bims-librar Biomed News
on Biomedical librarianship
Issue of 2019‒07‒07
thirty-six papers selected by
Thomas Krichel
Open Library Society


  1. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 291-303
      This lecture discusses social justice and the role that medical librarians can play in a democratic society. Social justice needs to be central to the mission of medical librarianship and a core value of the profession. Medical librarians must develop a new professional orientation: one that focuses on cultural awareness or cultural consciousness that goes beyond ourselves and our collections to that which focuses on the users of our libraries. We must develop a commitment to addressing the issues of societal, relevant health information. Using examples from medical education, this lecture makes the case for social justice librarianship. This lecture also presents a pathway for social justice medical librarianship, identifies fundamental roles and activities in these areas, and offers strategies for individual librarians, the Medical Library Association, and library schools for developing social justice education and outcomes. The lecture advocates for an understanding of and connection to social justice responsibilities for the medical library profession and ends with a call to go beyond understanding to action. The lecture emphasizes the lack of diversity in our profession and the importance of diversity and inclusion for achieving social justice. The lecture presents specific examples from some medical libraries to extend the social justice mindset and to direct outreach, collections, archives, and special collection services to expose previously hidden voices. If medical librarians are to remain relevant in the future, we must act to address the lack of diversity in our profession and use our information resources, spaces, and expertise to solve the relevant societal issues of today.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.712
  2. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 333-340
      Objective: The PubMed Clinical Study Category filters are subdivided into "Broad" and "Narrow" versions that are designed to maximize either sensitivity or specificity by using two different sets of keywords and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). A searcher might assume that all items retrieved by Narrow would also be found by Broad, but there are occasions when some [Filter name]/Narrow citations are missed when using [Filter name]/Broad alone. This study quantifies the size of this effect.Methods: For each of the five Clinical Study Categories, PubMed was searched for citations matching the query Filter/Narrow NOT Filter/Broad. This number was compared with that for Filter/Broad to compute the number of Narrow citations missed per 1,000 Broad. This process was repeated for the MeSH terms for "Medicine" and "Diseases," as well as for a set of individual test searches.
    Results: The Clinical Study Category filters for Etiology, Clinical Prediction Guides, Diagnosis, and Prognosis all showed notable numbers of Filter/Narrow citations that were missed when searching Filter/Broad alone. This was particularly true for Prognosis, where a searcher could easily miss one Prognosis/Narrow citation for every ten Prognosis/Broad citations retrieved.
    Conclusions: Users of the Clinical Study Category filters (except for Therapy) should consider combining Filter/Narrow together with Filter/Broad in their search strategy. This is particularly true when using Prognosis/Broad, as otherwise there is a substantial risk of missing potentially relevant citations.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.589
  3. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 374-383
      Objective: This study updates Haaland's 1999 dental hygiene mapping study. By identifying core journals and estimating database coverage, it characterizes changes in dental hygiene research and aids librarians in collection development and user education.Method: Cited references from a three-year (2015-2017) sample of core dental hygiene journals were collected, categorized into five formats, and analyzed by format and publication year according to Bradford's Law of Scattering. CINAHL Complete, MEDLINE, and EMBASE were surveyed to determine the indexing coverage of cited journals.
    Results: The number of cited journal titles increased from 389 in 1999 to 1,675 in 2018. Core Zone 1 titles increased from 5 to 11. Journal article citations increased from 69.5% of all citations in 1999 to 78.4% in the present study, whereas book citations decreased from 18.1% to 5.1%. A newly added category, "Internet sources," accounted for 8.4% of citations. Overall, 68.6% of citations were 10 years or younger versus 71.4% in 1999. Most Zone 1 and Zone 2 journals were specific to dentistry or dental hygiene.
    Conclusion: Notable changes since 1999 were an increased volume of literature and a shift from print to online sources, reflecting improved accessibility of the literature and greater Internet use. From 1999 to 2018, citations to journal articles increased, books decreased, websites appeared, and government publications increased slightly. These findings indicate that dental hygiene research is growing and that indexing coverage for this field has improved dramatically in the past two decades.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.562
  4. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 341-351
      Objective: This study explores the variety of information formats used and audiences targeted by public health faculty in the process of disseminating research.Methods: The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with twelve faculty members in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, asking them about their research practices, habits, and preferences.
    Results: Faculty scholars disseminate their research findings in a variety of formats intended for multiple audiences, including not only their peers in academia, but also public health practitioners, policymakers, government and other agencies, and community partners.
    Conclusion: Librarians who serve public health faculty should bear in mind the diversity of faculty's information needs when designing and improving library services and resources, particularly those related to research dissemination and knowledge translation. Promising areas for growth in health sciences libraries include supporting data visualization, measuring the impact of non-scholarly publications, and promoting institutional repositories for dissemination of research.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.524
  5. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 394-402
      Objective: To understand librarians' evidence-based practice (EBP) professional development needs and assist library administrators with professional development decisions in their own institutions, the study team surveyed past participants of an EBP online course. This study aimed to (1) understand what course content participants found valuable, (2) discover how participants applied their course learning to their work, and (3) identify which aspects of EBP would be beneficial for future continuing education.Methods: The study team distributed an eighteen-question survey to past participants of the course (2011-2017). The survey covered nontraditional demographic information, course evaluations, course content applications to participants' work, additional EBP training, and EBP topics for future CE opportunities. The study team analyzed the results using descriptive statistics.
    Results: Twenty-nine percent of course participants, representing different library environments, responded to the survey. Eighty-five percent of respondents indicated that they had prior EBP training. The most valuable topics were searching the literature (62%) and developing a problem, intervention, comparison, outcome (PICO) question (59%). Critical appraisal was highly rated for further professional development. Fifty-three percent indicated change in their work efforts after participating in the course. Ninety-seven percent noted interest in further EBP continuing education.
    Conclusions: Survey respondents found value in both familiar and unfamiliar EBP topics, which supported the idea of using professional development for learning new concepts and reinforcing existing knowledge and skills. When given the opportunity to engage in these activities, librarians can experience new or expanded EBP work roles and responsibilities. Additionally, the results provide library administrators insights into the benefit of EBP professional development.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.628
  6. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 420-424
      Background: The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds academic institutions for training doctoral (PhD) students and postdoctoral fellows. These training grants, known as T32 grants, require schools to create, in a particular format, seven or eight Word documents describing the program and its participants. Weill Cornell Medicine aimed to use structured name and citation data to dynamically generate tables, thus saving administrators time.Case Presentation: The author's team collected identity and publication metadata from existing systems of record, including our student information system and previous T32 submissions. These data were fed into our ReCiter author disambiguation engine. Well-structured bibliographic metadata, including the rank of the target author, were output and stored in a MySQL database. We then ran a database query that output a Word extensible markup (XML) document according to NIH's specifications. We generated the T32 training document using a query that ties faculty listed on a grant submission with publications that they and their mentees authored, bolding author names as required. Because our source data are well-structured and well-defined, the only parameter needed in the query is a single identifier for the grant itself. The open source code for producing this document is at http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2593545.
    Conclusions: Manually writing a table for T32 grant submissions is a substantial administrative burden; some documents generated in this manner exceed 150 pages. Provided they have a source for structured identity and publication data, administrators can use the T32 Table Generator to readily output a table.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.401
  7. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 304-313
      Objective: The review sought to gain a better understanding of humor's use and impact as a teaching and learning strategy in academic library and health sciences instruction and to determine if the most common techniques across both disciplines can be adapted to increase engagement in medical libraries' information literacy efforts.Methods: This narrative review involved retrieving citations from several subject databases, including Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts; Information Science & Technology Abstracts; Library & Information Science Source; PubMed; and CINAHL. The author limited her review to those publications that explicitly addressed the use of humor in relation to some form of academic library or health sciences instruction. Studies examining use of humor in patient education were excluded.
    Results: Scholars and practitioners have consistently written about humor as an instructional strategy from the 1980s onward, in both the library literature and health sciences literature. These authors have focused on instructors' attitudes, benefits to students, anecdotes, and best practices summaries. Overall, both librarians and health sciences educators have a positive opinion of humor, and many instructors make use of it in their classrooms, though caution and careful planning is advised.
    Conclusions: Commonalities between the library and information science literature and health sciences literature provide a cohesive set of best practices and strategies for successfully incorporating comedy into library instruction sessions. Health sciences librarians can adapt several of the most commonly used types of instructional humor (e.g., silly examples, cartoons, storytelling, etc.) to their own contexts with minimal risk.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.608
  8. J Postgrad Med. 2019 Jul 03.
      Medical student journals (MSJs) refer to a cluster of entirely student-led periodicals that publish student-authored articles. A recent review showed that MSJs characteristically employ a student-friendly and feeble peer review process, which is largely associated with poor quality of published articles. Herein, as a graduate medical student, I call on peer medical students to make an informed decision in refraining from submitting their research work to MSJs for four primary reasons. These reasons, generally, include: 1) opaque peer-review process, 2) lack of MEDLINE® indexing, 3) absence of official journal impact factor scores, and 4) poor article visibility and exposure to scientific community. Furthermore, I encourage students to take advantage of the existing opportunities provided by the professional MEDLINE®-indexed journals in disseminating their research work. These opportunities include: 1) the absolute welcoming calls for student-authored contributions, and 2) the designated 'student contribution corners'. Lastly, I succinctly highlight the joint duties of medical schools, undergraduate research committees, institutional review boards and mentors in publishing the student-authored research work in the professional journals, rather than the MSJs.
    Keywords:  Publication; medical student journals; research
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.4103/jpgm.JPGM_278_19
  9. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 411-419
      Background: Many health sciences librarians are noticing an increase in demand for systematic review support. Developing a strategic approach to supporting systematic review activities can address commonly reported barriers and challenges including time factors, methodological issues, and supporting student-led projects.Case Presentation: This case report describes how a health sciences library at a mid-sized university developed and implemented a structured and defined systematic review service in order to build capacity for increased librarian support and to maximize librarians' time and expertise. The process also revealed underlying collaboration challenges related to student-led systematic reviews and research quality concerns that needed to be addressed. The steps for developing a formal service included defining the librarian's role and a library service model, building librarian expertise, developing documentation to guide librarians and patrons, piloting and revising the service model, marketing and promoting the service, and evaluating service usage.
    Conclusions: The two-tiered service model developed for advisory consultation and collaboration provides a framework for supporting systematic review activities that other libraries can adapt to meet their own needs. Librarian autonomy in deciding whether to collaborate on reviews based on defined and explicit considerations was crucial for maximizing librarians' time and expertise and for promoting higher quality research. Monitoring service usage will be imperative for managing existing and future librarian workload. These data and tracking of research outputs from librarian collaborations may also be used to advocate for new librarian positions.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.443
  10. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 442-448
      Genomic medicine is rapidly changing the future of medicine. Medical librarians need to understand this field of research and keep current with its latest advancements. Even if they are not directly involved in genomic medicine, librarians can play an integral role by helping health care consumers and practitioners who may also need to expand their knowledge in this area. This article provides a basic introduction to genomic medicine, gives a brief overview of its recent advancements, and briefly describes some of the ethical, legal, and social implications of this emerging area of research and practice.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.604
  11. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 364-373
      Objective: Hypothetically, content in MEDLINE records is consistent across multiple platforms. Though platforms have different interfaces and requirements for query syntax, results should be similar when the syntax is controlled for across the platforms. The authors investigated how search result counts varied when searching records among five MEDLINE platforms.Methods: We created 29 sets of search queries targeting various metadata fields and operators. Within search sets, we adapted 5 distinct, compatible queries to search 5 MEDLINE platforms (PubMed, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, Web of Science, and Ovid), totaling 145 final queries. The 5 queries were designed to be logically and semantically equivalent and were modified only to match platform syntax requirements. We analyzed the result counts and compared PubMed's MEDLINE result counts to result counts from the other platforms. We identified outliers by measuring the result count deviations using modified z-scores centered around PubMed's MEDLINE results.
