Online information search behaviour of physicians

BACKGROUND Although doctors increasingly engage in online information seeking to complement their medical practice, little is known regarding what online information sources are used and how effective they are. OBJECTIVE Grounded on self-determination and needs theory, this study posits that doctors tend to use online information sources to fulfil their information requirements in three pre-defined areas: patient care, knowledge development and research activities. Fulfilling these information needs is argued to improve doctors' perceived medical practice competence. METHODS Performing PLS-SEM analysis on primary survey data from 303 medical doctors practicing in four major Greek hospitals, a conceptual model is empirically tested. RESULTS Using authoritative online information sources was found to fulfil all types of information needs. Contrarily, using non-authoritative information sources had no significant effect. Satisfying information requirements relating to patient care and research activities enhanced doctors' perceptions about their medical practice competence. In contrast, meeting knowledge development information needs had the opposite result. DISCUSSION Consistent with past studies, outcomes indicate that doctors tend to use non-authoritative online information sources; yet their use was found to have no significant value in fulfilling their information requirements. CONCLUSIONS Authoritative online information sources are found to improve perceived medical practice competence by satisfying doctors' diverse information requirements.

[1]  Patrick Mikalef,et al.  Determinants of IT Adoption in Hospitals - IT Maturity Surveyed in an European Context , 2011, HEALTHINF.

[2]  Robert Kristofco,et al.  Information‐seeking behaviors and reflective practice , 2006, The Journal of continuing education in the health professions.

[3]  F. Herzberg,et al.  The motivation to work , 1960 .

[4]  Hossam Hamdy,et al.  BEME systematic review: Predictive values of measurements obtained in medical schools and future performance in medical practice , 2006, Medical teacher.

[5]  J. Boruff,et al.  Mobile devices in medicine: a survey of how medical students, residents, and faculty use smartphones and other mobile devices to find information. , 2014, Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA.

[6]  E. Deci,et al.  Self‐determination theory and work motivation , 2005 .

[7]  P. Hider,et al.  The information-seeking behavior of clinical staff in a large health care organization. , 2009, Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA.

[8]  K. Tates,et al.  Patients' and health professionals' use of social media in health care: motives, barriers and expectations. , 2013, Patient education and counseling.

[9]  Chelsea A. Jenter,et al.  Relationship Between Use of Electronic Health Record Features and Health Care Quality: Results of a Statewide Survey , 2010, Medical care.

[10]  E. Deci,et al.  Intrinsic Need Satisfaction: A Motivational Basis of Performance and Weil‐Being in Two Work Settings1 , 2004 .

[11]  Debra Revere,et al.  Understanding the information needs of public health practitioners: A literature review to inform design of an interactive digital knowledge management system , 2007, J. Biomed. Informatics.

[12]  J. Nunnally.  Psychometric Theory (2nd ed), New York: McGraw-Hill. , 1978 .

[13]  M. Wasko,et al.  Understanding the Factors That Influence the Adoption and Meaningful Use of Social Media by Physicians to Share Medical Information , 2012, Journal of medical Internet research.

[14]  Anand K. Gramopadhye,et al.  Healthcare information on YouTube: A systematic review , 2015, Health Informatics J..

[15]  Michael Fordis,et al.  Accuracy of physician self-assessment compared with observed measures of competence: a systematic review. , 2006, JAMA.

[16]  Wole Olatokun,et al.  Analyzing traditional medical practitioners’ information-seeking behaviour using Taylor’s information-use environment model , 2010, J. Libr. Inf. Sci..

[17]  Daniel L. Sherrell,et al.  Communications of the Association for Information Systems , 1999 .

[18]  Karen Davies.  Information Needs and Barriers to Accessing Electronic Information: Hospital-Based Physicians Compared to Primary Care Physicians , 2011 .

[19]  Patrick Mikalef,et al.  Exploring the online satisfaction gap of medical doctors: an expectation-confirmation investigation of information needs. , 2015, Advances in experimental medicine and biology.

[20]  Rohan Patankar,et al.  Wikipedia vs Peer-Reviewed Medical Literature for Information About the 10 Most Costly Medical Conditions , 2014, The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.

[21]  T. D. Wilson,et al.  On user studies and information needs , 2006, J. Documentation.

[22]  B. Buchanan,et al.  Physicians' information needs: analysis of questions posed during clinical teaching. , 1991, Annals of internal medicine.

[23]  T. C. Edwin Cheng,et al.  Extending the Understanding of End User Information Systems Satisfaction Formation: An Equitable Needs Fulfillment Model Approach , 2008, MIS Q..

[24]  Brian D. Janz,et al.  Information Systems and Healthcare XVI: Physician Adoption of Electronic Medical Records: Applying the UTAUT Model in a Healthcare Context , 2007, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[25]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. , 1981 .

[26]  J. Carroll,et al.  A New Dimension of Health Care: Systematic Review of the Uses, Benefits, and Limitations of Social Media for Health Communication , 2013, Journal of medical Internet research.

[27]  Yvonne Kammerer,et al.  Effects of search interface and Internet-specific epistemic beliefs on source evaluations during Web search for medical information: an eye-tracking study , 2012, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[28]  Lotty Hooft,et al.  Barriers to GPs' use of evidence-based medicine: a systematic review. , 2012, The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

[29]  V. Curran,et al.  A review of evaluation outcomes of web‐based continuing medical education , 2005, Medical education.

