Industry Spotlight: Cheryl Trigg, director of new business development, Wolters Kluwer Health

Cheryl Trigg, director of new business development at Wolters Kluwer Health, reveals how UptoDate Enterprise Edition takes clinical decision support technology to a whole new level 

While digital health technologies have really come to the fore in recent years, a number of tools used widely across the NHS arrived on the scene decades ago. In 1992 world renowned kidney specialist Dr Bud Rose converted his medical textbook – known as the ‘nephrology bible’ – into a digital tool for clinicians that wouldn’t date in the same way that printed books did. He called it ‘UpToDate’.

“Bud reframed the digital content he created around specific questions that doctors would face and then applied the best available evidence and expert guidance to answer those questions,” says Cheryl Trigg.

“He imagined a continuously updated digital resource that could evolve with emerging evidence and answer the real-world questions clinicians face daily, even when evidence was lacking. That idea was revolutionary then and it changed the way that clinicians practice medicine.”

Over the past 33 years, UpToDate has expanded to become the “world’s most trusted and widely used clinical decision support (CDS), with over three million users around the world relying on the system,” adds Trigg.

The original tool still has a strong claim to be the best, offering unmatched breadth and depth with content on more than 13,000 topics continuously updated by more than 7,600 practising clinicians across 25 specialities. The new version of UpToDate – the Enterprise Edition – has to live up to this pedigree.

Responsible gen AI

It’s perhaps not surprising then, that Wolters Kluwer Health has invested a lot of time in developing and testing UpToDate Enterprise Edition, with a commitment to “responsible AI” being the guiding principle.

Trigg references a 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health survey that examines clinician perception of generative AI and highlights the need to prioritise trust and transparency in driving adoption.

“The majority of respondents (58%) said the single most important factor in selecting an AI tool is knowing the content it is trained on was created by medical professionals.

“Additionally, 91% of physicians said they would have to know the materials from which an AI tool is sourced were created by doctors and medical experts before they used it,” says Trigg.

“Our approach rests on three core tenets: provenance, validation and guidance. Clinical insights must be traceable to trusted sources”

Recently launched in the US, UpToDate Expert AI is now available to select customer end users. Powered by generative AI, it provides transparent, context-rich answers based on UpToDate’s expert-authored, peer-reviewed content.

“UpToDate Expert AI is written by clinical experts who use their judgment to interpret the evidence and apply it to real world scenarios” continues Trigg. “Our approach rests on three core tenets: provenance, validation and guidance.

“Clinical insights must be traceable to trusted sources, with transparent processes that show how knowledge is created, validated, and maintained.”

Untapped opportunities of CDS

For individual clinicians under pressure, UpToDate Enterprise Edition offers a wealth of support. Its AI-enhanced search capability enables faster, more intuitive access to clinical guidance, helping to alleviate the pressure on busy clinicians.

For care teams working in high-stakes environments and increasingly complex care scenarios, UpToDate Enterprise Edition is more than a tool.

“It’s providing reassurance in decision making,” says Trigg. “Not only does it enable them to follow the latest evidence and guidance from renowned specialists, it provides an auditable record of evidence-based decision making.”

The benefits for NHS trusts, integrated care systems and the wider NHS are significant. Enterprise Edition reimagines the role of CDS at the organisational and health system level. Designed for clinicians, operational, and administrative teams, it supports improvement by reducing unwarranted variation and turning data into better decisions.

“Every search tells a story. Millions of searches can reveal shifting disease patterns, workforce knowledge gaps or emerging risks”

One of the most valuable yet under-utilised sources of real-world data in healthcare is the interaction between clinicians and decision-support systems. An analytics dashboard offers insights into usage patterns, care variability and clinical workforce educational needs.

More than a conventional clinical decision support tool, Trigg suggests it should be viewed as a strategic digital asset that supports both frontline care and system-wide planning.

“Every search tells a story,” says Trigg. “Those millions of searches can reveal shifting disease patterns, workforce knowledge gaps, or emerging risks—often before they appear in national reporting.”

When widely adopted, decision-support systems do more than improve care at the point of need – they generate rich, anonymised data on population health, clinical behaviours, and early warning signals. High usage of UpToDate has already provided early alerts for conditions such as Mpox, scarlet fever, COVID-19, and flood-related illnesses in Spain.

Quantifiable impact on care

“The NHS can’t afford tools that don’t deliver measurable value,” says Trigg. “UpToDate has consistently demonstrated return on investment. Over 100 independent studies link the use of UpToDate with shorter hospital stays, reduced diagnostic errors and lower mortality.

“In one study in Leicester, there was a 45% reduction in prescribing errors for doctors using UpToDate. When you translate that into patient outcomes, and cost savings, the benefits are significant.”

In a survey of over 11,000 UpToDate users, 86% of respondents said that using the resource had led to a change in patient management decisions and 93% reported that it improved the quality of care they provided to patients.

Over the course of this year, 29% of UK clinicians reporting on the impact of UpToDate on their clinical practice said they modified the patient healthcare plan after consulting UpToDate.

“UpToDate Enterprise Edition isn’t just about getting faster answers – it’s about getting the right answers and building smarter, more responsive systems”

“There are a lot of different CDS tools out there,” Trigg adds. “Free and low-cost alternatives are in the market, but they can be a false economy – either because they are not used [by clinicians] or there is no evidence that they are driving care quality and efficiency improvements.

“UpToDate Enterprise Edition very much aligns with NHS priorities in terms of realising the value of digital investments made – both in CDS technologies and also in electronic health record systems, through the integration of UpToDate into electronic patient records.

“UpToDate has always been the go-to resource for clinicians and now UpToDate Enterprise Edition takes CDS technology to a whole new level. This isn’t just about getting faster answers – it’s about getting the right answers and building smarter, more responsive systems.”

The healthcare technology space is evolving fast and Wolters Kluwer Health intends to stay at the forefront of development through global partnerships with big tech giants such as Microsoft and entry into the ambient listening and clinical documentation space.

How clinical information is accessed and used may change but UpToDate will stay true to its roots when it comes to creating healthcare solutions.

“It will never be about technology for technology’s sake” concludes Trigg. “We’re putting the patient at the heart of all of this, just like Bud Rose did.”

To learn more about how about how UpToDate is supporting the NHS, visit our UpToDate for NHS Hub and follow Wolters Kluwer Health on LinkedIn.