    Results: Web of Science and ProQuest searches were the most likely to deviate from the equivalent PubMed searches. EBSCOhost and Ovid were less likely to deviate from PubMed searches. Ovid's results were the most consistent with PubMed's but appeared to apply an indexing algorithm that resulted in lower retrieval sets among equivalent searches in PubMed. Web of Science exhibited problems with exploding or not exploding Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms.
    Conclusion: Platform enhancements among interfaces affect record retrieval and challenge the expectation that MEDLINE platforms should, by default, be treated as MEDLINE. Substantial inconsistencies in search result counts, as demonstrated here, should raise concerns about the impact of platform-specific influences on search results.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.622
  12. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 432-441
      Background: Librarians developed a pilot program to provide training, resources, strategies, and support for medical libraries seeking to establish research data management (RDM) services. Participants were required to complete eight educational modules to provide the necessary background in RDM. Each participating institution was then required to use two of the following three elements: (1) a template and strategies for data interviews, (2) the Teaching Toolkit to teach an introductory RDM class, or (3) strategies for hosting a data class series.Case Presentation: Six libraries participated in the pilot, with between two and eight librarians participating from each institution. Librarians from each institution completed the online training modules. Each institution conducted between six and fifteen data interviews, which helped build connections with researchers, and taught between one and five introductory RDM classes. All classes received very positive evaluations from attendees. Two libraries conducted a data series, with one bringing in instructors from outside the library.
    Conclusion: The pilot program proved successful in helping participating librarians learn about and engage with their research communities, jump-start their teaching of RDM, and develop institutional partnerships around RDM services. The practical, hands-on approach of this pilot proved to be successful in helping libraries with different environments establish RDM services. The success of this pilot provides a proven path forward for libraries that are developing data services at their own institutions.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.545
  13. J Med Internet Res. 2019 Jul 05. 21(7): e12638
      BACKGROUND: Traditional methods using print media and commercial firms for clinician recruiting are often limited by cost, slow pace, and suboptimal results. An efficient and fiscally sound approach is needed for searching online to recruit clinicians.OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to assess the Web-based methods by which clinicians might be searching for jobs in a broad range of specialties and how academic medical centers can advertise clinical job openings to prominently appear on internet searches that would yield the greatest return on investment.
    METHODS: We used a search engine (Google) to identify 8 query terms for each of the specialties and specialists (eg, dermatology and dermatologist) to determine internet job search methodologies for 12 clinical disciplines. Searches were conducted, and the data used for analysis were the first 20 results.
    RESULTS: In total, 176 searches were conducted at varying times over the course of several months, and 3520 results were recorded. The following 4 types of websites appeared in the top 10 search results across all specialties searched, accounting for 52.27% (920/1760) of the results: (1) a single no-cost job aggregator (229/1760, 13.01%); (2) 2 prominent journal-based paid digital job listing services (157/1760, 8.92% and 91/1760, 5.17%, respectively); (3) a fee-based Web-based agency (137/1760, 7.78%) offering candidate profiles; and (4) society-based paid advertisements (totaling 306/1760, 17.38%). These sites accounted for 75.45% (664/880) of results limited to the top 5 results. Repetitive short-term testing yielded similar results with minor changes in the rank order.
    CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of our findings, we offer a specific financially prudent internet strategy for both clinicians searching the internet for employment and employers hiring clinicians in academic medical centers.
