Kritz Marlene, Gschwandtner Manfred, Stefanov Veronika, Hanbury Allan, Samwald Matthias
Society of Physicians Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
J Med Internet Res. 2013 Jun 26;15(6):e122. doi: 10.2196/jmir.2436.
There is a large body of research suggesting that medical professionals have unmet information needs during their daily routines.
To investigate which online resources and tools different groups of European physicians use to gather medical information and to identify barriers that prevent the successful retrieval of medical information from the Internet.
A detailed Web-based questionnaire was sent out to approximately 15,000 physicians across Europe and disseminated through partner websites. 500 European physicians of different levels of academic qualification and medical specialization were included in the analysis. Self-reported frequency of use of different types of online resources, perceived importance of search tools, and perceived search barriers were measured. Comparisons were made across different levels of qualification (qualified physicians vs physicians in training, medical specialists without professorships vs medical professors) and specialization (general practitioners vs specialists).
Most participants were Internet-savvy, came from Austria (43%, 190/440) and Switzerland (31%, 137/440), were above 50 years old (56%, 239/430), stated high levels of medical work experience, had regular patient contact and were employed in nonacademic health care settings (41%, 177/432). All groups reported frequent use of general search engines and cited "restricted accessibility to good quality information" as a dominant barrier to finding medical information on the Internet. Physicians in training reported the most frequent use of Wikipedia (56%, 31/55). Specialists were more likely than general practitioners to use medical research databases (68%, 185/274 vs 27%, 24/88; χ²₂=44.905, P<.001). General practitioners were more likely than specialists to report "lack of time" as a barrier towards finding information on the Internet (59%, 50/85 vs 43%, 111/260; χ²₁=7.231, P=.007) and to restrict their search by language (48%, 43/89 vs 35%, 97/278; χ²₁=5.148, P=.023). They frequently consult general health websites (36%, 31/87 vs 19%, 51/269; χ²₂=12.813, P=.002) and online physician network communities (17%, 15/86, χ²₂=9.841 vs 6%, 17/270, P<.001).
The reported inaccessibility of relevant, trustworthy resources on the Internet and frequent reliance on general search engines and social media among physicians require further attention. Possible solutions may be increased governmental support for the development and popularization of user-tailored medical search tools and open access to high-quality content for physicians. The potential role of collaborative tools in providing the psychological support and affirmation normally given by medical colleagues needs further consideration. Tools that speed up quality evaluation and aid selection of relevant search results need to be identified. In order to develop an adequate search tool, a differentiated approach considering the differing needs of physician subgroups may be beneficial.
大量研究表明，医学专业人员在日常工作中存在未满足的信息需求。
调查欧洲不同群体的医生使用哪些在线资源和工具来收集医学信息，并确定阻碍从互联网成功检索医学信息的障碍。
通过合作伙伴网站向欧洲各地约15000名医生发送了一份详细的基于网络的问卷。分析纳入了500名具有不同学术资格和医学专业的欧洲医生。测量了不同类型在线资源的自我报告使用频率、搜索工具的感知重要性以及感知到的搜索障碍。对不同资格水平（合格医生与实习医生、无教授职位的医学专家与医学教授）和专业（全科医生与专科医生）进行了比较。
大多数参与者熟悉互联网，来自奥地利（43%，190/440）和瑞士（31%，137/440），年龄在50岁以上（56%，239/430），具有高水平的医疗工作经验，经常接触患者，受雇于非学术性医疗保健机构（41%，177/432）。所有群体都报告经常使用通用搜索引擎，并将“难以获取高质量信息”列为在互联网上查找医学信息的主要障碍。实习医生报告使用维基百科的频率最高（56%，31/55）。专科医生比全科医生更有可能使用医学研究数据库（68%，185/274对27%，24/88；χ²₂=44.905，P<.001）。全科医生比专科医生更有可能将“缺乏时间”作为在互联网上查找信息的障碍（59%，50/85对43%，111/260；χ²₁=7.231，P=.007），并按语言限制搜索（48%，43/89对35%，97/278；χ²₁=5.148，P=.023）。他们经常查阅一般健康网站（36%，31/87对19%，51/269；χ²₂=12.813，P=.002）和在线医生网络社区（17%，15/86，χ²₂=9.841对6%，17/270，P<.001）。
医生报告在互联网上难以获取相关、可信的资源，且经常依赖通用搜索引擎和社交媒体，这需要进一步关注。可能的解决方案包括政府加大对定制化医学搜索工具开发和推广的支持，以及为医生提供高质量内容的开放获取。协作工具在提供通常由医学同事给予的心理支持和肯定方面的潜在作用需要进一步考虑。需要确定能够加快质量评估并有助于选择相关搜索结果的工具。为了开发合适的搜索工具，考虑医生亚组不同需求的差异化方法可能是有益的。
