Improving on-line skills and knowledge. A randomized trial of teaching rural physicians to use on-line medical information.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the change in frequency and methods with which a pilot group of rural physicians consulted on-line medical resources before and after an educational intervention.


METHODS
Physicians were randomly assigned to an educational intervention or control group. Self-administered questionnaires were completed before and 3 months after the intervention.


METHODS
Rural practices in southwestern Ontario.


METHODS
Eighty rural (defined as a population of 15000 or less) physicians in southwestern Ontario, with a computer with Internet access.


METHODS
Individualized 3-hour training session on using the World Wide Web to research patient-related questions.


METHODS
Frequency of access and comfort with on-line medical information were compared after intervention with baseline data using the Wilcoxon two-sample test.


RESULTS
At follow up, the intervention group showed a significant improvement over the control group in their frequency of accessing the World Wide Web to address patient-related questions (P = .009), in their comfort level in using on-line databases (P = .032), and in their frequency of accessing on-line databases (P = .044).


CONCLUSIONS
Rural physicians' comfort and competence in using computers to address patient problems can be improved by an individualized 3-hour training session.
Kronick
Jonathan
J
Office of Professional and Educational Development, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London. jonathan.kronick@med.uwo.ca
Blake
Catherine
C
Munoz
Eeva
E
Heilbrunn
Lila
L
Dunikowski
Lynn
L
Milne
William Kenneth
WK
D003200:Computer User Training; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services; D020407:Internet; D009864:Ontario; D010865:Pilot Projects; D019035:Rural Health Services; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric