General practitioners' use of online evidence during consultations.
BACKGROUND
Clinicians have many unanswered questions during clinical encounters which may impact on the quality and outcomes of decisions made. Provision of online evidence at the point of care is one strategy that provides clinicians with easy access to up-to-date evidence in clinical settings to support evidence-based decision-making.


OBJECTIVE
To determine if and when general practitioners use an online evidence system in routine clinical practice, the type of questions for which clinicians seek evidence and the extent to which the system provides clinically useful answers.


METHODS
A prospective cohort study which involved a 4-week clinical trial of Quick Clinical, an online evidence system specifically designed around the needs of general practitioners.


METHODS
Two hundred and twenty-seven clinicians who had a computer with Internet access in their consulting rooms.


METHODS
Computer logs and survey analysis.


RESULTS
One hundred and ninety-three general practitioners used the online evidence system to conduct on average 8.7 searches/month. The majority of these (81%) were conducted from consulting rooms and carried out between 9a.m. and 7p.m. (83%). The most frequent searches conducted related to diagnosis (40%) and treatment (35%). 83% of clinicians believed that Quick Clinical (QC) had the potential to improve patient care, and one in four users reported direct experience of improvements in care. In 73% of queries with clinician feedback participants reported that they were able to find clinically useful information during their routine work.


CONCLUSIONS
General practitioners will use an online evidence retrieval system in routine practice, and report that its use improves the quality of patient care.
Magrabi
Farah
F
Centre for Health Informatics, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia. f.magrabi@unsw.edu.au
Coiera
Enrico W
EW
Westbrook
Johanna I
JI
Gosling
A Sophie
AS
Vickland
Victor
V
D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003658:Decision Making, Computer-Assisted; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010821:Physicians, Family; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014584:User-Computer Interface