Physicians' characteristics in the usage of online database: a representative nationwide survey of regional hospitals in Taiwan.
Physicians have to deal with a broad range of medical problems in clinical practice, thus making the timely acquisition of relevant information is a critical skill for physicians to improve care quality. The current national study investigates how physicians search for medical information and analyses how they use online medical databases. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted, with 457 valid returns collected. Internet-based resources (Web portals, online databases, and electronic journals) were more often accessed by physicians to look for medical information than personal or paper ones. Almost universally, physicians have accessed online databases. MEDLINE was the most frequently accessed database. Furthermore, physicians under 50 years old tended to access online databases more often than their elder colleagues (OR = 5.27, 95% CI = 1.96-14.14 for age <35; OR = 4.68, 95% CI = 2.07-10.60 for ages 35-50). In addition, physicians with faculty position were more often accessing online databases (OR = 3.32; 95% CI = 1.75-6.30). Other factors - including clinical experience, administrative position, gender, academic degree, and professional specialty - carried no significant differences. These data may assist in determining how to promote the use of online evidence-based medical information for clinical services.
Chiu
Ya-Wen
YW
Division of Health Policy Research and Development, Institute of Population Health Sciences, National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan.
Weng
Yi-Hao
YH
Lo
Heng-Lien
HL
Ting
Hsien-Wei
HW
Hsu
Chih-Cheng
CC
Shih
Ya-Hui
YH
Kuo
Ken N
KN
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013624:Taiwan; D013997:Time Factors