Information needs and information-seeking behavior of primary care physicians.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to determine the information needs of primary care physicians in Spain and to describe their information-seeking patterns.


METHODS
This observational study took place in primary care practices located in Madrid, Spain. Participants were a random stratified sample of 112 primary care physicians. Physicians' consultations were video recorded for 4 hours. Clinical questions arising during the patient visit and the sources of information used within the consultation to answer questions were identified. Physicians with unanswered questions were followed up by telephone 2 weeks later to determine whether their questions had since been answered and the sources of information used. Clinical questions were classified by topic and type of information.


RESULTS
A total of 3,511 patient consultations (mean length, 7.8 minutes) were recorded, leading to 635 clinical questions (0.18 questions per consultation). The most frequent questions were related to diagnosis (53%) and treatment (26%). The most frequent generic type of questions was "What is the cause of symptom x?" (20.5%). Physicians searched for answers to 22.8% of the questions (9.6% during consultations). The time taken and the success rate in finding an answer during a consultation and afterward were 2 minutes (100%) and 32 minutes (75%), respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Primary care physicians working in settings where consultations are of short duration have time to answer only 1 in 5 of their questions. Better methods are needed to provide answers to questions that arise in office practice in settings where average consultation time is less than 10 minutes.
González-González
Ana I
AI
Servicio Madrileño de la Salud, Madrid, Spain. agonzalez.gapm10@salud.madrid.org
Dawes
Martin
M
Sánchez-Mateos
José
J
Riesgo-Fuertes
Rosario
R
Escortell-Mayor
Esperanza
E
Sanz-Cuesta
Teresa
T
Hernández-Fernández
Tomás
T
D000328:Adult; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D005194:Family Practice / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019370:Observation; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000523:psychology*; D011216:Practice Management, Medical; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D013030:Spain; D013997:Time Factors; D019037:Urban Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D014741:Video Recording