    Keywords:  academic medical centers; internet; personnel selection
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2196/12638
  14. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 403-410
      Background: The following case example provides an overview of one innovative way to engage health professions faculty with health sciences librarians in the development of an interprofessional book discussion and identifies strategies to address implementation challenges. Academic health sciences librarians worked with the Interprofessional Education (IPE) Steering Committee to organize interprofessional book discussion groups for incoming health professions students. This inaugural book discussion brought together students and faculty of different disciplines to engage students in "learning from, with, and about" other professions.Case Presentation: When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi, allowed involved discussions on important health sciences issues. The project included outreach, designing pre- and post-surveys, scheduling participants, and communicating with all participants before, during, and after the event. A total of seventy-nine students and thirty-six faculty, representing all health professions schools, participated in the small group IPE book discussions over two weeks.
    Conclusions: Small group book discussions have been shown to be an effective tool to engage students and faculty in IPE. The results of the participant surveys were positive, and the IPE Steering Committee found value in including health sciences librarians throughout the process. Lessons learned from the pilot project include needing an efficient scheduling system, strongly communicating at all stages of the project, and starting the planning process months ahead of time. The IPE Steering Committee plans to conduct similar book discussions every fall semester moving forward and explore options for other IPE events.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.563
  15. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 352-363
      Objective: To better support dentistry researchers in the ever-changing landscape of scholarly research, academic librarians need to redefine their roles and discover new ways to be involved at each stage of the research cycle. A needs assessment survey was conducted to evaluate faculty members' research support needs and allow a more targeted approach to the development of research services in an academic health sciences library.Methods: The anonymous, web-based survey was distributed via email to full-time researchers at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto. The survey included twenty questions inquiring about researchers' needs and behaviors across three stages of the research cycle: funding and grant applications, publication and dissemination, and research impact assessment. Data were also collected on researchers' use of grey literature to identify whether current library efforts to support researchers should be improved in this area.
    Results: Among library services, researchers considered support for funding and grant applications most valuable and grey literature support least valuable. Researcher engagement with open access publishing models was low, and few participants had self-archived their publications in the university's institutional repository. Participants reported low interest in altmetrics, and few used online tools to promote or share their research results.
    Conclusions: Findings indicate that increased efforts should be made to promote and develop services for funding and grant applications. New services are needed to assist researchers in maximizing their research impact and to increase researcher awareness of the benefits of open access publishing models, self-archiving, and altmetrics.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.556
  16. J Med Internet Res. 2019 Jul 03. 21(7): e14105
      BACKGROUND: In the new media age, the public searches for information both online and offline. Many studies have examined how the public reads and understands this information but very few investigate how people assess the quality of journalistic articles as opposed to information generated by health professionals.OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine how public health care workers (HCWs) and the general public seek, read, and understand health information and to investigate the criteria by which they assess the quality of journalistic articles.
    METHODS: A Web-based nonprobability sampling questionnaire survey was distributed to Israeli HCWs and members of the public via 3 social media outlets: Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. A total of 979 respondents participated in the online survey via the Qualtrics XM platform.
    RESULTS: The findings indicate that HCWs find academic articles more reliable than do members of the general public (44.4% and 28.4%, respectively, P<.001). Within each group, we found disparities between the places where people search for information and the sources they consider reliable. HCWs consider academic articles to be the most reliable, yet these are not their main information sources. In addition, HCWs often use social networks to search for information (18.2%, P<.001), despite considering them very unreliable (only 2.2% found them reliable, P<.001). The same paradoxes were found among the general public, where 37.5% (P<.001) seek information via social networks yet only 8.4% (P<.001) find them reliable. Out of 6 quality criteria, 4 were important both to HCWs and to the general public.
    CONCLUSIONS: In the new media age where information is accessible to all, the quality of articles about health is of critical importance. It is important that the criteria examined in this research become the norm in health writing for all stakeholders who write about health, whether they are professional journalists or citizen journalists writing in the new media.
