Promoting clinically effective practice: general practitioners' awareness of sources of research evidence

BACKGROUND: Practitioners are being encouraged to base their clinicalpractice on research evidence. In order to do this, they must be aware ofand use the sources of evidence. METHODS: A questionnaire survey wasundertaken to establish GPs' awareness of research evidence in theirclinical practice and, in fundholding practices, its influence onpurchasing plans. Questionnaires were sent to 360 lead fundholders in NorthThames Region and 440 of a random sample of the remaining generalpractitioners in the region for comparison. RESULTS: Questionnaires werereturned by 62% of lead fundholders and 63% of GPs in the random sample.There was limited use of the electronic sources of clinical effectiveness.There was greater reported awareness of published sources of researchevidence and fundholding GPs were significantly more likely to havereferred to publications summarizing research evidence. CONCLUSIONS: GPsseem to make more use of published clinical effectiveness sources than theelectronic databases. Consequently, they need educational and technicalsupport if they are to make full use of the available sources of researchevidence available in other media.