Introduction/Objective: Decision-making in family medicine needs to be supported by evidence-based conclusions published in the literature. To determine whether the printed Index Medicus or Medline on CD-ROM is the most effective method to retrieve evidence-based citations, we developed a post-graduate course for each retrieval method, tailored to the needs of family physicians.

Methods: In post-graduate courses, 73 family physicians completed the same four assignments linked to daily practice, using one of the two methods. To compare the two methods, we used as outcome measures precision (or efficiency), recall (or sensitivity), and personal score (which measures the quality of the search).

Results: Preliminary results showed that the mean of all three outcome measures of the four assignments were higher in the Index Medicus group. The difference between the Index Medicus and Medline on CD-ROM in both recall and personal score were statistical significant with a p-value < 0.05

PRECISION RECALL PERSONAL SCORE
INDEX MEDICUS (n=33) 56% 24% -30
MEDLINE ON CD-ROM (N=40) 51% 17% -36
P-VALUE 0.26 0.002 0.05


Discussion: Thus, out of two methods, the printed Index Medicue is more effective for family physicians to retrieve citations from the literature.