Physicians' patterns of using a computerized collection of guidelines for primary care

Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 1998 Summer;14(3):484-93. doi: 10.1017/s0266462300011466.

Abstract

Physician's Desk Reference and Database is a Finnish collection of computerized primary care guidelines. The program has been in clinical use since 1989. For this study, a function producing a log file of all searches was added to the program. Two hundred twenty-seven users returned log files that contained 15,267 searches. The users made 3.12 (range 1-10.4) searches per day. The average time needed to find and read an article was 4.9 minutes. Sufficient facts were found in 71% of the searches. Dermatology was the most popular field of interest, followed by infectious diseases and cardiology.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Databases, Factual / statistics & numerical data*
  • Decision Support Systems, Clinical / statistics & numerical data*
  • Female
  • Finland
  • Guideline Adherence
  • Health Services Research
  • Humans
  • Information Services
  • Male
  • Practice Guidelines as Topic*
  • Primary Health Care / standards*
  • Primary Health Care / statistics & numerical data
  • Surveys and Questionnaires