Outcome of the Point of Care trials

Introduction

During the months of February and March 2010 trials to three Point of Care clinical tools were made available on the honni website.  This was as a result of feedback from HSC personnel that this type of resource would be beneficial.  The resources trialled were BMJ Best Practice, Dynamed and FirstConsult.  The trial was publicised on the honni website, in all library branches and by direct contact with individuals.  An online feedback form was designed to enable direct feedback on the three resources allowing individuals to indicate their preference.

Feedback

Only four feedback forms were received, with BMJ proving the preferred option with average ratings of good to excellent.  FirstConsult was second getting average ratings of fair to very good.   Dynamed was the least favoured with average ratings of fair to good.

Comments from feedback:-

• “BMJ evidence is pitched perfectly at the level of the clinically practising doctor and is a mine of information.  It is also reassuringly up to date.”
• “Difficulty: initially with dynamed”
• “BMJ evidence was the best but not as easy to navigate as First Consult.  Dynamed was useful but I liked it least of all three.”

Statistics

Despite BMJ proving to be the preferred option according to the feedback, it was not the most used resource.  During the trial both Dynamed and FirstConsult were used more often.

Conclusion

It is difficult to establish a way forward based on the comments of four individuals particularly since the statistics and feedback do not necessarily support each other.  The library currently has insufficient funds to take a subscription to any of these resources.  Furthermore due to the limited feedback and usage it would be difficult to bid for additional funding.  BMJ for instance has an annual subscription cost of over £100,000 but the results of the trial do not indicate a great enough demand to warrant the expense of such a subscription.  At present the library will not be pursuing a subscription to a point of care tool but will keep this under review.

There are currently free resources of a similar nature available through honni e-lib and at present the library would recommend these to our users as a useful alternative.

• Clinical Knowledge Summaries
• Best BETs – best evidence topics
• BMJ Evidence Updates