Dataset Information

Unanswered clinical questions: a survey of specialists and primary care providers.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

With the myriad of cases presented to clinicians every day at our integrated academic health system, clinical questions are bound to arise. Clinicians need to recognize these knowledge gaps and act on them. However, for many reasons, clinicians might not seek answers to these questions. Our goal was to investigate the rationale and process behind these unanswered clinical questions. Subsequently, we explored the use of biomedical information resources among specialists and primary care providers and identified ways to promote more informed clinical decision making.

Methods

We conducted a survey to assess how practitioners identify and respond to information gaps, their background knowledge of search tools and strategies, and their usage of and comfort level with technology.

Results

Most of the 292 respondents encountered clinical questions at least a few times per week. While the vast majority often or always pursued answers, time was the biggest barrier for not following through on questions. Most respondents did not have any formal training in searching databases, were unaware of many digital resources, and indicated a need for resources and services that could be provided at the point of care.

Conclusions

While the reasons for unanswered clinical questions varied, thoughtful review of the responses suggested that a combination of educational strategies, embedded librarian services, and technology applications could help providers pursue answers to their clinical questions, enhance patient safety, and contribute to patient-based, self-directed learning.

SUBMITTER: Brassil E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5234458 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Unanswered clinical questions: a survey of specialists and primary care providers.

Brassil Ellen E Gunn Bridget B Shenoy Anant M AM Blanchard Rebecca R

Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA 20170101 1

<h4>Objective</h4>With the myriad of cases presented to clinicians every day at our integrated academic health system, clinical questions are bound to arise. Clinicians need to recognize these knowledge gaps and act on them. However, for many reasons, clinicians might not seek answers to these questions. Our goal was to investigate the rationale and process behind these unanswered clinical questions. Subsequently, we explored the use of biomedical information resources among specialists and prim ...[more]

PMID: 28096740

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Project description:BackgroundThe acceptance of digital health technologies to support patient care for various clinical conditions among primary care providers and staff has not been explored.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to explore the extent of potential differences between major groups of providers and staff in primary care, including behavioral health consultants (BHCs; eg, psychologists, social workers, and counselors), primary care providers (PCPs; eg, physicians and nurse practitioners), and nurses (registered nurses and licensed practical nurses) in the acceptance of various health technologies (ie, mobile apps, wearables, live video, phone, email, instant chats, text messages, social media, and patient portals) to support patient care across a variety of clinical situations.MethodsWe surveyed 151 providers (51 BHCs, 52 PCPs, and 48 nurses) embedded in primary care clinics across the United States who volunteered to respond to a web-based survey distributed in December 2020 by a large health care market research company. Respondents indicated the technologies they consider appropriate to support patients' health care needs across the following clinical contexts: acute and chronic disease, medication management, health-promoting behaviors, sleep, substance use, and common and serious mental health conditions. We used descriptive statistics to summarize the distribution of demographic characteristics by provider type. We used contingency tables to compile summaries of the proportion of provider types endorsing each technology within and across clinical contexts. This study was exploratory in nature, with the intent to inform future research.ResultsMost of the respondents were from urban and suburban settings (125/151, 82.8%), with 12.6% (n=19) practicing in rural or frontier settings and 4.6% (n=7) practicing in rural-serving clinics. Respondents were dispersed across the United States, including the Northeast (31/151, 20.5%), Midwest (n=32, 21.2%), South (n=49, 32.5%), and West (n=39, 25.8%). The highest acceptance for technologies across clinical contexts was among BHCs (32/51, 63%) and PCPs (30/52, 58%) for live video and among nurses for mobile apps (30/48, 63%). A higher percentage of nurses accepted all other technologies relative to BHCs and PCPs. Similarly, relative to other groups, PCPs indicated lower levels of acceptance. Within clinical contexts, the highest acceptance rates were reported among 80% (41/51) of BHCs and 69% (36/52) of PCPs endorsing live video for common mental health conditions and 75% (36/48) of nurses endorsing mobile apps for health-promoting behaviors. The lowest acceptance across providers was for social media in the context of medication management (9.3% [14/151] endorsement across provider type).ConclusionsThe survey suggests potential differences in the way primary care clinicians and staff envision using technologies to support patient care. Future work must attend to reasons for differences in the acceptance of various technologies across providers and clinical contexts. Such an understanding will help inform appropriate implementation strategies to increase acceptability and gain greater adoption of appropriate technologies across conditions and patient populations.

Dataset Information

Unanswered clinical questions: a survey of specialists and primary care providers.

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Unanswered clinical questions: a survey of specialists and primary care providers.

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