bims-evares Biomed News
on Evaluation of research
Issue of 2019‒02‒10
sixteen papers selected by
Thomas Krichel
Open Library Society


  1. Cancers (Basel). 2019 Feb 03. pii: E178. [Epub ahead of print]11(2):
      In conducting medical research, a system which can objectively predict the future trends of the given research field is awaited. This study aims to establish a novel and versatile algorithm that predicts the latest trends in neuro-oncology. Seventy-nine neuro-oncological research fields were selected with computational sorting methods such as text-mining analyses. Thirty journals that represent the recent trends in neuro-oncology were also selected. As a novel concept, the annual impact (AI) of each year was calculated for each journal and field (number of articles published in the journal × impact factor of the journal). The AI index (AII) for the year was defined as the sum of the AIs of the 30 journals. The AII trends of the 79 fields from 2008 to 2017 were subjected to machine learning predicting analyses. The accuracy of the predictions was validated using actual past data. With this algorithm, the latest trends in neuro-oncology were predicted. As a result, the linear prediction model achieved relatively good accuracy. The predicted hottest fields in recent neuro-oncology included some interesting emerging fields such as microenvironment and anti-mitosis. This algorithm may be an effective and versatile tool for prediction of future trends in a particular medical field.
    Keywords:  impact factor; machine learning; neuro-oncology; regression analysis; text-mining; trend prediction
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers11020178
  2. Radiol Med. 2019 Feb 06.
      INTRODUCTION: In the last decade, several journal's editors decided to publish alternative bibliometric indices parallel to the impact factor (IF): Scimago Journal Rank (SJR), Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP), Eigenfactor Score (ES) and CiteScore™ (CiteScore); however, there is scarce information about the correlations among them. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the associations between this bibliometrics in the Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging category of the Web of Knowledge. We hypothesized the IF did not show the best correlation with other metrics.METHODS: Retrospective study. We used bibliometrics recorded from the 2017 publicly available versions of the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), SJR ( www.scimagojr.com ), SNIP ( www.journalindicators.com ), and CiteScore ( www.scopus.com ); we also included the Total Cites. We measured the correlations using the Spearman correlation coefficients (RS) for all combinations of the bivariate pair, performed pairwise comparisons of the RS values, and calculated the coefficients of determination. We also tested the statistical significance of the difference between r coefficients between groups. All analyses were conducted with the JMP Pro software.
    RESULTS: The stronger bivariate correlations were represented by the ES↔Total Cites RS = 0.968, p < 0.001, R2 = 0.937; and the CiteScore↔SJR RS = 0.911, p < 0.001, R2 = 0.829. From 105 possible combinations of pairwise comparisons, 38 depicted a p value > 0.050 which would suggest interchangeability among bivariate correlations.
    CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support our hypothesis that the IF does not show the best correlation between other metrics. Radiologists, interventional radiologist, or nuclear medicine doctors should have a clear understanding of the associations among the journal's bibliometrics for their decision-making during the manuscript submission phase.
    Keywords:  Algorithms; Bibliometric analysis; Citation; Journal impact factor; Literature-based discovery
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11547-019-00996-z
  3. J Clin Epidemiol. 2019 Feb 04. pii: S0895-4356(18)30641-3. [Epub ahead of print]
      OBJECTIVES: To determine reliability and validity of McMaster PLUS measures of scientific merit and clinical importance of articles in medical journals.STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Analytic survey of peer-reviewed medical journals. Articles qualified for inclusion by meeting: 1) scientific criteria and 2) a clinical importance rating threshold. Included articles were sent as e-mail alerts to physicians according to their clinical interests. Internal measures included the number of high-quality, clinically important studies published in source journals and response to alerts. For external validation, we correlated internal measures with the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and citation in DynaMed Plus (DMPC).
    RESULTS: We evaluated 34,232 articles from 57 journals. Inclusion criteria were met by 2638 articles (7.71%). The number of qualifying articles per journal was correlated with the number of articles with high clinical importance ratings (r 0.96, p<0.001), article alert clicks (r 0.86, p<0.001), and DMPC (r 0.99, p< 0.001). Correlation was lower with the JIF (r 0.68, p<0.01).
