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Answering physicians' clinical questions: obstacles and potential solutions
John W Ely1, Jerome A Osheroff, M Lee Chambliss
1Department of Family Medicine, University of Iowa College of Medicine, 200 Hawkins Drive, 01291-D PFP, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. john-ely@uiowa.edu
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA
|November 25, 2004
Summary
Physicians often don't seek answers to patient-care questions due to perceived lack of information. When they do search, clinical information resources frequently fail to provide needed answers, hindering effective patient care.
Area of Science:
- Medical Informatics
- Clinical Decision Support
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Physicians face numerous patient-care questions during ambulatory care.
- Existing clinical information resources may not adequately meet physicians' needs.
- Identifying barriers to information seeking is crucial for improving healthcare.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the primary obstacles preventing physicians from answering patient-care questions.
- To identify physicians' most desired improvements for clinical information resources.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative analysis of questions posed by 48 generalist physicians during patient encounters.
- Assessment of reported obstacles and physician recommendations for resource enhancement.
Main Results:
- Physicians pursued answers to only 55% of 1,062 questions asked.
- Doubt about answer existence (11%) and resource failure to provide answers (26%) were key obstacles.
- Physicians requested comprehensive, practice-relevant resources with quick-access features like lists and algorithms.
Conclusions:
- Many physician questions go unanswered due to perceived information scarcity.
- Current clinical information resources often fail to meet physicians' needs.
- Physician-driven recommendations can guide the development of more effective clinical information tools.
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