GP preferences for information systems: conjoint analysis of speed, reliability, access and users

To elicit the preferences and trade-offs of UK general practitioners about key features of health information systems, to help inform the design of such systems in future.

A stated choice study to uncover implicit preferences based on a binary choice between scenarios presented in random order.

were all 303 general practice members of the UK Internet service provider, Medix who were approached by email to participate. The main outcome measure was the number of seconds delay in system response that general practitioners were willing to trade off for each key system feature: the reliability of the system, the sites from which the system could be accessed and which staff are able to view patient data.

Doctors valued speed of response most in information systems but would be prepared to wait 28 seconds to access a system in exchange for improved reliability from 95% to 99%, a further 2 seconds for an improvement to 99.9% and 27 seconds for access to data from anywhere including their own home compared with one place in a single health care premises. However, they would require a system that was 14 seconds faster to compensate for allowing social care as well as National Health Service staff to read patient data.

These results provide important new evidence about which system characteristics doctors value highly, and hence which characteristics designers need to focus on when large scale health information systems are planned.