    CONCLUSIONS: Measures of scientific merit and clinical importance of medical journal articles were strongly correlated with each other, less so with journal impact factors. Journals varied widely by these measures but, generally, few articles were both scientifically sound and clinically important.
    Keywords:  DynaMed plus; Information retrieval; Journal Impact Factor; McMaster PLUS Database; journalology; knowledge translation
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2019.01.010
  4. Conserv Biol. 2019 Feb 06.
      Every 2 years, the conservation community comes together at The Society for Conservation Biology's International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB) to share new developments in conservation science and practice. Publication of findings presented at conferences in scientific journals adds to the permanent record and helps increase potential impact of the work presented. However, quantitative research on publication rates for meetings relevant to conservation is lacking. For the 25th ICCB, (Auckland, New Zealand in 2011), we examined study publication rates and presenter demographics, recorded titles, number of authors, presenter affiliations, gender, country of study region, publication status, and elapsed time between presentation and publication. Of the 980 contributions (782 talks and 198 posters), 587 (60%) were published as peer-reviewed journal articles or book chapters. Mean time to publication was 13.7 months for all presentation abstracts and 21.3 months excluding abstracts with corresponding articles that were published before the meeting. The gender breakdown of presenters was almost even (53% male, 47% female), but representation of the countries where the presenting authors were based was skewed. The political units with the most contributions were by far the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Presenters based in 16 different English-speaking countries made up 74% of the total sample, but this did not influence the likelihood of their abstract leading to a publication. Examination of conference presenters and publication of their presentations is useful to identify biases and potential challenges that need to be addressed to make conference communications permanent and increase their reach beyond conference attendees. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
    Keywords:  ICCB; posters; publication rates; scientometrics; transboundary
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13296
  5. PLoS One. 2019 ;14(2): e0211939
      The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) universities are important bases for science and technology research and play a critical role in China's National Innovation System. Based on the Web of Science (WoS), this article analyzes the statistics of paper published by MIIT universities and universities from across China including MIIT universities. The results are as follows: (1) Both the MIIT universities and universities nationwide in China have increased their international academic publications, and MIIT have shown a greater increase for the past decade. (2) In terms of U-I-G interaction, for UG relations, the Tug value of MIIT universities has remained stable, while that of universities in China has become declined. For UI relations, the Tui value of both MIIT universities and universities in China has shown steady growth. For UIG relations, MIIT universities have a greater synergistic effect of Triple Helix relationship than universities in China. (3) For more details in seven MIIT universities, universities elected into "Project 985", including HIT, BUAA, BIT and NPU, have published more papers, and been more synergistic with government and industry (UIG relations) than other three universities, including NUAA, NUST and HEU. Based on the empirical results, we discuss our findings, and make certain suggestions regarding policy incentives, reasonable administrative system and U-I-G interaction mode, which is significant not only for Chinese universities but also for universities in other developing countries.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211939
  6. Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2019 ;2019 8278454
      Antioxidants are abundant in natural dietary sources, and the consumption of antioxidants has a lot of potential health benefits. However, there has been no literature analysis on this topic to evaluate its scientific impact in terms of citations. This study is aimed at identifying and analysing the antioxidant publications in the existing scientific literature. In this context, a literature search was performed with the Web of Science database. Full records and cited references of the 299,602 identified manuscripts were imported into VOSviewer for bibliometric analysis. Most of the manuscripts were published since 1991. The publications were mainly related to the categories biochemistry/molecular biology, food science technology, and pharmacology/pharmacy. These topics have been prolific since 1990 and before. Polymer science was prolific before, but its publication share declined in the recent two decades. Brazil, China, India, and South Korea have emerged as upcoming major contributors besides USA. Most prolific journals were Food Chemistry, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Free Radical Biology and Medicine, and PLOS One. Clinical conditions with high citations included Alzheimer's disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and Parkinson's disease. Chemical terms and structures with high citations included alpha-tocopherol, anthocyanin, ascorbate, beta-carotene, carotenoid, curcumin, cysteine, flavonoid, flavonol, hydrogen peroxide, kaempferol, N-acetylcysteine, nitric oxide, phenolic acid, uric acid, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and resveratrol. Citation patterns temporal analysis revealed a transition of the scientific interest from research focused on antioxidant vitamins and minerals into stronger attention focus on antioxidant phytochemicals (plant secondary metabolites).
