Study of the uses of Information and Communication Technologies by Pain Treatment Unit Physicians

J Med Syst. 2017 May;41(5):78. doi: 10.1007/s10916-017-0726-3. Epub 2017 Mar 27.

Abstract

Adequate use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in health has been shown to save the patient and caregiver time, improve access to the health system, improve diagnosis and control of disease or treatment. All this results in cost savings, and more importantly, they help improve the quality of service and the lives of patients. The purpose of this study is to analyse the differences in the uses of this ICTs between those physicians that belong to Pain Treatment Units (PU) and other physicians that work in pain not linked to these PUs. An online survey, generated by Netquest online survey tool, was sent to both groups of professionals and the data collected was statistical analysed through a logistic regression methodology which is the Logit binomial model. Our results show that those physicians that belong to PUs use ICTs more frequently and consider it more relevant to their clinical practice.

Keywords: Continuous medical education; Information and communication technologies; Pain; Pain treatment unit.

MeSH terms

  • Anesthesiology / education*
  • Computer Communication Networks / statistics & numerical data*
  • Computer Communication Networks / trends
  • Education, Medical, Continuing / methods
  • Education, Medical, Continuing / trends
  • Humans
  • Internet
  • Logistic Models
  • Medical Informatics / methods*
  • Medical Informatics / statistics & numerical data
  • Medical Informatics / trends
  • Pain Management / methods*
  • Pain Management / trends
  • Physician-Patient Relations*
  • Practice Patterns, Physicians' / trends*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires