Information needs and information-seeking behavior among resident physicians in a tertiary hospital in Iloilo City

Background@#Many physicians encounter clinical questions in their practice. However, many of these questions are left unanswered due to various reasons.@*Objective@#The study aimed to determine the information needs and information-seeking behavior among resident physicians in a tertiary hospital in Iloilo City.@*Methods@#The study used a cross-sectional study design. The fifty-seven resident physicians of the different residency training programs of Iloilo Mission Hospital answered a twenty-minute self-administered questionnaire on May 2019. Data entry, descriptive statistics, and correlational analysis were done using Microsoft Excel version 1905 and SPSS version 26. Pearson chi square and Gamma tests at alpha level 0.05 were used to assess the association between variables.@*Results@#Majority (80.7%) of resident physicians needed access to health information resource to answer their daily clinical queries. Respondents have an average of 4.7 questions per patient per meeting. They successfully answered 60.9% of questions encountered. Their preferred information resources were fellow residents, online journals, Medscape, consultants, and Google. The top three barriers to information seeking are lack of time, forgetting the question, and difficulty in finding answers in selected health resource. All respondents exhibit a positive attitude towards pursuing evidence-based answers. There is no relationship between age, gender, specialty, and attitude towards pursuing answers.@*Conclusions@#The resident physicians of Iloilo Mission Hospital pursued and answered 60.9 % of questions encountered in clinical practice. The respondents believed that using health information resources can improve patient care and update one’s medical knowledge.

Information needs and sources for ebola virus disease among staff of a college of medicine in ENUGU, Nigeria

This study was carried out to ascertain the information needs and sources for Ebola among staff of College of Medicine, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Enugu. The study adopted the descriptive survey design. A total of 200 questionnaires were used to elicit information from the respondents. The 200 questionnaire were administered to the respondents and all the responses were retrieved accordingly for data analysis. The data were analyzed using percentages. Findings showed that a good number of the respondents correctly identified best preventive measures against Ebola as avoiding raw foods especially under cooked meat and washing hands regularly with soap or use of hand sanitizers. This show the respondents are aware of the disease. Information is needed most on the causes of Ebola virus and television and radio were major sources of information on Ebola. In conclusion, the study noted that there is need for planned and proper dissemination of information on of Ebola Virus Disease. This will help the citizens to prevent the disease as well as manage any outbreak.

Recognition of scientific literature novelty assessment in medical and health staff of a military area com-mand and their information need / 中华医学图书情报杂志

Objective To provide reference for effective scientific literature novelty assessment by investigating its recognition in medical and health staff of a military area command and their use of information resources and need of information .Methods Knowledge of scientific literature novelty assessment , satisfaction of scientific literature novelty assessment report, need and use of information resources were investigated in 149 staff of 9 hospitals with self-de-signed questionnaire .Results The general recognition and satisfaction levels of scientific literature novelty assess-ment were good in medical and health staff of a military area command .However , the information resources were insufficiently used , which was related with the scientific research level and scientific literature novelty assessment popularization .Conclusion Scientific literature novelty assessment should be popularized , staff engaged in scientific literature novelty assessment should be trained, sharing of information resources should be strengthened , and infor-mation service should be expanded and deepened in military area commands.

Information of autism in online question and answer communities of China and USA / 中华医学图书情报杂志

The data of autism in online question and answer communities of Zhidao.baidu.com and Yahoo!Answers were analyzed, which showed that the understanding of online question and answer communities users in China and USA was quite different.The users in USA mastered the basic knowledge of diseases much better than those in China and more detailed questions were asked by users in USA than by those in China.The clarity, completeness, accuracy and operability are the most important factors for selection of answers.Autism and its countermeasures have been well and widely accepted in American society.

Exploring Medicine Information Needs of Hypertensive Patients Using Short Message Service.

Aims: To explore the pattern of unmet medicine information needs of hypertensive patients on long term therapy and their attitude to use of SMS (mobile phone short message service) for medicine information exchange with hospital pharmacists. Sample: 117 hypertensive patients on long term therapy who had been accessing care for at least one year. Study Design: An exploratory medicine information exchange programme followed by a cross-sectional survey. Place and Duration of Study: Outpatient Clinic of Department of Cardiology at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife, Nigeria between October, 2010and May, 2011. Methods: Patients were prompted with SMS twice weekly for 5-8 months for use of their medication with advice to send their medicine information needs to the hospital pharmacist. Received messages were subjected to content analysis to identify their themes. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to explore patient attitude to the use of SMS. The 17-item questionnaire was designed on a 5-point Likert scale for responses with weights of 0-4. Data obtained were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. These include frequencies and mean of weighted averages (MWA); tests of relationships, associations and of differences in means. Results: A total of 63 SMS texts were received from the respondents and 44% of the messages expressed medicine information needs. Majority of the enquiries were related to indications and adverse effects. The patients’ attitude to the use of SMS for medicine information exchange with pharmacists was generally positive (MWA=3.13) with no significant demographic effects. Some (46%) of the patients called for institutionalisation of the medicine information exchange programme. Conclusion: The unmet medicine information needs of chronic hypertensive patients in the study were related mainly to indications and side effects of prescribed and nonprescribed medications and the patients clamoured for use of SMS in redressing the anomaly.