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/8278454
  7. Harm Reduct J. 2019 Feb 08. 16(1): 12
      BACKGROUND: Harmful gambling is a complex issue with diverse antecedents and resulting harms that have been studied from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Although previous bibliometric reviews of gambling studies have found a dominance of judgement and decision-making research, no bibliometric review has examined the concept of "harm" in the gambling literature, and little work has quantitatively assessed how gambling research priorities differ between countries.METHODS: Guided by the Conceptual Framework of Harmful Gambling (CFHG), an internationally relevant framework of antecedents to harmful gambling, we conducted a bibliometric analysis focusing on research outputs from three countries with different gambling regulatory environments: Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Using a Web of Science database search, 1424 articles published from 2008 to 2017 were retrieved that could be mapped to the eight CFHG factors. A subsample of articles (n = 171) containing the word "harm" in the title, abstract, or keywords was then drawn. Descriptive statistics were used to examine differences between countries and trends over time with regard to CFHG factor and harm focus.
    RESULTS: Psychological and biological factors dominate gambling research in Canada whereas resources and treatment have received more attention in New Zealand. A greater percentage of Australia and New Zealand publications address the gambling environment and exposure to gambling than in Canada. The subset of articles focused on harm showed a stronger harms focus among New Zealand and Australian researchers compared to Canadian-authored publications.
    CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide preliminary bibliometric evidence that gambling research foci may be shaped by jurisdictional regulation of gambling. Countries with privately operated gambling focused on harm factors that are the operators' responsibility, whereas jurisdictions with a public health model focused on treatment and harm reduction resources. In the absence of a legislated requirement for public health or harm minimisation focus, researchers in jurisdictions with government-operated gambling tend to focus research on factors that are the individual's responsibility and less on the harms they experience. Given increased international attention to gambling-related harm, regulatory and research environments could promote and support more diverse research in this area.
    Keywords:  Australia; Bibliometric analysis; Canada; Conceptual Framework of Harmful Gambling; Gambling harm; Mapping review; New Zealand
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-018-0265-3
  8. J Surg Res. 2019 Feb 02. pii: S0022-4804(18)30825-4. [Epub ahead of print]238 16-22
      BACKGROUND: Abstracts presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Surgery (AAP) and American Pediatric Surgical Association (APSA) meetings can be taken as a reasonable representation of academic activity in pediatric surgery. We sought to assess ongoing trends in pediatric surgical research by analyzing the scientific content of each association's yearly meeting.METHODS: Abstracts presented at AAP and APSA between 2009 and 2013 were identified from the final printed programs (n = 910). Video abstracts (n = 34) were excluded. Collected data included title, authors, classification (basic science/clinical), presentation type (podium/poster), and topic. Publication as a journal article was determined using the abstract title/authors in a PubMed search. Journal impact factors were recorded for each journal and a composite impact factor (CIF) was calculated by dividing the sum of impact factors by the published articles per meeting.
    RESULTS: Number of abstracts presented, percentage published, abstract classifications, and presentation type remained consistent over the study period. The AAP meetings accepted a higher percentage of clinical abstracts: AAP 72.3 ± 3.4% versus APSA 65.9 ± 1.3%. The five most popular topics at both meetings were oncology, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, necrotizing enterocolitis, trauma, and appendicitis. The publication rate for clinical and basic science abstracts did not vary significantly over the study period, whereas CIFs were higher for basic science publications nearly every year. The percentage of podium abstracts published was significantly greater than poster abstracts, but no statistical difference in CIF was seen between podium- and poster-associated publications.
    CONCLUSIONS: Abstracts accepted and presented at the two major pediatric surgical specialty meetings more commonly involve clinical studies with a trend away from basic science. Despite this, basic science abstracts tended to be published in higher impact journals. This study attempts to quantify the quality of pediatric surgical research and serves as a baseline for future comparison.
