Many thanks to those who responded to our user survey in January and February. The 134 respondents represented around 15% of subscribers at the time. The results demonstrate that the majority of users find eCAB relevant, manageable, and useful. Most people use eCAB for its intended primary purpose of staying up to date with drugs and general health news, but eCAB also has an appreciable impact on patient care and CPD. Several useful suggestions were received that have already been implemented or will be reflected in future developments; however, most users expressed their satisfaction with the service and indicated that major changes were not necessary.
Below please find more detailed results, as well as a representative selection of users' comments with replies from the NPC information scientist who compiles eCAB. If you have any further comments to make about eCAB, please e-mail us.
Number of Daily eCABs Read (maximum value=5)
The majority of users (64%) do read all 5 of the daily eCABs sent each week. Only a small minority (9%) read less than 3 of the 5 bulletins.
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Quality of Information
For 97% of users, the information provided by eCAB is of acceptable relevance and utility.
User comments:
Response:
I now edit the InfoPOEMs headlines to ensure that the content of the POEM's 'bottom line' is reflected; thus, the headline itself provides meaningful content. Separation by subject matter (e.g., news headlines, guidelines, policy, clinical trials) is a very good suggestion that we hope to implement in the coming months.
Quantity of Information
The amount of information provided by the daily eCAB is:
These comments are much appreciated. Repetition has sometimes happened when two or more sources reported the same material with substantially different headlines. I now check content as well as headlines to avoid repetition as much as possible. While maintaining eCAB's scope of coverage and its focus on prescribing and primary care, I am also trying to lower the volume of information by reducing duplication and more vigorously assessing the relevance of items from the more marginal sources. I hope that users have seen improvement recently on both of these points.
Use of Information
Interest in Proposed Developments
The message is clear: users are satisfied with the service and significant changes are not needed. We have introduced a weekly, condensed version of eCAB for those who find that the daily e-mails provide too much information or who would like a weekly review (if you would like to change your subscription, please click here). In the coming year I hope that eCAB will reflect the principles of Information Mastery by providing links to patient-oriented evidence in the major journals, a development supported by one-third of respondents. Providing full-text summaries is beyond our present capacity but this possibility will be kept in mind for the future. We will be providing an RSS feed in line with developments at the National Library for Health, but our primary focus and delivery method will remain unchanged, in keeping with user demand.
