O'Brien C et al. 2000 "Combating information overload: a six-month pilot evaluation of a knowledge management system in general practice."
Reference
O'Brien C, Cambouropoulos P. Combating information overload: a six-month pilot evaluation of a knowledge management system in general practice. Br J Gen Pract 2000;50(455):489-490.
Abstract
"A six-month prospective study was conducted on the usefulness and usability of a representative electronic knowledge management tool...for 19 general practitioners (GPs) evaluated using questionnaires and audit trail data. The number of pages accessed was highest in the final two months, when over half of the access trails were completed within 40 seconds. Most GPs rated the system as easy to learn, fast to use, and preferable to paper for providing information during consultations. Such tools could provide a medium for the activities of knowledge officers, help demand management, and promote sharing of information within primary care groups and across NHSnet or the Internet."
Objective
To determine "the usefulness and usability of a representative electronic knowledge management tool...for 19 general practitioners."
Type Clinic
Primary care
Size
Small and/or medium
Geography
Urban and suburban
Other Information
The study took place across 17 practices located in Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom.
Type of Health IT
Informational resource
Type of Health IT Functions
The program is "an electronic knowledge management system designed to address...information overload in primary care. [It] displays hyperlinked text with simple formatting supplemented by linked multimedia files and is designed for use during consultations, providing fast navigation and searching of information. The content is given a transparent structure of 'pages' within 'books' on 'shelves' in a library and is stored electronically on the local computer hard disk when in use."
Workflow-Related Findings
"Seventeen out of 19 (90%) users declared [the software] was easy to learn to use, including the three who did not use a computer at home." In addition, "[the software] was rated 'excellent' as an information source by 10 out of 19 GPs. All users reported that they found it either 'very easy' or 'moderately easy' to navigate around the information content in [the software], to find a specific book, and to use the search facilities. Twelve users (71%) said they were 'much more' likely to use a referral guideline in [electronic form] than on paper, while only one thought it was a 'bit less' likely that he would use [an electronic] version than a paper version. Nine out of 15 users (60%) declared that specific guidelines were easier to locate in [the software]."
There was a "short time taken to reach the required page of information. Thirty percent of access trails were completed within 15 seconds, while 52% were completed within 40 seconds."
"All GPs wanted to continue using [the software] after the pilot study, with either no change or only a small modification to the software (15 GPs [88%]) or after a major improvement to the software (two GPs)."
"Initial usage subsided after the first full month (April 1998) and then increased steadily, reaching a maximum at the end of the study. Although extra books were added to the Library during the study, this does not entirely account for the increasing use as not all books proved equally popular."
Study Design
Only postintervention (no control group)
Study Participants
There were 19 general practitioners (from a total of 17 practices) who volunteered to be a part of the study. All were male and primarily between the ages of 30 to 50.