    Keywords:  Abstracts; Impact factor; National meeting; Pediatric surgery; Publication
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2018.11.034
  9. Fam Med. 2019 Feb;51(2): 103-111
      BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: While prior efforts have assessed the scope of family medicine research, the methods have differed, and the efforts have not been routinely repeated. The purpose of this analysis was to quantify publications, journals, citations, and funding of US family medicine faculty and identify factors associated with these outcomes.METHODS: We identified faculty in US departments of family medicine through website searches and performed a cross-sectional study. We included 2015 publications in peer-reviewed journals indexed in Web of Science (a database that aggregates a wide range of catalogs). We calculated descriptive statistics assessing the publications, journals, and citations for family medicine faculty. We conducted bivariate analyses by department region, department size, public/private status, faculty title, and faculty degree.
    RESULTS: We identified 6,738 faculty at 134 departments, with 15% of faculty having any publications. Family medicine faculty published 3,002 times (mean of 2.9 among those with any publications). The mean number of publications was highest for faculty in departments in the West (3.7), in the third quartile for size (3.6), with a professor title (4.0), and with combined MD or DO/PhD degrees (4.3). Faculty published 84% of the time in non-family medicine journals and were cited 13,548 times. Faculty listed federal funding for over half (52%) of the times they published.
    CONCLUSIONS: Publications from family medicine faculty are not concentrated in family medicine journals and are being referenced by others. These figures are larger than prior estimates and should be tracked over time.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.22454/FamMed.2019.536135
  10. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2019 Feb;pii: S1744-3881(18)30716-3. [Epub ahead of print]34 165-173
      OBJECTIVE: Scientometrics is the evaluation of scientific literature in a certain field. Although popularity and use of homeopathy have increased in the recent years, scientific literature lacks a bibliometric or scientometric evaluation of homeopathy literature.METHODS: We collected all data of this study from four databases provided by Web of Science. All documents published between 1975 and 2017 were included. The keywords we searched for in detail were "homeopathy", "homeopathic", "homoeopathy" and "homoeopathic". We used Spearman's correlation test to investigate a possible correlation between publication numbers or the productivity and features of the countries. We created infographics and infomaps by using GunnMap and VOSviewer sources. Gross domestic product (GDP) ranking data of countries was procured from The World Data Bank.
    RESULTS: Our search retrieved a total of 4183 articles. The great majority of documents were original articles (n = 3043, 72.75%). The UK dominated homeopathy literature with 950 articles followed by the USA, Germany, India and Brazil (n = 636, 590, 277 and 246 items, respectively). Switzerland was found to be most productive country (20.41) followed by the UK, Norway and Israel (14.35, 11.31 and 8.41, respectively). University of Exeter (UK) was the leading institutions with 204 items (4.88%). Most productive journal was Homeopathy dominating and covering 24% of all literature. We detected very high correlation between publication number and citation number by year (r = 0.95, p < 0.001). A high correlation was measured between gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and productivity of the countries. A moderate correlation was measured between GDP and publication number of the countries (r = 0.66 and p < 0.001). In scientometric network analysis, the USA, the UK and Germany were noted to be three major association centers.
    CONCLUSIONS: We detected that developed countries dominated homeopathy literature and we suggest that physicians from least-developed and developing countries should be funded and encouraged to carry out homeopathy studies.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; Citation analysis; Homeopathy; Publication trend analysis; Scientometrics
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2018.11.018
  11. J Spine Surg. 2018 Dec;4(4): 770-779
      Management of cervical myelopathy (CM) has continued to evolve through a better understanding of the long-term outcomes of this diagnosis as well as improved diagnostic guidelines. More recent literature continues to expand the field, but certain publications can be distinguished from others due to their lasting impact. Using the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science, search phrases were used to identify publications pertaining to CM. The fifty most cited articles were isolated. The frequency of citations, year of publication, country of origin, journal of publication, level of evidence (LOE), article type, as well as contributing authors and institutions were recorded. We also highlighted the five most cited articles (per year) from the past 10 years. Publications included ranged from 1952-2011, with the plurality of articles published during 2000-2009 (n=21; 42%). The most cited paper was Hillibrand's 1999 reporting of adjacent segment disease rates following cervical fusions, followed by Hirabayashi's 1983 review of his cervical laminoplasty outcomes. The third most cited was Brain's 1952 review of the manifestations of cervical spondylosis. Spine contributed the most publications (n=26; 52%). A LOE of III was the most common (n=30; 60%). Clinical outcome articles were the most frequent type (n=28; 56%). Osaka University (Japan) and Kazou Yonenobu had the most contributions. Ames or Fehlings were the first or last author in each of the five most influential articles from the past 10 years. This bibliometric citation analysis identifies the most influential articles regarding CM. There are few publications with a high LOE, and more high powered studies are needed. Knowledge of these "classic" publications allows for a better overall understanding of the diagnosis, treatment, and future direction of research of CM.