    Keywords:  Web-based and newspaper health information sources; health information-seeking; journalistic articles; public healthcare workers and the general public; quality criteria for health journalists; reading and understanding
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2196/14105
  17. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 449-453
      The Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU) recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. The university was established to honor Dr. Charles Richard Drew, a pioneer in blood banking. As a tribute to the legacy of CDU and Dr. Drew, the CDU Health Sciences Library examined how CDU is keeping Dr. Drew's legacy alive.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.726
  18. Health Info Libr J. 2019 Jul 04.
      BACKGROUND: There are few publications on search strategies to identify diagnostic test accuracy (DTA) studies in lilacs.OBJECTIVE: To translate and customise medline search strategies for use in lilacs and assess their retrieval of studies in Cochrane DTA systematic reviews.
    METHOD: We developed a six-step process to translate and customise medline search strategies for use in lilacs (iAHx interface). We identified medline search strategies of published Cochrane DTA reviews, translated/customised them for use in lilacs, ran searches in lilacs and compared the retrieval results of our translated search strategy versus the one used in the published reviews.
    RESULTS: Our lilacs search strategies translated/customised from the medline strategies retrieved studies in 70 Cochrane DTA reviews. Only 29 of these reviews stated that they had searched the lilacs database and 21 published their lilacs search strategies. Few had used the lilacs database search tools, none exploded the subject headings, and 86% used only English terms.
    CONCLUSION: Translating and tailoring a medline search strategy for the lilacs database resulted in the retrieval of DTA studies that would have been missed otherwise.
    Keywords:  access to information; databases as topic; diagnosis; review; review literature as topic; search engine
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12263
  19. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 314-322
      Objective: The goal of this scoping review was to collect data on patient- and family-centered care (PFCC) programs and initiatives that have included the direct involvement of librarians and information professionals to determine how librarians are involved in PFCC and highlight opportunities for librarians to support PFCC programs.Methods: Systematic literature searches were conducted in seven scholarly databases in the information, medical, and social sciences. Studies were included if they (1) described initiatives presented explicitly as PFCC programs and (2) involved an information professional or librarian in the PFCC initiative or program. Based on the definition of PFCC provided by the Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care, the authors developed a custom code sheet to organize data elements into PFCC categories or initiatives and outcomes. Other extracted data elements included how the information professional became involved in the program and a narrative description of the initiatives or programs.
    Results: All included studies (n=12) identified patient education or information-sharing as an integral component of their PFCC initiatives. Librarians were noted to contribute to shared decision-making through direct patient consultation, provision of health literacy education, and information delivery to both provider and patient with the goal of fostering collaborative communication.
    Conclusions: The synthesis of available evidence to date suggests that librarians and information professionals should focus on patient education and information-sharing to support both patients or caregivers and clinical staff. The burgeoning efforts in participatory care and inclusion of patients in the decision-making process pose a unique opportunity for librarians and information professionals to offer more personalized information services.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.652
  20. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 384-393
      Objectives: This study sought to understand the needs of biomedical researchers related to the research lifecycle and the present state of library support for biomedical research.Methods: Qualitative interview data were collected from biomedical researchers who were asked to describe their research activities from identifying a problem to measuring the impact of their findings. Health sciences library leaders were surveyed about the services that they currently provide or plan to provide in supporting biomedical research.
    Results: Library services were strongest at the beginning and end of the research lifecycle but were weaker in the conducting phase of research. Co-occurrence of codes from the qualitative data suggests that library services are on the fringe of rather than integrated into the research lifecycle.
    Discussion: Findings from this study suggest that tradition-based service models of health sciences libraries are insufficient to meet the needs of biomedical researchers. Investments by libraries in services that integrate with the conducting phase of research are needed for libraries to remain relevant in their support of the research lifecycle.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.595
  21. Health Promot Perspect. 2019 ;9(2): 156-160
      Background: Web-based patient education literature has been shown to be written at reading levels far above what is recommended. Little is known about the overall readability of current internet-based bariatric surgery information. The purpose of this study was to assess the readability of current bariatric material on the internet. Methods: The term "weight loss surgery" was searched using the Chrome browser on the first 15pages of URLs that appeared with content written in English. Using five readability measures, scores were generated using Readable.io for written content on a sample of 96 websites. Scores were sorted into the readability categories of "easy," "average," and "difficult." Results: Almost 93% of websites, both .com and .org, sampled received an unacceptable readability score on each assessment. Conclusion: Accurate and appropriate information about bariatric procedures is critical for patient comprehension and adherence to recommended protocols.
