Primary Care Provider Views About Usefulness and Dissemination of a Web-Based Depression Treatment Information Decision Aid.

Background: Decisions related to mental health are often complex, problems often remain undetected and untreated, information unavailable or not used, and treatment decisions frequently not informed by best practice or patient preferences.

Objective: The objective of this paper was to obtain the opinions of health professionals working in primary health care settings about a Web-based information decision aid (IDA) for patients concerning treatment options for depression and the dissemination of the resources in primary care settings.

Methods: Participants were recruited from primary care clinics in Winnipeg and Ottawa, Canada, and included 48 family physicians, nurses, and primary care staff. The study design was a qualitative framework analytic approach of 5 focus groups. Focus groups were conducted during regular staff meetings, were digitally recorded, and transcripts created. Analysis involved a content and theme analysis.

Results: Seven key themes emerged including the key role of the primary care provider, common questions about treatments, treatment barriers, sources of patient information, concern about quality and quantity of available information, positive opinions about the IDA, and disseminating the IDA. The most common questions mentioned were about medication and side effects and alternatives to medication. Patients have limited access to alternative treatment options owing to cost and availability.

Conclusions: Practitioners evaluated the IDA positively. The resources were described as useful, supportive of providers' messages, and accessible for patients. There was unanimous consensus that information needs to be available electronically through the Internet.