Answering clinical questions
- PMID: 8708623
Answering clinical questions
Abstract
Background: Physicians often have unanswered clinical questions. The purpose of this study was to determine how often the answers to these questions can be found in the medical literature.
Methods: We collected unanswered clinical questions from family physicians at the end of clinical half-days. The authors and medical librarians then used textbooks and MEDLINE to find answers to each question. We returned to the physicians one to five selected references for each question. Each physician rated these sources on how well they answered the questions and how they might influence the physician's practice.
Results: One hundred three questions were gathered. Physicians asked an average of 0.5 questions per half-day. We searched for answers to 86 questions, and the physicians returned ratings for 84. Forty-five (54%) of these questions were fully or nearly fully answered by the materials returned to the physicians. Of the questions for which answers were found, MEDLINE searches accounted for 71%; textbooks, 20%; and a combination, 9%. MEDLINE searches took an average of 27 minutes, whereas textbook searches averaged 6 minutes.
Conclusions: The medical literature can provide answers to a majority of clinical questions; however, finding these answers is time-consuming and expensive. Physicians need more efficient ways to answer their clinical questions.
Similar articles
-
How do primary care physicians seek answers to clinical questions? A literature review.J Med Libr Assoc. 2006 Jan;94(1):55-60. J Med Libr Assoc. 2006. PMID: 16404470 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Answering family physicians' clinical questions using electronic medical databases.J Fam Pract. 2001 Nov;50(11):960-5. J Fam Pract. 2001. PMID: 11711012
-
Answering questions at the point of care: do residents practice EBM or manage information sources?Acad Med. 2007 Mar;82(3):298-303. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0b013e3180307fed. Acad Med. 2007. PMID: 17327723
-
Information needs and information-seeking behavior of primary care physicians.Ann Fam Med. 2007 Jul-Aug;5(4):345-52. doi: 10.1370/afm.681. Ann Fam Med. 2007. PMID: 17664501 Free PMC article.
-
How to find answers to clinical questions.Am Fam Physician. 2009 Feb 15;79(4):293-6. Am Fam Physician. 2009. PMID: 19235495 Review.
Cited by
-
Increasing the satisfaction of general practitioners with continuing medical education programs: a method for quality improvement through increasing teacher-learner interaction.BMC Fam Pract. 2002 Aug 20;3:15. doi: 10.1186/1471-2296-3-15. BMC Fam Pract. 2002. PMID: 12186658 Free PMC article.
-
Identifying priorities for cancer caregiver interventions: protocol for a three-round modified Delphi study.BMJ Open. 2019 Feb 13;9(2):e024725. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024725. BMJ Open. 2019. PMID: 30765405 Free PMC article.
-
Barriers to rural physician use of a digital health sciences library.Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1998 Oct;86(4):583-93. Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1998. PMID: 9803304 Free PMC article.
-
How do primary care physicians seek answers to clinical questions? A literature review.J Med Libr Assoc. 2006 Jan;94(1):55-60. J Med Libr Assoc. 2006. PMID: 16404470 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Methods for semi-automated indexing for high precision information retrieval.J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2002 Nov-Dec;9(6):637-52. doi: 10.1197/jamia.m1075. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2002. PMID: 12386114 Free PMC article.