Abstract
ObjectiveThis article describes the evaluation of the experiences and needs of users of the Drug Information Resources (DIR) website. The DIR website attracts traffic and use from around the world, with the highest number of users in Canada and the United States.MethodsAn online questionnaire was developed through use of a literature review and Google Analytics data. Face validity testing and test-retest reliability were completed prior to releasing the questionnaire.ResultsAlthough the Google Analytics data showed that the site is used internationally, most respondents were Canadian students. They used the site for academic and clinical purposes and reported it was easy to use, was well organized, and included required resources, and they would recommend it to others.ConclusionThe DIR website was found to be a valuable resource for educational and clinical use. Future studies will aim to obtain input from international users.
Highlights
The ability to seek, find, and utilize information at the point of need is a crucial element of evidencebased health care practice
The questionnaire included open-ended questions about what the strengths of the Drug Information Resources (DIR) website are, what new content or features they would like added to it, what they would suggest to improve it, and if they would recommend it to others
The study results indicated that local student users valued the DIR website, used it for academic and clinical work, and had minimal suggestions for areas of improvement, they indicated they wanted to see it continue to exist and be updated
Summary
The ability to seek, find, and utilize information at the point of need is a crucial element of evidencebased health care practice. Health care professionals’ clinical decision-making and patient care are impacted by the availability of many electronic resources of varying quality [1,2,3,4]. The Internet has made information more readily available to health care practitioners and their patients, but with this ease of access, users experience difficulties in identifying and filtering “the most useful, accurate, and credible sources while searching online for health information” [5]. Surveys of medical residents and nurses showed that searches for information most frequently involved Google and Wikipedia, in addition to UpToDate and PubMed [7, 8]
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