Clinicians' satisfaction with Grateful Med: an exploratory study

Abstract

End-user search software is designed to simplify online searching for the casual searcher. User-friendly features provide relatively easy online access to remote databases without the need for expert search systems. At issue is whether the simplified features of such software compromise what is potentially retrievable, and if so, whether the missing information is critical to the end user. A study was designed to address this question, particularly as applied to clinicians using a user-friendly search software package such as Grateful Med. Clinician participants compared their Grateful Med search results with a full Elhill search (as performed by an intermediary) and indicated whether references unique to either search were or were not critical to their information needs.