Adoption of electronic health records: a qualitative study of academic and private physicians and health administrators.

Objective: Less than 20% of hospitals in the US have an electronic health record (EHR). In this qualitative study, we examine the perspectives of both academic and private physicians and administrators as stakeholders, and their alignment, to explore their perspectives on the use of technology in the clinical environment.

Methods: Focus groups were conducted with 74 participants who were asked a series of open-ended questions.

Learning style influences student examination performance.

Background: The Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI) measures preference for each of four learning orientations: abstract conceptualization, concrete experience, active experimentation, and reflective observation. These orientations define four learning styles: convergence, divergence, assimilation, and accommodation.

Methods: To determine if learning style correlates with objective multiple-choice and clinical measures of performance, the learning styles of third-year medical students (n = 227) were evaluated using the LSI.

Library faculty role in problem-based learning: facilitating small groups.

Since 1986, the library faculty of the McGoogan Library of Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) has participated in small group activities during the week-long orientation for first-year medical students. This involvement paved the way for library faculty members to act as facilitators for small groups of medical students within the new problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum introduced in 1992 by the College of Medicine. The UNMC curriculum consists of traditional PBL groups as well as Integrated Clinical Experience (ICE) small groups.

Using focus groups to discover health professionals' information needs: a regional marketing study.

This paper describes the use of focus groups as a data-gathering tool, in both theoretical and practical terms. Calder's discussion of focus groups is presented as the basis of the theory, and the marketing study conducted by the Midcontinental Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine serves as the backdrop to highlight some of the practical aspects of using this qualitative data-gathering method. Results of the marketing study are presented to illustrate the types of data that can be gathered using this methodology and the types of plans for future activities that can be developed based on the data gathered.