Can answers to General Practitioners' medical information queries be found by searching the internet? A case study approach

The generalist nature of general practice creates intense information demands, as general practitioners need the full range of updated medical knowledge within easy reach in order to deliver effective health care to their patients. Current trends in health care, in particular the current emphasis on evidence based medicine, have further increased the information needs of GPs. Studies exploring GPs' information needs have shown that there are severe deficiencies in GPs' access to information. Often they do not use the most current printed sources, they can not keep up to date with developments in medicine and GPs themselves acknowledge that they can not access the information they need. [Continues.]