Physicians utilisation of internet medical databases at the tertiary health institutions in Osun State, South West, Nigeria

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the extent, purpose, determinants and the impact of the utilization of Internet medical databases among the respondents. Methodology: A descriptive cross sectional survey of 540 randomly selected physicians at the two tertiary health institutions in Osun State, South west, Nigeria. Result: A total of 444 (82.2%) physicians completed the questionnaires. All the respondents have used the internet medical databases within the last 4 weeks of the study. Majority, (53.8%) used the internet resources at least once in 2 weeks, while 12.2% used the resources every day. The online resources are mainly sought for Routine patient care and for Research purposes. PUBMED (70.3%), HINARI (69.0%), and Free medical journals (60.1%) are the frequently used online databases ⁄ digital archives. The internet resources has positively impacted the Clinical practice (40.0%) and Research output (65.5%) of the physicians. Conclusion: There had been considerable increase in the extent and quality of utilization of online medical databases which has positively impacted on the Clinical practice and Research output of the physicians. Ease of finding the needed information and the availability of evidence based resources are the major determinants of the databases utilized.Keywords: determinants of internet use, information seeking behavior, information source, internet use, online medical database, physicians in Nigeria. Key messagesImplications for the Practice d The medical librarian should create awareness of Internet medical databases and make the password available to doctors. d The medical librarian should have an up to date profile of all the doctors to facilitate the selective dissemination of information (SDI). d There should be effective collaboration with senior medical faculty to find out their current research interests and send regular updates via e-mail. d The medical librarian should organise in-house workshops where information literacy skills are taught using tested models such as the Big six approach. This will reduce time and effort in accessing timely and relevant medical information for patient care. Implication for Policyd Internet access should be provided in all Consulting rooms to encourage Evidence-Based Medical practice and expand the scope and productivity of physicians.

Mapping Publication Trends and Identifying Hot Spots of Research on Internet Health Information Seeking Behavior: A Quantitative and Co-Word Biclustering Analysis

“…Physicians’ utilization of Internet medical resources. For example, Shabi et al determined the extent, purpose, determinants, and the impact of the utilization of Internet medical databases among physicians [ 41 ].…”

Internet use for patient care and health research: A cross-sectional study among physicians in a teaching hospital of Eastern India

“…In a study by Shabi et al . [ 6 ] in Nigeria, majority of the respondents, 70.3% were men and 56.8% were junior registrars and 32.4% were consultants.…”

“…It was observed that 68.5% physicians have access to internet in their consultancy room and 98.5% physicians had access in their home. In a study by Shabi et al .,[ 6 ] 73.0% respondents told that they have access to the internet in their offices, whereas 69 (15.5%) respondents access the internet at home. 25% doctors had no confidence to use computers and only 16% had taken formal training in computer use.…”

“…Only 12.5% doctors told that they accessed internet last time for their patient care. In the study by Shabi et al .,[ 6 ] all the respondents, 100% have used the internet within the last 4 weeks of the survey. E-mail was the most frequent reason for using the internet.…”

Writing academic papers: lost in translation?

“…The authors represented in this issue of the Health Information and Libraries Journal (HILJ) have all successfully navigated the journey from submission through to the publication and cover a wide spectrum of library and information service provision ranging from stock selection 4 to direct contact with service users, 5 from students 6 to qualified staff, 7,8 and the quality of information provision 9 vs. the quality of information retrieval 10,11 . As we have seen from the text above, referees play an essential role in ensuring the quality and transparency of the papers published in HILJ and in this final issue of the year, it is timely to thank HILJ referees for their contributions 12…”