An Analysis of Patient Care Questions Asked by Pediatricians at an Academic Medical Center

Background.—General pediatricians' information needs are not presently well characterized in the literature.

Objective.—To characterize the patient care information needs of academic medical center pediatricians by collecting and classifying questions generated in clinical settings, allowing pediatric educators and authors to more effectively meet the needs of pediatricians.

Methods.—A semistructured telephone survey of pediatric residents and faculty at a midwestern US academic medical center over two 6-month periods. The main outcome measures were number of questions asked, age ranges, pediatric subspecialties, and generic question types.

Results.—A total of 607 pediatrician questions were collected. The infant age range generated the most questions (34.1%), and other age groups were almost equally distributed. The most common pediatric specialties were pharmacology (34.1%), infectious diseases (9.1%), neurology/neurosurgery (5.1%), allergy/pulmonary (4.6%), and neonatology (4.6%). The most common generic questions asked were “What is the dosage of drug X?” (18.0%), “What is the treatment for condition X?” (15.2%), and “What is condition X?” (13.5%). There were qualitative differences between resident and faculty groups.

Conclusions.—The information needs of academic medical center pediatricians can be assessed and potentially serve as a foundation for the development of common and digital educational information resources. Resident and faculty groups showed some qualitative differences. Pediatricians need drug-dosing information; clear condition definitions, including manifestation and clinical course descriptions; and physical finding and laboratory testing information. Educators and authors should highlight information concerning pharmacology and infectious diseases when developing educational and information resources.

KEY WORDS:  information needs , patient care , pediatricians , questions