title: Emergency department physician internet use during clinical encounters.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study explored the Internet log files from emergency department workstations to determine search patterns, compared them to discharge diagnoses, and the emergency medicine curriculum as a way to quantify physician search behaviors.
  
  
  METHODS
  The log files from the computers from January 2006 to March 2010 were mapped to the EM curriculum and compared to discharge diagnoses to explore search terms and website usage by physicians and students.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Physicians in the ED averaged 1.35 searches per patient encounter using Google.com and UpToDate.com 83.9% of the time. The most common searches were for drug information (23.1%) by all provider types. The majority of the websites utilized were in the third tier evidence level for evidence-based medicine (EBM).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We have shown a need for a readily accessible drug knowledge base within the EMR for decision support as well as easier access to first and second tier EBM evidence.
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chisholm
authors.forename: John T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Finnell
mesh_terms: D004635:Emergency Medicine; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D057386:Search Engine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*