INFORMATION NEEDS OF HEALTH-CARE PROFESSIONALS IN AN AIDS OUTPATIENT-CLINIC AS DETERMINED BY CHART REVIEW

Objective: To examine the information needs of health care professiona ls in HIV-related clinical encounters, and to determine the suitabilit y of existing information sources to address those needs. Setting: HIV outpatient clinic. Participants: Seven health care professionals with diverse training and patient care involvement. Methods: Based on pati ent charts describing 120 patient encounters, participants generated 2 66 clinical questions. Printed and on-line information sources were us ed to answer questions in two phases: using commonly available sources and using all available medical library sources. Measurements: The qu estions were divided into 16 categories by subject. The number of ques tions answered, their categories, the information source(s) providing answers, and the time required to answer questions were recorded for e ach phase. Results: Each participant generated an average of 3.8 clini cal questions per chart. Five categories accounted for almost 75% of a ll questions; the treatment protocols/regimens category was most frequ ent (24%). A total of 245 questions (92%) were answered, requiring and average of 15 minutes per question. Most (87%) of the questions were answered via electronic sources, even though paper sources were consul ted first. Conclusions: The participating professionals showed conside rable information needs. A combination of on-line and paper sources wa s necessary to provide the answers. The study suggests that present-da y information sources are not entirely satisfactory for answering clin ical questions generated by examining charts of HIV-infected patients.