    Keywords:  Cervical myelopathy (CM); adjacent segment disease; bibliometric review; cervical spondylotic myelopathy; most influential; neurosurgery; spine
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.21037/jss.2018.09.08
  12. Leg Med (Tokyo). 2019 Jan 22. pii: S1344-6223(18)30252-9. [Epub ahead of print]37 67-75
      PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to illustrate the global research productivity and tendency of forensic anthropology in recent ten years (2008-2017) by bibliometric analysis.METHODS: "Forensic anthropology" was used as the Medical Subject Headings term and topic in PubMed and Web of Science Core Collection.
    RESULTS: As 5130 articles retrieved, two independent investigators evaluated all of them respectively. After restricting the published year, excluding duplicated and irrelevant articles, 1663 articles were available. The total of 219 countries and regions contributed to this research and the United States was the most productive country. There were 201 peer-reviewed journals including all of articles and two of them were identified as core journals according to Bradford's law. Eight of the top 10 productive authors were from developed countries. The top 10 cited articles were published by authors from developed countries with half in the United States. Sex estimation and age estimation were the most popular topics.
    CONCLUSIONS: With the basic and recognized methodology administered in this study, it provided a relative broad view to evaluate the scientific research capacity of forensic anthropology and reveal the worldwide tendency in this field.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; Forensic anthropology; Forensic science; Research trend
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.legalmed.2019.01.008
  13. J Am Coll Radiol. 2019 Feb;pii: S1546-1440(18)31052-4. [Epub ahead of print]16(2): 240-243
      PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to quantify the relationship between author gender and publication topic, as well as the impact of gender-related research.METHODS: We reviewed all original research publications in Radiology, American Journal of Roentgenology, and Academic Radiology from 2011 through 2015. For each article, we recorded the gender of all authors and the last author H-index, years in practice, and academic rank. The total citations and citation rate (citations per year) were calculated for each article. Articles were categorized as gender-neutral, women's health, or men's health.
    RESULTS: There were 1,934 publications involving 11,657 authors. Women represented 30% of first, 25% of last, and 28% of all authors. There were 1,596 (83%) gender-neutral, 276 (14%) women's health, and 61 (3%) men's health articles. Women's health articles were associated with a female first (odds ratio [OR] = 5.0, P < .001) and last author (OR = 6.4, P < .001), as well as more female authors (male = 1.4, female = 3.6, P < .001). Men's health articles were associated with a male first (OR = 2.6, P = .004) and last author (OR = 2.2, P = .03). There were significantly more citations for men's (43.5 ± 54.9, P < .001) and women's health (27.6 ± 37.5, P < .008) articles than gender-neutral articles (21.9 ± 28.9). Similarly, the article citation rate was higher for men's (10.6 ± 11.3, P < .001) and women's health (6.8 ± 8.5, P = .004) articles than gender-neutral publications (5.3 ± 7.0).
    CONCLUSION: Radiology researchers publish more often on topics related to their own gender. Furthermore, men's and women's health research generates more citations than gender-neutral research.
    Keywords:  Gender; H-index; citations; men’s health; women’s health
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2018.08.024
  14. Medicine (Baltimore). 2019 Feb;98(6): e14394
      BACKGROUND: This study aimed to analyze the scientific outputs of diabetic kidney disease (DKD) research and explore its hotspots and frontiers from 2000 to 2017, using bibliometric methods.METHODS: Articles in DKD research between 2000 and 2017 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). We used the VOSviewer 1.6.8 and CiteSpace 5.2 to analyze publication years, journals, countries, institutions, authors, references, and keywords. Keywords with citation bursts were used to analyze the research hotspots and emerging trends.
