Interesting, I didn’t know that! Thats a good point though, because Apple showed off how the NY Times site would look through their iPad, I bet UpToDate would have the same potential to look completely more functional. Imagine how cool it would have been if Steve Jobs had actually done that though? – he would have guaranteed thousands more iPads got sold. I was surprised his keynote didn’t have anything medical related though, unlike his prior ones.

Actually, UpToDate has a Palm (! retro ) stand alone application. The only problem (in my opinion) is that reading an UpToDate topic on a mobile device like the iPhone is a pain: it takes too long, and you’d rather read it on a computer screen, which is usually nearby anyways.

That’s one of the reasons I believe the iPad will be such a hit product for us. It will (hopefully) create a whole new way of providing interactive medical content that can easily be uptated. Interaction, I believe, is the keyword for what’s to come on the iPad.

UpToDate does have a mobile version of their website, and it actually functions surprisingly well. But you’re right, it would be great if they had a stand alone application so you didn’t need a dedicated internet connection to use it! Since UpToDate is updated frequently, I’m sure the app would have to be updated frequently withing the app itself. UpToDate is really only text and pictures so I don’t think it would be THAT massive of an app — or, that hard to turn to mobile form.

Now if only the guys at UpToDate could release an iPad app…

I think the value to the authors is in having a long term relationship with their readers, and the more successful ones will eventually learn to self-publish and would then have the same distributon access as the big publishers.