Information Needs and Information-Seeking Behavior of Primary Care Physicians

González‐González, Ana Isabel; Dawes, Martin; Sánchez-Mateos, José; Riesgo-Fuertes, Rosario; Escortell-Mayor, Esperanza; Sanz-Cuesta, Teresa; Hernández-Fernández, Tomás

doi:10.1370/afm.681

Cited by 138 publications

(128 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…However, despite the growing popularity of online resources, many barriers remain that prevent clinicians from frequently and successfully answering clinical questions using online knowledge searches. These barriers include, but are not limited to, time limitations, uncertain knowledge accuracy, technology malfunction, and knowledge seeker forgetfulness of the questions needing answered [5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Survey from a Large Academic Medical Center

Homan¹,

Cimino²,

Peters³

et al. 2015

Appl Clin Inform

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Electronic health records, evidence-based medicine, information storage and retrieval, point of care technology, user-computer interface SummaryObjective: To better understand the literature searching preferences of clinical providers we conducted an institution-wide survey assessing the most preferred knowledge searching techniques. Materials and Methods: A survey regarding literature searching preferences was sent to 1862 unique clinical providers throughout Mayo Clinic. The survey consisted of 25 items asking respondents to select which clinical scenarios most often prompt literature searches as well as identify their most preferred knowledge resources. Results: A total of 450 completed surveys were returned and analyzed (24% response rate). 48% of respondents perform literature searches for more than half of their patient interactions with 91% of all searches occurring either before or within 3 hours of the patient interaction. When a search is performed 57% of respondents prefer synthesized information sources as compared to only 13% who prefer original research. 82% of knowledge searches are performed on a workstation or office computer while just 10% occur on a mobile device or at home. Conclusion:Providers in our survey demonstrate a need to answer clinical questions on a regular basis, especially in the diagnosis and therapy domains. Responses suggest that most of these searches occur using synthesized knowledge sources in the patient care setting within a very short time from the patient interaction.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Survey from a Large Academic Medical Center

Homan¹,

Cimino²,

Peters³

et al. 2015

Appl Clin Inform

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“…Questions most frequently asked were related to diagnoses and drug therapy. Also, in a video recorded observational study by González-González et al [15], whose aim was to determine the information needs of 112 primary care physicians during the patient consultation, the most frequent questions physicians had were related to diagnosis (53%) and treatment (26%). Our study supports these previous findings, however is differentiated in that it identifies information needs specific to a clinical visit notes and not general questions that arise during a patient encounter.…”

Section: Assessment and Plan As The Most Important Information In Ambmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous research has not explicitly stated that physicians found HPI useful [15,43,58,59]. The HPI may be important to physicians because it includes a summary and background of what the patient is feeling, which can be helpful for diagnosis and treatment.…”

Section: Assessment and Plan As The Most Important Information In Ambmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determining Primary Care Physician Information Needs to Inform Ambulatory Visit Note Display

Clarke¹,

Steege²,

Moore³

et al. 2014

Appl Clin Inform

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SummaryBackground: With the increase in the adoption of electronic health records (EHR) across the US, primary care physicians are experiencing information overload. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the information needs of primary care physicians (PCPs) as they review clinic visit notes to inform EHR display. Method: Data collection was conducted with 15 primary care physicians during semi-structured interviews, including a third party observer to control bias. Physicians reviewed major sections of an artificial but typical acute and chronic care visit note to identify the note sections that were relevant to their information needs. Statistical methods used were McNemar-Mosteller's and Cochran Q. Results: Physicians identified History of Present Illness (HPI), Assessment, and Plan (A&P) as the most important sections of a visit note. In contrast, they largely judged the Review of Systems (ROS) to be superfluous. There was also a statistical difference in physicians' highlighting among all seven major note sections in acute (p = 0.00) and chronic (p = 0.00) care visit notes. Conclusion: A&P and HPI sections were most frequently identified as important which suggests that physicians may have to identify a few key sections out of a long, unnecessarily verbose visit note. ROS is viewed by doctors as mostly "not needed," but can have relevant information. The ROS can contain information needed for patient care when other sections of the Visit note, such as the HPI, lack the relevant information. Future studies should include producing a display that provides only relevant information to increase physician efficiency at the point of care. Also, research on moving A&P to the top of visit notes instead of having A&P at the bottom of the page is needed, since those are usually the first sections physicians refer to and reviewing from top to bottom may cause cognitive load.

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“…Again in 2007, Ely described the kinds of patient care questions physicians can't answer [8]. Also in 2007, Gonzalez reviewed 3500 patient consults in Spain to identify the most frequent questions asked by physicians there [9]. The cause of a certain symptom was the most frequently asked question according to their study.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Information Needs of Clinicians: a Study of the Doctors Nova Scotia Clinical Library

Lee¹

2013

J Can Health Libr Assoc

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Background: The Clinical Library (CL) is a virtual library of books, journals, drug information, and patient information. It has no hard copy books or journals to lend. Objectives: On the 10-year anniversary of the CL, feedback from information skills training indicated a need for a user assessment survey to ensure that the CL continues to meet the medical information needs of the modern clinician. The study was conducted to assess the level of electronic information use, the geographical distribution of users, and the frequency of use by various clinical practitioners. The study also contained a survey of health librarians in the United Kingdom to assess whether our information strategies are in line with international practices and needs. Methods: External consultants were hired to conduct interviews and a survey among the membership and to perform an environmental scan of Canadian and U.S. services. A series of interviews was conducted by the health librarian at health libraries in the U.K. Results: Sixty-two percent of survey respondents said they access information to help inform patient diagnosis or treatment at least every 2Á3 days, 40% of respondents regularly use web-based medical information services, and 46% of respondents used the CL as part or all of their electronic search strategy. The use of the CL varied widely depending on the location of respondents and their access to a health library. Respondents in rural areas and those unaffiliated with hospital libraries were more likely to use the virtual CL. Family practitioners showed the most familiarity with the CL offerings and reported the highest use of the CL (66.7% of respondents). A significant minority of respondents found the CL difficult to navigate. The U.K. arm of the study showed that services offered there were similar to those offered by the CL. Conclusions: Based on the findings, the CL remains a vital service for members. The CL should maintain its services for members and make the user interface easier to use. A majority of clinicians are seeking evidence to support decisions about patient care. The use of web-based resources, including journals and textbooks, is growing. The CL is meeting the needs of a significant portion of respondents, mainly family physicians. The U.K. study found that librarians there offer similar services to those offered by the CL and that, based on their use, U.K. librarians expect to be offering these services for some time to come. The CL must look for synergies and duplication with affiliated libraries and find ways to collaborate and promote services.

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Information Needs and Information-Seeking Behavior of Primary Care Physicians

Cited by 138 publications

References 19 publications

A Survey from a Large Academic Medical Center

A Survey from a Large Academic Medical Center

Determining Primary Care Physician Information Needs to Inform Ambulatory Visit Note Display

The Information Needs of Clinicians: a Study of the Doctors Nova Scotia Clinical Library

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