    RESULTS: We identified 27,577 publications in DKD research from 2000 to 2017. The annual publication number increased with time. Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation published the highest number of articles. The United States was the most influential country with most publications and collaborations with other countries. Harvard University was the leading institute. Parving had the most cited publications. Keywords analysis indicated that the renin-angiotensin system inhibition used to be the most prevalent research topic, while recent research hotspots were podocyte, inflammation, and biomarker. The biomarkers for DKD screening, diagnosis, and prognosis could be a research frontier.
    CONCLUSIONS: The number of DKD related publications rapidly increased over the past 2 decades. Our study revealed the structure, hotspots, and evolution trends of DKD research. Further studies and more collaborations are needed.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000014394
  15. Rev Peru Med Exp Salud Publica. 2018 Oct-Dec;35(4):pii: S1726-46342018000400620. [Epub ahead of print]35(4): 620-629
      OBJECTIVES: To characterize, by means of bibliometric indicators, the scientific publications of the Peruvian Experimental Medicine and Public Health Journal, 2010-2017.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A bibliometric study in which the publications were retrieved from the data base of Scopus. The bibliometric production indicators were: number of publications per year and type of publication. Brief original and original articles were considered as units of analysis based on number of authors, institutional affiliation, and country of corresponding author, type of research and study design. The impact indicators were: number of citations by publication according to Scopus, metric of impact, such as CiteScore, Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR), and SciELO Public Health.
    RESULTS: A total of 1,045 publications were made by the RPMESP: 40.1% of publications corresponded to original articles and original briefs; 1,837 authors contributed with these publications; 134 institutional affiliations were declared by the corresponding authors; 48,0% were research works on determinants of a health problem; on the other hand, 90.5% corresponded to observational studies. The publications analyzed received 945 citations, of which 78.5% were for publications for the 2010-2013 period.
    CONCLUSIONS: Four of ten publications of the RPMESP correspond to brief original or original articles. According to diverse formulas of calculation, the impact metric of the RPMESP shows an ascending trend; however, their magnitude is lower versus other regional journals.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.17843/rpmesp.2018.354.3817
  16. Medicine (Baltimore). 2019 Feb;98(6): e14439
      BACKGROUND: After nearly 20 years of development, China has realized some achievements in helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS). The purpose of this article is to introduce and evaluate the development and characteristics of HEMS in China by collecting and analyzing relevant literature and, in so doing, help this vital service to further develop.METHOD: We conducted a Pubmed, Medline, Embase, ScienceDirect, Wanfang, CNKI, and VIP search of the literature on HEMS of China published between January 1950 and April 2017. The title, author name, number of authors, publishing date, country or region of origin, institution, type of article, study topic, funding source, and level of evidence of each article were recorded and analyzed.
    RESULTS: There were 41 papers included in the analysis. All articles were published in Chinese. The selected articles were published between 2002 and 2017. The 41 articles originated from China, but 7 different regions were represented: East China (n = 14), followed by North China (n = 12), Central China (n = 8), Southwest China (n = 3), South China (n = 2), and Northwest China (n = 2). The articles included 18 clinical studies, 12 reviews, and 11 clinical guidelines. Among these, 22 articles were from public hospitals; 18 were from military units and 1 came from a private hospital. One article from the public hospitals was funded by public foundations (4.5%); 11 articles from the army units received support from Army funding (61.1%). Compared with the public and private hospitals, articles from military units were more likely to receive financial support (χ = 15.7 P <.01). All the articles were assigned a level of evidence from 1 to 5. Level 5 (78.0%) was the most frequent level of evidence. There were 7 studies at level 4. Only 2 articles were assigned to level 3. There were no articles at levels 1 or 2.
    CONCLUSIONS: China's HEMS is a relatively new service. Its level of development is low, interregional development is uneven, and cooperation has been insufficient. We need to strengthen capital investment and develop a unified guideline to further enhance the development of HEMS in China.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000014439