Assessment of Information Seeking Behavior of Internal Medicine Staff in Shiraz Medical School

Introduction. Practicing medicine needs correct, up to date and easy to use information resources. This study is designed to investigate different aspects of the resources used by internal medicine attending physicians, residents and interns. Methods. All attendings (n: 43), residents (n: 23) and interns (n: 33) of internal medicine ward were, after receiving a brief introduction about the aim of the study, were surveyed by a purpose-designed pre-validated questionnaire during July and August 2002. Eight main aspects (frequency of use, overall satisfaction, etc) were assessed for 16 different paper-based (e.g. medical textbooks) and electronic (e.g. UpToDate, Medline) resources. Data analysis was performed by SPSS version 10 software. Results. Response rate was 63%, 95% and 91% in attendigs, residents, and interns respectively. In all three groups the main reason for referring to a resource was therapeutic problems followed by diagnostic problems. Attendings referred to medical resources the most and interns the least. Highest overall satisfaction was for on-line journals, medical textbooks and UpToDate in attendings medical textbooks, UpToDate and textbook CD-ROMs in residents and UpToDate, Medline and medical textbooks in interns respectively. In all three groups, regarding the 8 above-mentioned parameters, medical textbooks, UpToDate and Medline received the highest scores. Also receiving high scores were on-line journals in attending group manuals, essentials, and textbook CD-ROMs in resident group and translated books, manuals, essentials and textbook CD-ROMs in intern group. The lowest scores belonged to Excerpta Medica and Index Medicus in all three groups. Other low-scored resources were translated books, manuals and essentials in attendings translated books in residents and e-mail based resources (e.g. newsgroups, newsletters) in interns. Conclusion. Both paper-based (medical textbooks) and electronic (UpToDate, Medline) resources were used but the overall tendency was toward traditional paper-based resources. It seems reasonable to make physicians more familiar with the modern electronic resources therefore they will become more knowledgeable in their practice.