Just in time information for clinicians: a questionnaire evaluation of the ATTRACT project.

General practitioners generate many clinical questions during consultations. 2 However, when they seek answers to these queries they tend to rely on colleagues and “desk top” references rather than searching the literature themselves. ATTRACT was created in 1997 to provide rapid, evidence based summaries to clinical queries. All general practitioners in Gwent were invited to send their clinical queries to ATTRACT. For each query an information manager (JB) undertook a rapid search of the literature. The information found was appraised, summarised onto one side of A4 paper, and faxed to the requestor within six hours (see appendix on the BMJ’s website for more details on the search, appraisal, and summary process). Examples of the questions received include “Do decongestants help in people with eustachian tube dysfunction?” and “What are the risks of flying while pregnant?” (see BMJ’s website for list of most popular questions). We report here an initial evaluation of this service.