Navigating the UCF College of Medicine Library Resources

The UCF College of Medicine Library offers a wealth of resources to support the education, research, and clinical practice of its students, faculty, and staff. These resources range from online databases and journals to point-of-care tools and patient education materials. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the library's resources, focusing on access methods, troubleshooting tips, and key offerings.

Accessing Electronic Resources

The UCF Health Sciences Library provides access to a wide range of electronic resources, including databases, journals, and clinical tools. Due to licensing agreements with the companies providing these resources, off-campus access is limited to the UCF community and requires authentication.

Off-Campus Access and Authentication

To access electronic resources from off-campus, users need to authenticate using their UCF NID credentials. If you experience problems with off-campus access, the Health Sciences Library is available for assistance.

Troubleshooting Off-Campus Access:

Wait 15 minutes: Sometimes, a brief waiting period can resolve temporary access issues.
Reset your NID password: Ensure your NID password is up-to-date.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): If you're having trouble with MFA, consult the troubleshooting guides provided by UCF.
Mobile Device Access: Use a mobile device not connected to Wi-Fi (such as a cell phone) or tether a laptop or tablet to a cell phone’s hotspot and access library resources that way.
Page Not Configured Problems: If you see the message “Oops! Page not configured,” it indicates that EZproxy is not configured to handle authentication to the site. EZproxy connects to sites the Health Sciences Library has designated and configured.

UCF's VPN and EZproxy

It's important to understand the roles of UCF's VPN and EZproxy in accessing library resources. UCF’s VPN provides secure access to UCF’s servers and networks. It does not provide access to online library content. EZproxy, on the other hand, is specifically designed to provide access to online library content. EZproxy can work alongside the VPN while users access library content.

Constant Changes to Resources

Keep in mind that library resources information is constantly changing. It's always a good idea to check the library's website or contact the Health Sciences Library directly for the most up-to-date information.

Key Library Resources

The UCF College of Medicine Library offers a variety of resources tailored to the needs of medical professionals. Here are some notable examples:

Epocrates and Epocrates Plus

Epocrates is a widely used mobile app that provides drug information, interaction checks, pill identification, clinical practice guidelines, formulary data, athenaText, tables, and calculators. The FREE version of Epocrates provides drug information, interaction checks, pill ID, clinical practice guidelines, formulary, athenaText, tables, and calculators.

Epocrates Plus:

Epocrates Plus provides access to all the free content plus disease information, alternative medicine, ICD-10 and CPT codes, infectious disease treatment, and labs. Medical students can have access to the full version of the app called Epocrates+ (Epocrates Plus), which includes all of the above content plus disease information, alternative medicine, ICD-10 and CPT codes, infectious disease treatment, and labs. Follow these directions to get Epocrates Plus. You will need a medical education number.

Pediatric Specific Resources

Drug database designed for Pediatricians and Clinicians who work with Pediatric patients. Contains detailed guidelines for Pediatric & Neonatal dosing for 900+ drugs. A premier Pediatric Point-of-Care Resource. A premier Pediatric Point-of-Care Resource.

DynaMed and DynaMedex

DynaMed is a clinical reference tool designed to provide physicians with fast, clinically-relevant answers from Elsevier’s enormous library of proprietary medical and surgical content. This app is available for Android and iOS mobile devices. Remote access is for 180 days. Please note: if you already have a DynaMed account, you don’t have to create a new account. You can use the same login credentials for DynaMed and DynaMedex. This account will give you access to DynaMedex on any browser and also provide access to the app, which is available on the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. This app requires at least 1GB of memory if you want access to content offline. There is also an option to partially install the data or make the data accessible only online.

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Micromedex

The new Micromedex App replaces the five legacy Micromedex drug apps. This app provides Drug Reference summaries, IV Compatibility, Drug Interaction information, a set of clinical calculators, and access to the Micromedex Assistant. It is a current, reliable, and robust solution to support informed clinical decisions with fast access to the latest evidence-based insights at the point of care. The impartial clinical content is updated daily and vetted through an accredited review process.

Installing and Activating Micromedex:

To install it on your mobile device, visit the App Store from your device, search “Micromedex,” and follow the device installation prompts. Open the app. The easiest way to activate the Micromedex app is to install it while on the UCF Health Sciences campus, using a device connected to the campus network. If you are off-campus, the app will display an activation code.

VisualDx

This clinical decision support system app helps clinicians recognize and diagnose visually presenting conditions.

Patient Education Resources

100+ Topics for Patient Education. Topics contain basic, critical, Patient Information.
10,000+ Patient Education Handouts. Handouts written at a 6th - 8th grade reading level.
An encyclopedia of 1,600+ Health Topics.
Pre-formualated Searches of Information from the National Library of Medicine, the National Institute of Health, and other Agencies.
Provides Tools for understanding & applying Medical Literature and making Clinical Diagnosis.

Other Valuable Resources

The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics: is a nonprofit organization that publishes critical appraisals of new prescription drugs and comparative reviews of drugs for common diseases in its newsletter, The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics. The Medical Letter app lets you get the latest newsletter issue on your mobile device when and where you need it. Browse past issues, earn CME/CE credits on the go, or find information quickly by searching the app. If you are off-campus, you must log in with your NID credentials.
Provides differential diagnoses of symptoms, signs, and diseases.
The Harriet F.
Includes over 18 million Citations from MEDLINE and other Life Sciences Journals back to 1950.

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