Reducing Disparities in Physician Access to Information in Support of Evidence-Based Practice

NIH RePORTER · NIH · G08 · $150,000 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

Research confirms that patient outcomes improve when healthcare providers practice in an evidence-based manner. Evidence-based practice (EBP) involves a problem-solving approach to clinical care that incorporates the conscientious use of current best practices from well-designed studies, a clinician's expertise, and patient values and preferences. EBP has been shown to increase patient safety, improve clinical outcomes, reduce healthcare costs, and decrease variation in patient outcomes. The importance of EBP is substantiated; however, significant barriers to widespread use of current evidence to inform decision-making remain, including the lack of access to published research. Publisher paywalls limit access to approximately 75% of the published biomedical literature. That represents a massive amount of information being withheld from physicians who lack subscriptions to the content. This notable disparity in health information access presents an opportunity to democratize information access by providing all physicians in the state with the means to acquire the evidence necessary to support clinical decision-making. This ideal aligns with NLM’s strategic goal to reach more people in more ways through enhanced dissemination and engagement. In pursuit of that objective, the Eccles Health Sciences Library (EHSL) at the University of Utah has devised a pathway that enables licensed physicians across the state to retrieve full-text articles from PubMed without encountering a publisher paywall. By removing one of the obstacles to information access that disproportionally affects physicians (and their patients) in rural and under-served areas in the state, EHSL seeks to minimize disparities in health information access by healthcare providers in Utah. This project will eliminate the barrier of publisher paywalls as an impediment to EBP and be guided by the following aims: Aim 1: To increase access to usable health information for Utah physicians, particularly those in rural areas with high health disparity populations. Aim 2: To solicit feedback regarding the impact of expanded health information access on physicians’ ability to provide evidence-based care. Aim 3: To evaluate the suitability and sustainability of a subsidized article delivery service in PubMed as a means of alleviating the unequal access to information experienced by Utah physicians. This proposal’s significance and opportunity for change is exemplified by the fact that most Utah physicians have limited access to the published biomedical literature. If proven effective, our approach can be replicated or adapted in other locations where physician health information access disparities need to be addressed.

Key facts

NIH application ID
10784870
Project number
1G08LM014396-01
Recipient
UTAH STATE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM--UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
Principal Investigator
Christy Jarvis
Activity code
G08
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2024
Award amount
$150,000
Award type
1
Project period
2024-09-16 → 2025-09-15