations for the most common conditions as well as evidence-based recommendations for action, Micromedex® Clinical Knowledge Suite drug content, and many medical graphics and images. Also included is a wide array of specialty topics in areas such as infectious disease and immunology, cardiology, oncology and emergency medicine. Mobile access available.

VisualDx
VisualDx is a diagnostic clinical decision support system designed to enhance diagnostic accuracy, aid therapeutic decisions, and improve patient safety. With a strong dermatology component, this application can help quickly build a differential to evaluate the possibilities, compare variations, and improve diagnostic accuracy. Mobile access available.

Check out the VisualDx YouTube page for short video tutorials on the following (and more!):

Product Review Literature

Bradley-Ridout, Nekolaichuk, E., Jamieson, T., Jones, C., Morson, N., Chuang, R., & Springall, E. (2021). Uptodate versus dynamed: A cross-sectional study comparing the speed and accuracy of two point-of-care information tools. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 109(3), 382–387. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2021.1176

Why Bracken Library does not subscribe to UpToDate

Bracken Library is frequently asked to provide access to UpToDate (UTD). We have investigated the possibility of subscribing several times over a number of years and have concluded that we are unable to purchase this resource. There are a number of reasons for this decision.

UTD’s pricing model is primarily geared to individual subscriptions. Institutional subscriptions for UTD are extremely expensive, particularly when remote (off-campus) access is included. Simply put, the cost for UTD is not within the budget for Bracken Library. Remote access to our information resources is essential for health sciences students and residents on placement throughout Southeastern Ontario and beyond. In our commitment to equitable and full access to information resources, our policy is to not purchase an electronic resource that is limited to on-campus users only.

Some Canadian medical schools and/or their libraries do have subscriptions to UTD. See the box below for the results of a scan prepared by the University of Alberta of academic health science libraries in Canada. In some cases the schools have purchased on-campus usage only. The source of funding varies. A number of other medical schools and libraries across Canada do not subscribe to UTD.

Bracken librarians, with input from our users, have evaluated other point-of-care tools and have chosen several that we recommend. These excellent, evidence-based point-of-care clinical tools include:

Each of these resources can be accessed remotely and some have mobile apps that will allow you to access them on your tablet or smartphone.

Clinical Search Engines

Trip Database

TRIP was created in 1997 to bring together all the evidence-based healthcare resources available on the Internet. Tutorial.