Drug information seeking behaviours of health care professionals in Iran

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to list the resources that Iranian health-care professionals used to access drug-related information, to know the features and types of drug information resources which were much more important for health-care professionals, the problems they encountered in seeking drug information and the way they organized and re-found the information that they had retrieved. Drug-related queries are one of the most common types of questions in medical settings. Design/methodology/approach – This was a descriptive-analytical study conducted in Iran during 2014. The data collection tool was a self-designed questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test were used to analyse the data and examine the research hypothesis. Findings – Participants used books, drug manuals, search engines and medical databases more frequently, and less than half of them consulted colleagues to acquire drug-related information for clinical, educational and research purposes. Handheld computers were used by most participants to access and store drug information. Lack of access to drug information and lack of enough time were the main obstacles in seeking drug information. A significant association (p value = 0.024) was detected between organizing and re-finding information for future uses. Originality/value – This study investigated drug information-seeking behaviours of health-care professionals and the way they managed this information in a developing country that lacks necessary information technology infrastructures. Training programmes are required to help health-care professionals to find and access reliable and up-to-date drug information resources and to more easily re-find the found drug information for future uses.

Factors affecting smartphone adoption for accessing information in medical settings

“…Another study in Canadian universities showed a widespread use of smartphones and tablets for clinical purposes . These tools are also becoming popular in developing countries for accessing scientific databases and drug references, Web browsing, communication purposes and for assisting better clinical decision making …”

“…9 These tools are also becoming popular in developing countries for accessing scientific databases and drug references, Web browsing, communication purposes and for assisting better clinical decision making. 4,10 The advantages of using mobile technologies in health care are already visible when physicians adopt and use these tools in medical settings. 2 In order to encourage health care professionals to use smartphones or other mobile technologies in daily clinical activities, this is helpful to know which factors affect their acceptance for professional purposes.…”

Physicians' Evidence-Based Clinical Decision-Making Practices for New Drug Prescriptions: A Qualitative Study

“…To find answers to these clinical questions, physicians refer to different types of information sources. For drug information needs, sources used by physicians include textbooks, drug manuals, drug leaflets, journals (Tahamtan, I., 2015), clinical practice guidelines, electronic references, e.g.…”

“…To reiterate, through existing literature, we have learned different aspects of physicians' clinical information-seeking behavior and practices including different information sources they use for seeking information (Tahamtan, I., 2015), factors influencing their information-seeking practices as well as clinical decision-making for drug prescriptions (Rahmner et al, 2008;Zhang et al, 2019), and current status and attitudes of physicians regarding critical appraisal (Wood et al, 2022). However, we still lack complete comprehension of the current process of physicians' evidence-based information-seeking, critical appraisal, and clinical decision-making for applying that information in the context of actual practice settings.…”