A PRIVATE TOLL-FREE TELEPHONE MEDICAL INFORMATION-SERVICE - 5 YEARS OF ACTIVITY - OLD PROBLEMS AND NEW PERSPECTIVES

INTRODUCTION: Healthcare professionals need to continually update thei r knowledge to provide care based on scientific evidence. In some case s it can be difficult to gain access to the different sources of medic al information. In an attempt to overcome these problems, a toll-free telephone medical information service (Doctorline) was established. OB JECTIVE: TO describe the development, aims, organization, and activiti es of this private service. METHODS: Doctorline is an independent, unb iased, toll-free medical information service that provides information on clinical, pharmacologic, and toxicologic issues; bibliographic sea rches; full-text articles; public and private clinics; details of fort hcoming congresses; and legislative documentation. The service is avai lable Monday through Friday, 1000 to 2000. Staff members are physician s trained in communication techniques, literature evaluation methodolo gies, and computerized database use. The main on-line facilities are M EDLINE, Micromedex-CCIS, and the Italian Formulary on CD-ROM. Books, b ulletins, national and international drug formularies, and property fi les (i.e., directory of Italian public and private clinics) are also a vailable. RESULTS: In 5 years, Doctorline has received 65 258 calls. N early 34% of the calls were made by general practitioners, followed by cardiologists (22%), orthopedists (15%), pharmacists (14%), gastroent erologists (13%), and urologists (10%). From 1991 to 1996, nearly 20% of the calls concerned pharmacologic issues, 43% nonpharmacologic issu es, while the rest of the calls were for nonclinical requests. Approxi mately 21% of all questions received an answer during the same phone c all (on-line answers); for the other answers (off-line answers) the me an +/- SD waiting time was 7.8 +/- 10.4 days, Although the nature of t he questions has been recorded since 1991, data about the exact number of physicians who used the service are available only from 1994. Data from 1994 indicate that of the 52 181 physicians who could access the service, only 8817 (16.9%) called at least once, with a mean number o f calls per physician of 3.9 (range 3.0-5.6), CONCLUSIONS: The future of Doctorline mill depend on the quality and validity of the informati on provided (i.e., based exclusively on scientific evidence, independe nt of the source of funds), the promotion of the aims organization, an d clinical utility of the service (especially among physicians who mad e little or no use of the service), and differentiation of the service activities in relation to the physician's specific needs.