Use of traditional versus electronic medical-information resources by residents and interns.
BACKGROUND
Little is known about the information-seeking behaviour of junior doctors, with regard to their use of traditional versus electronic sources of information.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the amount of time junior doctors spent using various medical-information resources and how useful they perceived these resources to be.


METHODS
A questionnaire study of all residents and interns in a tertiary teaching hospital in July and August 2004.


RESULTS
In total, 134 doctors returned the completed questionnaires (response rate 79.8%). They spent the most time using traditional resources like teaching sessions and print textbooks, rating them as most useful. However, electronic resources like MEDLINE, UpToDate, and online review articles also ranked highly. Original research articles were less popular.


CONCLUSIONS
Residents and interns prefer traditional sources of medical information. Meanwhile, though some electronic resources are rated highly, more work is required to remove the barriers to evidence-based medicine.
Phua
Jason
J
Division of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, National University Hospital, Singapore.
Lim
T K
TK
D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007993:Libraries, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007999:Library Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016239:MEDLINE / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013782:Textbooks as Topic; D013997:Time Factors