– Specialist from Wolters Kluwer, the company that owns UpToDate®, explains the link between health events and the growing search for better evidence and practices to improve care for the population in times of epidemics
– Company announces that it will extend the free access to the tool's topics related to dengue fever until September 2024
Arboviruses, diseases caused by viruses transmitted mainly by mosquitoes, have been gaining increasing attention in Brazil. With the intensification of cases of dengue, chikungunya and zika, concern about these diseases has become a priority for the national health sector. In fact, as part of the actions to combat the diseases, the Ministry of Health announced that it will invest R$ 256 million in strengthening surveillance of arboviruses. Aware of this movement, the Wolters Kluwer, the company that owns the clinical decision support platform, UpToDate, observed, in February 2024, a significant increase of 119% in queries to topics in UpToDate related to arboviruses.
According to Natalia Cabrini, Director of Strategy and Sales at Wolters Kluwer in Brazil, the alarming scenario that Brazil has been facing recently has become clear, especially in relation to dengue fever. “According to data collected by the Ministry of Health, more than six million probable cases of dengue fever were recorded in the country during the first six months of 2024. This epidemic scenario has made us reflect on how to promote alternatives to help reduce the impact of cases in Brazil,” she comments.
With this in mind, in March of this year, Wolters Kluwer announced the opening of all UpToDate content related to dengue. At this time, as a way to continue supporting physicians with up-to-date and reliable information, free online access this information will continue until September 2024. “The correlation between the number of dengue cases reported by the Ministry of Health and the number of queries to open topics related to arboviruses is 0.75, based on UpToDate data. In other words, there is a high relationship between health events and the search for better evidence and practices to serve the population in times of crisis”, he explains.
To give you an idea, from January to March 2024, searches for queries on UpToDate related to dengue fever grew 800%. “UpToDate is already used by two million healthcare professionals worldwide. The information made available by the platform is written and reviewed exclusively by physicians recognized in their specialties. In addition, the data covers more than 25 specialties, offering more than 10 thousand clinical topics, including dengue fever. This not only ensures credibility and compliance for those who use the tool, but also guarantees access to content that allows early diagnosis and appropriate treatment”, he states.
Actions to combat dengue fever
Natalia recalls that in April of this year, Wolters Kluwer signed a collaboration agreement with the National Council of Municipal Health Departments (CONASEMS), with the aim of disseminating the news about the opening of dengue topics on the Council's communication channels, in addition to facilitating the holding of webinars to promote training on how to use UptoDate. “Our focus is to find ways to contribute to solving adversities like dengue as quickly as possible. Whether through our technologies or events of this nature,” she emphasizes.
In May of this year, Wolters Kluwer held another free webinar, this time to celebrate Nursing Month. The event, called “Fighting Arboviruses,” featured speaker Nathaly Dutra, a Nurse from UNIRIO, Master in Epidemiology from ENSP/Fiocruz, and Employee of the Municipal Health Department of Rio de Janeiro. “Our commitment to improving the quality of care in Brazil and worldwide is latent. We believe that technology is the key element to support doctors in decision-making and to increasingly optimize care and the safety of the population. We will continue to firmly believe in this purpose and collaborate not only with innovations, but also with educational initiatives in the health area,” she concludes.
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