ORIGINAL ARTICLES

The information-seeking behaviour of paediatricians accessing web-based resources

T W Prendiville¹, J Saunders², J Fitzsimons¹

¹ Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin, Ireland
² Statistical Consulting Unit, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

Dr T Prendiville, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Department of Paediatrics, 600 N Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA; tprendi1{at}jhmi.edu

Objectives: To establish the information-seeking behaviours of paediatricians in answering every-day clinical queries.

Design: A questionnaire was distributed to every hospital-based paediatrician (paediatric registrar and consultant) working in Ireland.

Results: The study received 156 completed questionnaires, a 66.1% response. 67% of paediatricians utilised the internet as their first "port of call" when looking to answer a medical question. 85% believe that web-based resources have improved medical practice, with 88% reporting web-based resources are essential for medical practice today. 93.5% of paediatricians believe attempting to answer clinical questions as they arise is an important component in practising evidence-based medicine. 54% of all paediatricians have recommended websites to parents or patients. 75.5% of paediatricians report finding it difficult to keep up-to-date with new information relevant to their practice.

Conclusions: Web-based paediatric resources are of increasing significance in day-to-day clinical practice. Many paediatricians now believe that the quality of patient care depends on it. Information technology resources play a key role in helping physicians to deliver, in a time-efficient manner, solutions to clinical queries at the point of care.

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Re: ‘The information-seeking behavior of paediatricians accessing web-based resources’ (August 2009)

Gillian Leng

ADC Online, 9 Sep 2009 [Full text]