Information Needs and Information-Seeking Behavior of Primary Care Physicians

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to determine the information needs of pri-mary 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 stratifi ed sample of 112 primary care physicians. Physicians ’ consultations were video recorded for 4 hours. Clini-cal questions arising during the patient visit and the sources of information used within the consultation to answer questions were identifi ed. 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 classifi ed 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 fi nding 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 offi ce practice in settings where average consultation time is less than 10 minutes. Ann Fam Med 2007;5:345-352. DOI: 10.1370/afm.681