GPs' Information Seeking Behavior in Ardabil and Their Approach towards Electronic Sources

Background & Objective: General physicians require a number of different resources to cover the broad scope of their practice. A critical point in their medical practice is timely access to the wide variety of clinical information sources that contribute to patient care decisions. The aims of this study were to assess information seeking behavior of Ardabil general physicians and their approach towards electronic sources. Methods: This study was done using Questionnaire research method. A total of 191 questionnaires were distributed among GPs and 167 relevant questionnaires were gathered. Data were analysed applying SPSS. Results: 75% of general physicians had access to internet. The majority of them were in search of information for Keeping themselves up-to-date and solving medical problems (78.4%). General physicians' first priority was text books, and the second priority was continuing medical education courses for meeting information needs. They used mostly books followed by medical journals as formal channels, and updated their information taking part in continuing medical education courses followed by congresses and seminar as informal channels. As obstacles to finding necessary information they reported lack of adequate time (61.7%), near to half of them (47.3%) reported lack of sufficient information resources in libraries, and unfamiliarity with medical databases (40%). Conclusion: General physicians are aware of the importance of internet in accessing information, but they did not use it as an important tool to answer questions rising in practice. The majority of general physicians used books to access information followed by continuing medical education courses, and used internet in the sixth rate. The majority of them used low rate the internet, electronic resources, and medical databases because of inadequate familiarity with them. General physicians need training in internet, web search tools and search methods, and medical database