A PRESCRIPTION FOR HELP

1
A PRESCRIPTION FOR HELP
Assessing the Online Information Needsof General
Practitionersin the United Kingdom
2
BACKGROUND

• Patients are turning to self-diagnosis through
  Internet searches (Daily Mail, 10 Nov 2006)
• Some patients become cyberchondriacs (Brewer,
  2005)
• NHS Direct website aimed at patient information
• Evidence-based medicine has placed a premium on
  information retrieval on medical practice (Booth,
  2006)
• Tang and Ng (2006) 58 success rate at
  diagnosing illnesses with Google searches
• Royal College of General Practitioners
  Internet is in no way a replacement for doctors

3
OBJECTIVES

• Assessment of online information available to
  general practitioners in the UK
• Analyse how general practitioners gather new and
  updated information online
• Examine preferred authoritative sourcesand who
  can use them
• Discover additional methods of disseminating
  up-to-date and accurate information

4
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

• Survey submitted online through Joint Information
  Services Committee mailing lists (JISCmail)
• BOLTONFORUM (Health services in Bolton)
• GPRESEARCH (General practice research)
• HEALTH-INFORMATICS-FORESIGHT (Foresight program
  in Health Informatics)
• Survey submitted through national groups
• Royal College of General Practitioners
• British Medical Association
• British Medical Informatics Society
• Health Services Group, Chartered Institute of
  Library and Information Professionals
• Ideal sample group 50 respondents from across UK

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QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS

• Interviews with individual respondents by
  request of quantitative survey
• Sample will include all areas of the UK
• Interview urban and rural professionals
• Response to represent needs in different
  localities
• Discussions designed to provide information
  without disturbing patient confidentiality
• Ideal survey number 4 to 6

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DISSEMINATION

• Report of project findings
• Presented to participants
• Awareness campaign
• Potential follow-up projects
• Web portal for distributing information
• Publication of guide to web-based resources
• Training program for professionals

7
REFERENCES
Booth, A. (2005) Wheres the harm in EBLIP?
Current perspectives, future developments,
Journal of the European Association for Health
Information and Libraries, Vol. 2 (3) p. 34-38,
available at http//www.eahil.net/newsletter/journ
al_2006_vol2_n3.pdf (accessed 2 December 2006).
Brewer, B. (2005) From web-savvy patient to a
cyberchondriac, Wall Street Journal online
edition, available at http//online.wsj.com/public
/article/SB112171034195688494-_ARRWh4RqeF2SX1PoiMq
LpltLbl_20060718.html?modrss_free (accessed 29
November 2006).
Google could help doctors diagnose illness. The
Daily Mail, 10 November 2006, available at
http//www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/hea
lth/healthmain.html?in_article_id415641in_page_
id1774 (accessed 29 November 2006)
JISCmail National Academic Mailing List Server
(2005-2006), available at http//www.jiscmail.co.u
k (accessed 2 December 2006)
NHS Direct (2006), available at
http//www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk (accessed 2 December
2006)
Tang, H. Ng, J.H.K., (2006) Googling for a
diagnosisuse of Google as a diagnostic aid
internet based study, British Medical Journal
Online First edition, available at
http//www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/bmj.39003
.640567.AEv1 (accessed 29 November 2006).