EVALUATING THE OPTIONS FOR DEVELOPING DATABASES TO SUPPORT RESEARCH-BASED MEDICINE AT THE NHS CENTER FOR REVIEWS AND DISSEMINATION

The paper presents the results of a questionnaire survey and user inte rface review group experiments to determine the value and ease of use of the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness (DARE) and th e NHS Economic Evaluations Database (NEED). The results of are interpr eted with other recent studies of the use of electronic databases, inc luding the NHS Research Register User Requirements Specification. The study found that most frequent users of the DARE database tend to use the CD-ROM version. Librarians were found to have the greatest awarene ss of the databases, with relatively low levels of use by operational NHS Staff. Untrained users found the online databases difficult to acc ess and had erroneous perceptions of the database content which were o nly realised when queries returned unexpected answers. Experienced use rs of online information systems tended to want more sophisticated sea rch facilities than inexperienced users. Nearly all users in the revie w groups wanted to access the databases in conjunction with other info rmation sources, such as the Cochrane Library, Medline and the ACP Jou rnal Club, highlighting the need for cross organisational strategies f or the dissemination of research-based information. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.