Isabelle David*, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada Lise Poissant*, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada Annie Rochette, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada Sara Ahmed, McGill University, Montreal, Canada Track: Research Presentation Topic: Building virtual communities and social networking applications for health professionals Presentation Type: Poster presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Building: LKSC Conference Center Stanford Room: Lower Lobby Date: 2011-09-17 12:30 PM – 01:30 PM Last modified: 2011-08-12

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Background
Information and communication technologies have the ability to accelerate access and sharing of relevant information to support clinical decision-making. The Web 2.0 (blog, forum, wiki, etc.) offers significant potential to support best clinical practice. In Quebec, health professionals are increasingly pressured to adopt an evidence-based practice to ensure greater efficiency of their services. However, the transition between "know what to do" and "know how to do" is still difficult. To overcome this situation, the Web 2.0 is beginning to be used within professional practice to expose that knowledge through communities of practice.
The aim of this study was to: 1) gain a better understanding of the perceptions of professionals on the development of a Web 2.0 platform in order to support communities of practice in stroke care; 2) examine variables that have an impact on the perceived ease of use and usefulness of the platform. Methods
A qualitative study was conducted with clinicians and managers. We conducted semi-structured interviews with three groups of professionals. The first group consisted of active members of the Montreal Stroke Network (MSN), which is a face-to-face network. Since 2006, this network gathers three communities of practice in stroke care. The second group consisted of less active professionals within the MSN. The third group consisted of people who worked outside the greater Montreal area and were unaware of the MSN. The structure of the guide was organized as follows: first, participants were asked to explain their job and then specifically discuss their perceptions and needs relative to a Web 2.0 platform. Issues related to the strategies used for knowledge sharing, the benefits of community of practice and the use of technology were also discussed. The interviews transcripts were subject to a content analysis based on the Technology Acceptance Model.
Results
Twenty-four interviews were conducted (mean age 45 ± 18 years; men=0/24). The main emerging theme relating to usefulness and ease of use perceived by health care providers concerning Web 2.0. Knowledge transfer was identified by 23 out of 24 participants to be the most useful outcome of a Web 2.0 platform. Respondents also expressed the need for a user-friendly platform. Accessibility of a computer and the Internet, characteristics of the Web 2.0 platform, user support, technology skills and previous technological experience were found to influence perceived ease of use and usefulness. Lack of time emerged as having a negative influence on the behavioral intention to use this tool, despite highly perceived usefulness of the Web 2.0. On the other hand, nearly half of respondents mentioned that the Web 2.0 platform would allow them to save time.
Conclusions
Professionals consider the Web 2.0 to be a very useful application for knowledge transfer and sharing. However, lack of time and lack of technological skills remain as perceived barriers to the use of this technology.