A study in JAMA Internal Medicine finds clinicians only pursue 51 percent of the clinical questions they raise at the point of patient care.
Researchers performed a meta-analysis of 11 studies to identify how often clinicians raised, pursued and answered clinical questions.
Of the 51 percent of the questions clinicians pursued, they found answers to 78 percent of them.
Thirty-four percent of questions were related to drug treatment and 24 percent were related to potential causes of a symptom, physical finding or diagnostic test finding.
Lack of time and doubting the existence of a useful answer were the main barriers to finding answers, according to the study.
Researchers conclude that although clinicians most often find answers to the questions they pursue, they only seek answers to half of their questions. They suggest technology-based solutions like the electronic health record could help clinicians pursue their questions in the context of patient care decision making, as unanswered questions may lead to suboptimal patient care decisions.
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