Who are we?

The Department of Applied Computing at the University of Dundee collaborated with the Asthma Research Unit, Tayside Centre for General Practice, to provide Internet access for General Practitioners (GPs) throughout the UK. The GPs were all members of the General Practitioners in Asthma Group (GPIAG), a voluntary organisation whose 500+ members have a special interest in the management of patients with asthma.

What did we do?

Recruitment flyers were sent to members of the GPIAG on two occasions and the Quarterly Newsletter also featured an advertisement on one occasion offering free Internet access. The GPs are responsible for supplying their own computer equipment including a modem and are charged at local rates for any telephone calls they make to the service.

A Remote Access Server with 4 telephone lines, reached via an 0345 telephone number, was connected to an e-mail and World-Wide-Web (WWW) server which then connected to the outside world via the University network. GPs could then dial-in to the server and access the WWW or send and receive e-mail, all for the cost of a local phone call.

Installation and connection booklets for both Microsoft Windows '95 and Windows 3.1x were produced by the project team and the relevant booklet sent to each GPIAG member on request. The booklet explained the steps required to connect a computer to the dial-up service and the project team provided technical support to resolve any problems encountered.

What were the problems?

To date there have been 75 problems or queries reported by 40 different GPs. These have ranged from reporting that the server was down (on one occasion due to a lightening strike on the host building) to a greyed-out screen when using the browser (due to a fault with a 'parental screening program' which deemed all sites as unsuitable for viewing). However the most common problem (70%) was the initial configuration and connection to the service. To rectify this problem we propose to develop a setup program which will be distributed on disk and that will assist the GPs with the installation process.

Who are our users?

From the 500+ members of the GPIAG, 80 members requested an installation pack. An e-mail questionnaire was sent to 61 GPs (54 GPIAG members) to determine their computing use and experience. There were 26 replies (43%) with almost a third within 48 hours.

Our typical user is male (97%), aged 40, has 4.5 partners and 7,600 patients in his non fund-holding practice. Only a quarter have Internet access from work although just over half (53%) of computing activity takes place in practice. All users have home machines which tend to be more powerful than at work with typical configuration of Pentium multimedia machine with 16Mb RAM, 1.5 Gb HDD and a colour printer.

Word processing and the Internet are the most popular activities with around 70% of using them most days. Self assessment showed more confidence in general PC skills than in on-line skills. In general GPIAG users are happy with the service and spend 2.75 hours on-line each week.

This project was supported by an educational grant from Allen & Hanburys plc. to the GPIAG