Abstract
BackgroundUpToDate and PubMed are popular sources for medical information. Data regarding the efficiency of PubMed and UpToDate in daily medical care are lacking.Objective The purpose of this observational study was to describe the percentage of answers retrieved by these information sources, comparing search results with regard to different medical topics and the time spent searching for an answer.Methods A total of 40 residents and 30 internists in internal medicine working in an academic medical center searched PubMed and UpToDate using an observation portal during daily medical care. The information source used for searching and the time needed to find an answer to the question were recorded by the portal. Information was provided by searchers regarding the topic of the question, the situation that triggered the question, and whether an answer was found.Results We analyzed 1305 patient-related questions sent to PubMed and/or UpToDate between October 1, 2005 and March 31, 2007 using our portal. A complete answer was found in 594/1125 (53%) questions sent to PubMed or UpToDate. A partial or full answer was obtained in 729/883 (83%) UpToDate searches and 152/242 (63%) PubMed searches (P < .001). UpToDate answered more questions than PubMed on all major medical topics, but a significant difference was detected only when the question was related to etiology (P < .001) or therapy (P = .002). Time to answer was 241 seconds (SD 24) for UpToDate and 291 seconds (SD 7) for PubMed.Conclusions Specialists and residents in internal medicine generally use less than 5 minutes to answer patient-related questions in daily care. More questions are answered using UpToDate than PubMed on all major medical topics.
Highlights
The use of Internet information sources for answering patient-related questions is taking an ever more important place in the daily practice of a physician
As there are links from our electronic patient record system to two major evidence-based information sources (PubMed and UpToDate), we conducted an observational study to determine how both sources are used in daily routine practice for answering patient-related questions
A partial or full answer was obtained in 729/883 (83%) UpToDate searches and 152/242 (63%) PubMed searches (P < .001)
Summary
The use of Internet information sources for answering patient-related questions is taking an ever more important place in the daily practice of a physician. As there are links from our electronic patient record system to two major evidence-based information sources (PubMed and UpToDate), we conducted an observational study to determine how both sources are used in daily routine practice for answering patient-related questions. Objective: The purpose of this observational study was to describe the percentage of answers retrieved by these information sources, comparing search results with regard to different medical topics and the time spent searching for an answer. The information source used for searching and the time needed to find an answer to the question were recorded by the portal. Time to answer was 241 seconds (SD 24) for UpToDate and 291 seconds (SD 7) for PubMed
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