Information-Seeking Behavior of Medical Professionals in the Digital Age in Kolkata, India

摘要

The purpose of this research is to highlight the medical information-seeking behavior of medical students and their teachers, mostly based in teaching hospitals in Kolkata and centered in certain specific domains. This research seeks to understand what sources are considered relevant with regard to the retrieval of crucial information by these medical professionals. The important sources for gathering information, the reasons they are used the most, and the problems encountered while searching for information are some of the key issues explored. The survey method was used to collect data from a scattered population from four medical institutions with undergraduate and postgraduate programs across the Kolkata metropolitan area. The data collection tool was a self-designed, open-ended questionnaire. The respondents comprised students pursuing medicine as MBBS students, postgraduate students, and teaching faculty. Patient care and supplementing curriculum development were seen as two major reasons for seeking medical information. A majority of the respondents had never received formal instruction on the use of information sources. Colleagues, peers, and medical websites were considered the most popular sources of information, while literature from pharmaceutical companies was considered the least popular.