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>>I run 2 Q&A services for primary care (www.attract.wales.nhs.uk and
>>www.clinicalanswers.nhs.uk) and we've examined what resources were used in
>>our answer.  In two separate evaluations (on the different services and 18
>>months apart) the number of questions that could be answer solely by
>>secondary material was 21%.

In a completely unscientific test on a random occasion, I found answers to 80% of a sample of clinical questions using InfoRetriever, answering each question in less than 90 seconds.

What is the 21% figure measuring - the quality of the selection of secondary resources used, the availability of resources to those particular searchers, the nature of the types of questions directed to the Q&A service, or the ability of those searchers to find adequate answers from secondary resources?  All of these elements confound the measurement of the ability of secondary resources to answer clinical questions.

Michele Hilton Boon
Information Scientist
National Prescribing Centre