As mentioned previously we are rewriting the vast majority of Trip’s code. This is a great opportunity to revisit Trip’s purpose. I guess it’s something like: Trip is  a search engine which allows users to easily locate the highest-quality evidence for their search.

But, in developing Trip we have often looked at why people search and frequently it is to support clinical question answering by health professionals. This has led us to introduce new features to support this wider aim (such as instant answers, drug information) – these have tended to be little used. Are we wasting our time and should our main focus be on the search?

So, do we focus on making it easier for users to find evidence (and related issues such as exporting records, linking to full-text) or do we balance development to include broader decision support tools such as instance answers, drug information and community support?

As well as the main poll we’re also asking users – if they have time/motivation – to leave their email (in the ‘Other’ box) if they are prepared to help further. This will allow us to ask more open questions relating to Trip’s future.