    Keywords:  Bariatric surgery; Health literacy; Obesity; Online information; Readability
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.15171/hpp.2019.22
  22. Cureus. 2019 Apr 16. 11(4): e4464
      Introduction Pediatric fever is the most common chief complaint in patients under 15 years old. The objective of this paper is to characterize public search trends for pediatric fever in the United States using Google search engine queries. Methods and materials A cross-sectional survey of Google Trends searches for "toddler fever" was conducted from October 2018 to January 2019 during "cold and flu" season. Information collected included "Related Topics" and "Related Queries", which includes additional searches by individuals who searched for "toddler fever". Data are described in the results using Google's relative popularity. Results For this study, 91 weeks of data were queried. The median relative popularity over this time period was 65 (interquartile range, 58 - 74.5) out of 100. Individuals searching for this term also searched thematically for characterizations and descriptors of fever, types of symptoms associated with fever, and various treatments for fever. Conclusion The results of this study revealed an increased frequency of search engine queries for descriptors and qualifiers of symptoms associated with pediatric illness during the "cold and flu" season. Frequently queried terms suggest a need for increased health literacy regarding pediatric fever in the United States and may represent a need for further national educational resources.
    Keywords:  google trends; health literacy; pediatric fever; search engine queries
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.4464
  23. World Neurosurg. 2019 Jun 28. pii: S1878-8750(19)31823-6. [Epub ahead of print]
      BACKGROUND: Most Americans consult the internet to address their health concerns. Limited health literacy among the public highlights the need for patient education websites to deliver understandable health information. We assessed the understandability and actionability of online neurosurgical patient education materials (PEMs) provided by the AANS and MedlinePlus.METHODS: Articles on neurosurgical conditions and treatments listed on both the AANS site and MedlinePlus were analyzed. Two reviewers scored articles using two validated health literacy tools, the CDC's Clear Communication Index (CCI) and the AHRQ's Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT). These tools evaluate the quality of written health information and assess for content, organization, and actionability of PEMs.
    RESULTS: One hundred thirty-eight articles were evaluated from the AANS (n=61) and MedlinePlus (n=77). The median CCI score for MedlinePlus and AANS articles was 68.9 [IQR 62.5-81.3] and 56.3 [46.7-73.7], respectively (p<0.001). Only one article scored ≥90%, the CCI threshold for PEM's to be considered easy-to-read. While the AANS and Medline performed similarly on the understandability component of the PEMAT (66.7 [53.8-69.2] vs 69.2 [66.7-83.3], respectively; p <0.001), significant differences were observed for the actionability section of the PEMAT (Medline 60 [60-60] vs AANS 0 [0-60]; p <0.001). Less than 13% of articles provided summaries, visual aids, and tangible tools to aid patient action.
    CONCLUSIONS: Neurosurgical online PEM's may be difficult to understand and potentially act as barriers for patients' engagement with health systems. There is a need to deliver patient-centered health information that effectively informs patients, aiding in meaningful health-decision making.
    Keywords:  CCI; PEMAT; health literacy; neurosurgery; patient education materials
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2019.06.166
  24. Methods. 2019 Jun 25. pii: S1046-2023(19)30029-5. [Epub ahead of print]
      Biomedical text mining is becoming increasingly important as the number of biomedical documents grow rapidly. Deep learning has boosted the development of biomedical text mining models. However, as deep learning models require a large amount of training data, a hierarchical attention based transfer learning model is proposed in this paper for the question answering task in biomedical field which lacks of sufficient training data. We adopt BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representation Transformers), which has the ability to learn from large-scale unsupervised data, to enrich the semantic representation in our model. Especially, the scaled dot-product attention mechanism captures the question interaction clues for passage encoding. The domain adaptation technique of fine-tuning is used to reinforce the performance, which penalizes the deviations from the source model's parameters and remembers the knowledge of source domain. We evaluate the system performance on the open data set of BioASQ-Task B. The results show that our system achieves the state-of-the-art performance without any handcrafted features and outperforms the best solution for factoid questions in 2016 and 2017 BioASQ-Task B.
