P01S08: Low back pain
Bottom line: Information on low back pain was used to better understand a specific issue with respect to the
management of a patient (herniated
disk). There were
no information-related patient health outcomes.
Level 1 outcome (situational relevance): On November 1, 2008, P01 did a search at home, by themselves, and
after an encounter with a patient. They retrieved two information hits about
low back pain. The reported search objective was to search in general or for
curiosity. “I did have somebody that I’d been dealing with low back pain for the
last three months now and […] I wanted to make sure I was doing everything
right for him. […] He is about sixty. […] I am interested in strengthening my
skills in this area so I just wanted to find something that was short and sweet
and to the point. And so, it was an area of interest and I thought I had the
time, so I looked it up.”According to P01, the information from e-Therapeutics+ was in conflict
with and equally relevant as the information from another electronic resource
(Family Practice Notebook Website). “I think it was probably more in conflict, a little bit, just with regard
to the physio part. Yeah, because the one that I read it had said starting
physio early could promote recovery faster. Whereas this one [in
e-Therapeutics+] is basically saying now research is saying you don’t have to
start physio for really uncomplicated back pain. You can wait until it gets
more complicated. […] It gave me the same kind of information but I guess I had
to choose which one I believed.”
Level 2 outcome (cognitive impact): Two hits were associated with a report of positive cognitive impact (see table). Regarding practice improvement, P01 stated: “I think I will
probably wait now instead of telling people to do physio right away. Just to
maybe have a follow up and in that way I’m not causing them expense … If the
back is going to recover quick anyway. Why have them spend the money? You know,
give them a couple of weeks. Thirty days or so and they recover and then they
don’t have to spend the money for physio (regarding P01S08H01). [...] The more times I use it the less
likely I have to go and search for it when a patient comes in. (regarding P01S08H02).”
Retrieved
information hit(s):
1) e-Therapeutics+ (CIRT): Therapeutic tab - musculoskeletal
disorders - low back pain - Highlight (P01S08H01)
2) e-Therapeutics+ (CIRT): Therapeutic tab - musculoskeletal disorders - low back
pain - Table 1 (P01S08H02)
Level 3 outcome
(information use): Information on low back pain was retrieved by curiosity, and used to
better understand a specific issue with respect to the management of a patient (information used as presented in
e-Therapeutics+).“I was thinking of him at the time. […] He’s had pain for the last
four to five months and I wanted to find out if there was anything in there
that I should be ruling out and […] I got the results from an MRI that he had
done and it did say he had a herniated disk. [...] He actually has a follow up with another doctor in another couple
of days and so he was just gonna discuss the results with him (regarding
P01S08H02).”
Level 4 outcome (patient health): Not applicable
(conceptual use)
Levels of outcome of information-seeking
|
Situational relevance |
Positive cognitive
impact |
Information use |
Patient health |
|
Satisfy curiosity |
Practice improved Learned something Reminded something Motivated to learn Confirmed Reassured |
Understand issue |
No outcome |