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

Dear editor,

NHS Evidence welcomes any research that looks at the information- seeking behaviour of healthcare professionals and I am pleased to see that so many paediatricians use the internet as their ‘first port of call’ when looking to answer a medical question. It is also very interesting that over three quarters of pediatricians questioned find it difficult to keep up-to-date with new information relevant to their practice.

NHS Evidence is a one-stop internet-based service for everyone who works in health and social care - including paediatricians, social workers, commissioners and academics - to help them make informed decisions about treatments and resources, by providing easy and rapid access to the best clinical, non-clinical evidence and best practice information. From autumn 2009, NHS Evidence accreditation scheme will enable the most reliable and trusted sources of guidance to be easily recognisable by awarding a seal of approval to guidance producers who show compliance with a defined set of criteria reflecting their guidance is robust. This is good news as it will give paediatricians confidence that they are accessing good information to make informed decisions about patient care.

‘Eyes on Evidence’, the monthly e-bulletin from NHS Evidence can support all health and social care professionals by filtering the huge quality of published research, identifying relevant sources of information and reviewing new publications. Paediatricians can register to receive this monthly bulletin via the portal.

I would encourage paediatricians to access the specialist collection on child health within NHS Evidence (http://www.library.nhs.uk/childhealth). The collection addresses a wide range of topics related to the health and well being of children, and highlights evidence updates, systematic reviews and research. Users of the collection can also sign up to a mailing list to help them keep up to date with developments within and additions to the collection - available at http://www.library.nhs.uk/childHealth/page.aspx?pagename=LIST.

I hope that paediatricians will access NHS Evidence for all their health information needs; through accessing quality-assured information they will be able to deliver the best standard of care to their patients.

Kind regards,