Example quotations illustrating the themes
| Themes | Subthemes | Example quotation |
| Theme 5: Factors influencing information seeking | Personal factors | Intrinsic motivation ‘… influencing factors is a huge riddle, one is motivation, and this is one of the personal components. Individual motivations work 100%…’ (community medicine, 12) Professional commitment: ‘… because I have some responsibilities to the patient to enhance his condition and I have a commitment to him, I will go and find the sources to know what to do for the patient to solve his clinical problem…’ (internal medicine, 4) Attending in teaching and referral centres: ‘…a significant topic is that if you work in a training or referral centres, you must stay updated on your own; you must be aware of the most up-to-date treatment procedures; it might drive you even more, and the atmosphere itself acts as a push-button…’ (emergency medicine, 10) |
| Organisational factors | Education and empowerment: ‘…our educational planning must shift such that our output is a physician who knows the ways to treat the patient and the ways to seek information…’ (ENT, 27) Evaluation and incentive systems: ‘… many physicians do not have motivation; they say there is no much difference between someone who works with EBM and the one who is involved in texts of 8 years ago…’ (women health/preventive medicine, 17) Educational and research facilities: ‘… the correct proportion between the number of students and professors, the proportion of numbers, physical space, facilities, hardware and software facilities are all vital…’ (ENT, 27) | |
| Technical factors | User-interface design: ‘… it is hard if there are a lot of sub-categories, it’s layered, and you have to click a lot… The easier a site is to navigate during a patient’s therapy, and the more information may be gleaned with a single glance…it will undoubtedly become more appealing…’ (emergency medicine, 8) Infrastructure for Information and Communication Technology: ‘… When you want to search for something, you can't be due of the Internet’s slow speed or disruption, which you gave it up…’ (emergency medicine, 4) ‘… Watching films of treatment techniques on YouTube, but encountering internet constraints like filtering…’ (ENT, 30) | |
| Social factors | Social pressures: ‘…Previously, medical errors were not discovered at all; however, now, in social networks, everyone knows fast, so we attempt to provide the least harmful and finest treatment for our patients… ’ (obstetrics and gynecology, 2) Social awareness: ‘Now the patient is so alert that she get along with the physician well, ask questions regarding what she should do, resulting in becoming more focused not to make mistakes…’ |