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Research ArticleOriginal Research

Information Needs and Information-Seeking Behavior of Primary Care Physicians

Ana I. González-González, Martin Dawes, José Sánchez-Mateos, Rosario Riesgo-Fuertes, Esperanza Escortell-Mayor, Teresa Sanz-Cuesta and Tomás Hernández-Fernández
The Annals of Family Medicine July 2007, 5 (4) 345-352; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.681
Ana I. González-González
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Martin Dawes
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José Sánchez-Mateos
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Rosario Riesgo-Fuertes
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Esperanza Escortell-Mayor
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Teresa Sanz-Cuesta
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Tomás Hernández-Fernández
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Abstract

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to determine the information needs of primary care physicians in Spain and to describe their information-seeking patterns.

METHODS This observational study took place in primary care practices located in Madrid, Spain. Participants were a random stratified sample of 112 primary care physicians. Physicians’ consultations were video recorded for 4 hours. Clinical questions arising during the patient visit and the sources of information used within the consultation to answer questions were identified. Physicians with unanswered questions were followed up by telephone 2 weeks later to determine whether their questions had since been answered and the sources of information used. Clinical questions were classified by topic and type of information.

RESULTS A total of 3,511 patient consultations (mean length, 7.8 minutes) were recorded, leading to 635 clinical questions (0.18 questions per consultation). The most frequent questions were related to diagnosis (53%) and treatment (26%). The most frequent generic type of questions was “What is the cause of symptom x?” (20.5%). Physicians searched for answers to 22.8% of the questions (9.6% during consultations). The time taken and the success rate in finding an answer during a consultation and afterward were 2 minutes (100%) and 32 minutes (75%), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS Primary care physicians working in settings where consultations are of short duration have time to answer only 1 in 5 of their questions. Better methods are needed to provide answers to questions that arise in office practice in settings where average consultation time is less than 10 minutes.

  • Information seeking
  • clinical questions
  • knowledge translation
  • primary health care
  • medical informatics
  • information systems
  • information resources
  • office visits
  • Received for publication July 14, 2006.
  • Revision received November 22, 2006.
  • Accepted for publication January 8, 2007.
  • © 2007 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.
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The Annals of Family Medicine: 5 (4)
The Annals of Family Medicine
Vol. 5, Issue 4
1 Jul 2007
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Information Needs and Information-Seeking Behavior of Primary Care Physicians
Ana I. González-González, Martin Dawes, José Sánchez-Mateos, Rosario Riesgo-Fuertes, Esperanza Escortell-Mayor, Teresa Sanz-Cuesta, Tomás Hernández-Fernández
The Annals of Family Medicine Jul 2007, 5 (4) 345-352; DOI: 10.1370/afm.681

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Information Needs and Information-Seeking Behavior of Primary Care Physicians
Ana I. González-González, Martin Dawes, José Sánchez-Mateos, Rosario Riesgo-Fuertes, Esperanza Escortell-Mayor, Teresa Sanz-Cuesta, Tomás Hernández-Fernández
The Annals of Family Medicine Jul 2007, 5 (4) 345-352; DOI: 10.1370/afm.681
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