United States : UpToDate, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health, has announced that it is providing free access to its online medical content to all users in Japan. This decision was made by the company immediately following the recent earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country’s northeast coast. In addition, individuals and organizations worldwide now have free access to UpToDate’s radiation exposure resources. These include:

• Treatment of radiation injury in the adult
• Biology and clinical features of radiation injury in adults
• Management of radiation exposure in children following a nuclear disaster
• Clinical features of radiation injury in children

“UpToDate’s mission is to improve healthcare around the world. So it was an easy decision to allow free access to clinicians in Japan as they are dealing with these tragic events and trying to provide the best care they can for patients,” said Denise S. Basow, MD, President and Editor-in-Chief of UpToDate.

This move by UpToDate is part of a larger effort by Wolters Kluwer Health, which is currently providing free access to several of its other health information resources to Japanese hospitals and healthcare institutions. These include Ovid®, Fact & Comparisons® eAnswers, and Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Some of these products, including UpToDate, were also made available in New Zealand following the Christchurch earthquake and in Haiti in 2010.