Internet Use for Information Seeking in Clinical Practice: a Cross-sectional Survey Among French General Practitioners

Background: Medical information needs regarding patient care are particularly large for general practitioners (GPs). The Internet seems to be a relevant but underused tool to seek medical information.

Objective: We aimed to describe the characteristics of the French GPs using the Internet for information seeking, to identify the barriers to its use and the factors that could facilitate it.

Method: We conducted a cross-sectional survey among GPs currently practicing in France, using an online questionnaire, in July 2009. We analysed the answers of 721 respondents.

Results: Most of the respondents used the Internet to seek information. They were significantly younger, worked in group practice, had Internet training and had Internet access at the practice. The main barriers were related to the physician (lack of knowledge or specific skills), to the practice conditions (lack of time, concerns about relationship with patient, financial non-recognition) and to the information (information overload, quality concerns, low relevance, language barrier). Practitioners wanted more reliable and more relevant documents for daily practice. Websites with already selected resources could increase the GPs use of the Internet for medical information seeking.

Conclusion: The reported obstacles were largely common with those previously described in other countries, except the language barrier and the financial non-recognition. Even if the generalization of our results to all French GPs should be cautious, the study provided better insights into the obstacles to the Internet use to seek clinical information in family practice and the factors that could facilitate it.