Cognition and need of medical information in clinicians of Sichuan Province / 中华医学图书情报杂志

The questionnaire investigation showed that the clinicians in Sichuan Province have a rather good cognition of medical information with a strong desire for medical information.However, measures should be taken to alleviate the contradictions between their information need and access ability, and excellent medical information service should be provided for them at a low cost .

Need-based design of medical mobile learning platform / 中华医学图书情报杂志

The medical mobile learning platform was constructed according to the information need of teachers and students in Shanxi Medical University, Changzhi Medical College, and Fenyang Medical College.The teaching and learning resources in Shanxi Medical University were integrated into the platform which could thus provide a variety of interactive learning ways for its users and users could rapidly find out their interested information resources. However, the platform construction needs the implementation of incentive measures, and regulations and rules for the protection of intellectual property rights.

Factors influencing daily life information searching behaviors in elderly people / 中华医学图书情报杂志

Objective To investigate the factors influencing the daily life information searching behaviors in elderly people receiving different old-age services.Methods The factors influencing the daily life information searching behaviors in 1178 elderly people with their age >60 years receiving different old-age services in the central region of China were investigated with questionnaire and assessed according to self-designed daily life information search-ing scale .Results The total score of daily life information searching behaviors in elderly people receiving home-, community-and institution-based old-age service was 62 .63 ±13 .13 , 65 .16 ±13 .37 ,and 57 .84 ±11 .98 , respec-tively.Age, health state, education level, body factors, insufficient equipments, and information search ability were the factors influencing the daily life information searching behaviors in elderly people .Conclusion Old-age service should be strengthened and the daily life information searching ability of elderly people should be improved according to the factors that influence their daily life information searching behaviors .

Survey on the Health Information Need of the Community Health Practitioners / 대한의료정보학회지

This research was initiated as a preliminary work-up of information system development for primary health care delivery by community health practitioners in rural areas in Korea. The study was focused on the necessary information for enhancing the works of the community health practitioners and that required for health promotion and maintenance within the community. The data were obtained by a questionnaire survey from 458 community health practitioners who participated in computer related education from June 25th to September 26th, 2001. Only 288 (62.9%) of 458 responses were selected for evaluation due to incomplete returns. The majority(76.8%) of participants was using computer once a day at the healthcare centers and the duration of computer usage was more than one year in most cases. The primary usage of computer was for making documents, sending and receiving e-mails, and searching information on the internet. On the contrary, other skills and functions as data management, statistics, web development, games, program development, e-business, and searching for books and articles were not as readily utilized. The essential information for enhancing the performance of the community health practitioners appeared to be that related to drugs and diseases primarily. Other items for respondents in the decreasing order of importance were minimizing manual paper-works, computerized business, computer education, and media development and materials for health education, respectively. The overall information need of respondents was the highest on health and disease, and that on others such as health education, health promotion, elderly care, and fitness exercises were high also. In summary, the community health practitioners should have applicable information system to enhance their performance by obtaining necessary health maintenance and promotion information; by networking available resources; and by enabling them to adapt to rapidly changing policies and work environment. The outcome of this study may provide information elements necessary in development of Health Information Systems for community health practitioners.

Information Needs on Patients with Cancer in Korea / 성인간호학회지

PURPOSE: To explore what particular types of information were important to patients diagnosed with cancer. METHODS: Seventy three patients with cancer at an outpatient clinic and hospitalized patients in W Christian Hospital Korea, responded. The structured questionnaire developed by the investigator based on previous studies. RESULTS: There was a significant negative relationship between age and the score of informational need (r=-.307, p<.05). Level of education, and level of monthly income were related to level of informational need. The top three informational priorities according to the time since diagnosis were 'Self care during treatment', 'Health food and diet', 'Likelihood of recurrence', 'Follow up care' and 'Side effects'. The top three informational priorities for patients with breast cancer were 'Likelihood of recurrence', 'Metastasis possibility', 'Treatment options', and 'Side effects. For patients with stomach cancer, they were 'Follow up care', 'Healthy food and diet', 'Likelihood of recurrence', and 'Metastasis possibility', and for patients with colon/rectal cancer, they were 'Side effects', 'Healthy food and diet', 'Likelihood of recurrence', and 'Self care during treatment'. CONCLUSION: The assessment of information needs based on demographic factors and disease-related factors is critical in helping patients with cancer to manage their illness.