TY  - JOUR
AU  - Muhamad, Nor Asiah
AU  - Selvarajah, Vinesha
AU  - Dharmaratne, Anuja
AU  - Inthiran, Anushia
AU  - Mohd Dali, Nor Soleha
AU  - Chaiyakunapruk, Nathorn
AU  - Lai, Nai Ming
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/4/6
TI  - Online Searching as a Practice for Evidence-Based Medicine in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, University of Malaya Medical Center, Malaysia: Cross-sectional Study
JO  - JMIR Form Res
SP  - e30687
VL  - 6
IS  - 4
KW  - evidence-based practice
KW  - online information searching
KW  - information retrieval
KW  - information seeking
KW  - clinical setting
AB  - Background: The use of the internet for research is essential in the practice of evidence-based medicine. The online search habits of medical practitioners in clinical settings, particularly from direct observation, have received little attention. Objective: The goal of the research is to explore online searching for information as an evidence-based practice among medical practitioners. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the clinical teams’ use of evidence-based practice when making clinical decisions for their patients' care. Data were collected through online searches from 2015 to 2018.  Participants were medical practitioners and medical students in a Malaysian public teaching hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit who performed online searches to find answers to clinical questions that arose during ward rounds. Results: In search sessions conducted by the participants, 311 queries were observed from 2015 to 2018. Most participants (34/47, 72%) were house officers and medical students. Most of the searches were conducted by house officers (51/99, 52%) and medical students (32/99, 32%). Most searches (70/99, 71%) were directed rather than self-initiated, and 90% (89/99) were completed individually rather than collaboratively. Participants entered an average of 4 terms in each query; three-quarters of the queries yielded relevant evidence, with two-thirds yielding more than one relevant source of evidence. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that junior doctors and medical students need more training in evidence-based medicine skills such as clinical question formulation and online search techniques for performing independent online searches effectively. However, because the findings were based on intermittent opportunistic observations in a specific clinical setting, they may not be generalizable. 
SN  - 2561-326X
UR  - https://formative.jmir.org/2022/4/e30687
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/30687
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35384844
DO  - 10.2196/30687
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/30687
ER  -