Search

No reference point-of-care, web-based medical compendium is available in general practice in France. We have then conducted the experimentation of EBMPracticeNet , a Belgian website of guidelines translated and adapted from the Finnish EBM Guidelines. We collected data from three sources: (i) the website logbook; (ii) a search-specific assessment questionnaire; (iii) a global assessment questionnaire. A cumulative number of 262 (62.8%) physicians performed at least one search on the website and clicked on average 5.9 times per month. Physicians globally got an accurate answer (74.2%). They found the information provided by the website reliable (92.2%) and useful for practice (78.6%). They perceived the website ergonomics as good. The main reported barriers were the time and effort required to find an accurate answer and the uneven relevance of the information retrieved. Improvements should focus on guidelines indexing and their adaptation to the French context, and training physicians to search medical databases.

EBMPracticeNet is a Belgian website of guidelines translated and adapted from the Finnish EBM guidelines. During the experimentation of the EBMPracticeNet website in France, physicians globally got an accurate answer and found the information provided by the website reliable and useful for practice. They perceived its ergonomics as good and wished to continue using it. Improvements should focus on the indexation and adaptation of the guidelines, and on physicians' training.