An analysis of patient care questions asked by pediatricians at an academic medical center.

Background: General pediatricians' information needs are not presently well characterized in the literature.

Objective: To characterize the patient care information needs of academic medical center pediatricians by collecting and classifying questions generated in clinical settings, allowing pediatric educators and authors to more effectively meet the needs of pediatricians.

Methods: A semistructured telephone survey of pediatric residents and faculty at a midwestern US academic medical center over two 6-month periods.

Creating a pediatric digital library for pediatric health care providers and families: using literature and data to define common pediatric problems.

The goal of this study was to complete a literature-based needs assessment with regard to common pediatric problems encountered by pediatric health care providers (PHCPs) and families, and to develop a problem-based pediatric digital library to meet those needs. The needs assessment yielded 65 information sources. Common problems were identified and categorized, and the Internet was manually searched for authoritative Web sites.