Michelle & Jon,
These are fascinating data! It would be nice to have more details, even if
only approximate.
So can I ask both of you to let us know:
1. Where the questions came from, including the time frame
2. How many questions were asked
3. The resource used
A couple of years ago I checked back through my questions logbook and found
that, of 80 questions asked I had answered over 80% (mostly from PubMed)
but could have answered about 20% from Clinical Evidence (lower hit rate,
but answered more quickly and more thoroughly).
Incidentally, the "classic" study of this issue is: Sackett DL, Straus SE.
Finding and applying evidence during clinical rounds: the "evidence cart".
JAMA. 1998 Oct 21;280(15):1336-8. It found the quickest to access was their
own CATbank followed by Best Evidence (ACP and EBM journals back issues),
then Medline, but it was done prior to the new evidence products such as
Clinical Evidence, UpToDate, etc.
Thanks
Paul Glasziou
At 18/07/2005, Hilton Boon Michele wrote:
> >>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
Paul Glasziou
Department of Primary Health Care &
Director, Centre for Evidence-Based Practice, Oxford
ph: 44-1865-227055 www.cebm.net
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