Resident resource use in clinical settings: an institutional survey

Abstract

Background: We explored which point of care (POC) resources medical residents at the University at Buffalo use in clinical settings. We specifically sought to gather feedback from residents who help train medical students to see how they discover, use, and promote resources to support patient care.

Case Presentation: We developed an eight question Qualtrics survey. Residency program coordinators emailed the survey to approximately 445 residents in the following programs: Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Neurology, Child Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Surgery, Plastic Surgery, and Vascular Surgery. The programs we targeted all correspond to required clerkship rotations. The survey was open for two weeks in June 2025. Thirty-nine residents (8.8%) completed our survey. Thirty-five, or nearly 90% of respondents, reported that they frequently use UpToDate, followed by twenty-three (59.0%) that use OpenEvidence, and seventeen that use MDCalc (43.6%). The residents we surveyed were inclined to recommend similar resources to medical students. They most often hear about new resources from other residents and attendings, via announcements on social media or podcasts, or by attending grand rounds and conferences.

Conclusions: Our results highlight the continued popularity of UpToDate among medical trainees but also suggest that residents frequently use OpenEvidence in clinical settings. Further studies are needed to determine the impact of artificial intelligence tools on patient care and learning outcomes.