How residents and interns utilise and perceive the personal digital assistant and UpToDate

BMC Medical Education

Table 4 Features of UpToDate which make it popular

Feature	Agree*
Subscriptions and recommendations
Hospitals should subscribe	72 (94.7)
Will subscribe personally if hospital does not	24 (31.6)
Will recommend to a colleague	71 (93.4)
Use of UpToDate
Has led to a change of management	44 (57.9)
Has led to a change of diagnosis	28 (36.8)
Helps avoid referrals to other specialties	33 (43.4)
Used in clinics^†	30 (51.7)
Features of UpToDate which make it popular
Synthesis of relevant information	74 (97.4)
Updated regularly	71 (93.4)
Comprehensive references	69 (90.8)
Wide collection of subspecialties	70 (92.1)
Easy-to-use recommendations	70 (92.1)

* Data are presented as the number (%) of doctors who chose "Strongly agree" or "Agree", as opposed to "Not sure", "Disagree" or "Strongly disagree" when the 76 doctors who had used UpToDate were asked if they agreed with each statement about UpToDate. sagree" or "Strongly disagree".
^† Only the answers of the 58 residents who had used UpToDate are shown; the 18 interns who had used UpToDate are excluded as interns did not run clinics.

ISSN: 1472-6920