ABSTRACT
With many physicians leaving urban areas to practice in smaller communities, the need for end user searching becomes particularly significant. End user searching in geographically remote areas can to some extent surmount the problem of inaccessibility to large academic health science centers. With lower physician-patient ratios, physicians in non-metropolitan areas are sometimes so busy with patient care that little time remains for research. These physicians are quick to accept computerized systems that make practice management more efficient, but might be less likely to engage in doing their own online searching. Full-text databases have the most potential for physicians in non-metropolitan areas because of the possibility of immediate, concrete data.
