초록

Abstract

Physicians have information needs related to academic research and clinical practice but encounter difficulties seeking appropriate medical resources and information. The goal of this study is to develop a search system to support Korean physicians’ information needs. To access sources to meet the identified need, in-depth interviews were conducted, and MediSearching, a new search system, was developed accordingly. To verify its usefulness and to obtain users’ suggestions, interviews were conducted and feedback was solicited via collected test searches. The initial set of interviews indicated that physicians’ information needs and search behaviors differed by type of hospital and clinical department. Physicians in university hospitals with a greater need for research materials searched for academic articles, whereas physicians in specialty hospitals or primary care clinics with a stronger need for materials related to clinical practice asked their colleagues for information. Consequently, MediSearching was designed to satisfy both groups’ needs, and the test search provided useful search results compared with existing services. Korean physicians have previously had to repeat their search process on separate sites that provide different services according to type of information and search method. MediSearching may reduce this inconvenience and add documents in various formats and languages.