Physicians are faced with an overload of medical information. The number of medical journals, which are the preferred source of information for most physicians, has grown exponentially over the past century. Despite this increase in volume, there is no commercially available information management system for journal articles. NIS has developed a management system that consists of an index system, a filing system, and an on-going subscription service to recently published, coded reprints from the eight major journals in internal medicine. The service creates a personal reference library for the physician, with articles arranged by topic. Relevant articles can then be retrieved quickly and easily when the physician needs to read about a patients's problem. The Prototype NIS Master System has not been field-tested. We propose a Phase feasibility study at six pilot sites, comprised of internal medicine residency programs and busy physician practices in rural and urban areas.
Specific aims are to determine if the system may be used as a """"""""stand-alone"""""""" in practice locations without access to computer technology, or as a bridge to MEDLINE searches at sites with access to electronic bibliographic systems (Grateful Med). We also plan to study the information access and usage behavior of physicians in a variety of practice locations.