[30]  Ruth Gilbert,et al.  Evidence based medicine and the medical curriculum , 2008, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[31]  Viswanath Venkatesh,et al.  Creation of Favorable User Perceptions: Exploring the Role of Intrinsic Motivation , 1999, MIS Q..

[32]  P. Younger.  Internet-based information-seeking behaviour amongst doctors and nurses: a short review of the literature. , 2010, Health information and libraries journal.

[33]  Marina Papastergiou,et al.  Students’ Mental Models of the Internet and Their Didactical Exploitation in Informatics Education , 2005, Education and Information Technologies.

[34]  Christine C. Cheston,et al.  Social Media Use in Medical Education: A Systematic Review , 2013, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[35]  T. D. Wilson,et al.  Revisiting user studies and information needs , 2006, J. Documentation.

[36]  Richard Baskerville,et al.  Managing culture creep: Toward a strategic model of user IT culture , 2010, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[37]  Michelle Pannor Silver,et al.  Patient Perspectives on Online Health Information and Communication With Doctors: A Qualitative Study of Patients 50 Years Old and Over , 2015, Journal of medical Internet research.

[38]  Panos E. Kourouthanassis,et al.  Work-related factors influencing doctors search behaviors and trust toward medical information resources , 2014, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[39]  Hyla H. Polen,et al.  Scope, Completeness, and Accuracy of Drug Information in Wikipedia , 2008, The Annals of pharmacotherapy.

[40]  D. Cook,et al.  Internet-based learning in the health professions: a meta-analysis. , 2008, JAMA.

[41]  Venkatesh Shankar,et al.  Online trust: a stakeholder perspective, concepts, implications, and future directions , 2002, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[42]  Ji Young Lee,et al.  To Tweet or to Retweet? That Is the Question for Health Professionals on Twitter , 2013, Health communication.

[43]  Humayun J. Chaudhry,et al.  A Census of Actively Licensed Physicians in the United States, 2016 , 2017 .

[44]  R. Ryan,et al.  Control and information in the intrapersonal sphere: An extension of cognitive evaluation theory. , 1982 .

[45]  Susanne Hertz,et al.  Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to Mind and Behavior , 2000 .

[46]  Indranil R. Bardhan,et al.  Health information technology and its impact on the quality and cost of healthcare delivery , 2013, Decis. Support Syst..

[47]  Martin Dawes,et al.  Information Needs and Information-Seeking Behavior of Primary Care Physicians , 2007, The Annals of Family Medicine.

[48]  K. Davies,et al.  The information-seeking behaviour of doctors: a review of the evidence. , 2007, Health information and libraries journal.

[49]  Heather Patrick,et al.  Self-determination theory: its application to health behavior and complementarity with motivational interviewing , 2012, International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

[50]  Miriam J. Metzger,et al.  Using Web 2.0 Technologies to Enhance Evidence-Based Medical Information , 2011, Journal of health communication.

[51]  C. Alderfer.  An empirical test of a new theory of human needs , 1969 .

[52]  Martina A. Clarke,et al.  Information needs and information-seeking behaviour analysis of primary care physicians and nurses: a literature review. , 2013, Health information and libraries journal.

[53]  Annette Thain,et al.  Information needs of specialist healthcare professionals: a preliminary study based on the West of Scotland Colorectal Cancer Managed Clinical Network. , 2005, Health information and libraries journal.

[54]  Jonathan Wareham,et al.  Doctors' online information needs, cognitive search strategies, and judgments of information quality and cognitive authority: How predictive judgments introduce bias into cognitive search models , 2010 .

[55]  Florence Gonod Boissin.  Information-seeking behaviour and use of the Internet by French general practitioners: a qualitative study. , 2005, Health information and libraries journal.

[56]  Jonathan Wareham,et al.  Junior physician's use of Web 2.0 for information seeking and medical education: A qualitative study , 2009, Int. J. Medical Informatics.

[57]  Richard Smith.  What clinical information do doctors need? , 1996, BMJ.

[58]  Christine C. Cheston,et al.  The role of social media in clinical excellence , 2014, The clinical teacher.

[59]  Dimitrios Buhalis,et al.  Information Needs in Online Social Networks , 2008, J. Inf. Technol. Tour..

[60]  A. Hanbury,et al.  Utilization and Perceived Problems of Online Medical Resources and Search Tools Among Different Groups of European Physicians , 2013, Journal of medical Internet research.

[61]  Ken Masters,et al.  For what purpose and reasons do doctors use the Internet: A systematic review , 2008, Int. J. Medical Informatics.

[62]  R. Cebul,et al.  Electronic health records and quality of diabetes care. , 2011, The New England journal of medicine.

[63]  A. Maslow.  A Theory of Human Motivation , 1943 .

[64]  Miriam J. Metzger,et al.  Internet use in the contemporary media environment. , 2001 .

[65]  G. Latham,et al.  Work motivation theory and research at the dawn of the twenty-first century. , 2005, Annual review of psychology.

[66]  E. Deci,et al.  Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. , 2000, The American psychologist.

[67]  Izak Benbasat,et al.  Evaluating Anthropomorphic Product Recommendation Agents: A Social Relationship Perspective to Designing Information Systems , 2009, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[68]  Peter R. Harris,et al.  How do patients evaluate and make use of online health information? , 2007, Social science & medicine.