    Keywords:  BERT; Biomedical Question Answering; Scaled Dot-Product Attention; Transfer learning
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymeth.2019.06.024
  25. Med Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal. 2019 Jul 01. 24(4): e461-e467
      BACKGROUND: To assess the readability and quality of web-based information available for patients about oral lichen planus (OLP).MATERIAL AND METHODS: Three major search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo!) were used to identify websites of particular interest to the study using the search term 'oral lichen planus'. The first 100 sites of each search engine were considered for the study. The quality of the contents was evaluated using the DISCERN instrument. The Flesch-Kinkaid Reading Grade Level (FKRGL) and the Flesh Reading Ease Score (FRES) were used to assess readability. The presence of the Health on the Net (HON) seal was also evaluated.
    RESULTS: Following the application of the study's exclusion criteria, only 28 websites were compiled for further analysis. The median of the DISCERN instrument was 3 [2-3] which means serious or potentially important shortcoming in the quality of the information. Readability indexes pointed to a high reading difficulty (FRES: 48.14±11.22; FKRGL:11.13±2.90).
    CONCLUSIONS: The information provided by the Internet to the general public regarding OLP has major deficits in terms of quality, and at the same time is difficult for a comprehensive reading. Further studies are warranted to test well-produced patient-centered information on OLP.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.4317/medoral.22992
  26. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 425-431
      Background: In an increasingly digital age, the role of the library is changing to better serve its community. The authors' library serves health care professionals who experience high levels of stress due to everyday demands of work or study, which can have negative impacts on physical and mental health. Our library is committed to serving the needs of our community by identifying opportunities to improve their well-being.Case Presentation: Librarians at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University developed a group mindfulness program and a space for self-defined personal care to assist health care professionals in alleviating stress. Surveys were used to evaluate the mindfulness program and self-care space.
    Conclusions: We successfully implemented two collaborative wellness and self-care initiatives with students and other stakeholders, as demonstrated by program attendance, diverse space use, and positive survey responses for both initiatives. While these endeavors do not replace the need to challenge structural problems at the root of stress in the health care professions, this case report offers a blueprint for other medical libraries to support the well-being of their communities.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.486
  27. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3): 323-332
      Objective: Impostor phenomenon, also known as impostor syndrome, is the inability to internalize accomplishments while experiencing the fear of being exposed as a fraud. Previous work has examined impostor phenomenon among academic college and research librarians, but health sciences librarians, who are often asked to be experts in medical subject areas with minimal training or education in these areas, have not yet been studied. The aim of this study was to measure impostor phenomenon among health sciences librarians.Methods: A survey of 2,125 eligible Medical Library Association (MLA) members was taken from October to December 2017. The online survey featuring the Harvey Impostor Phenomenon scale, a validated measure of impostor phenomenon, was administered, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine relationships between impostor phenomenon scores and demographic variables.
    Results: A total of 703 participants completed the survey (33% response rate), and 14.5% of participants scored ≥42 on the Harvey scale, indicating possible impostor feelings. Gender, race, and library setting showed no associations, but having an educational background in the health sciences was associated with lower impostor scores. Age and years of experience were inversely correlated with impostor phenomenon, with younger and newer librarians demonstrating higher scores.
    Conclusions: One out of seven health sciences librarians in this study experienced impostor phenomenon, similar to previous findings for academic librarians. Librarians, managers, and MLA can work to recognize and address this issue by raising awareness, using early prevention methods, and supporting librarians who are younger and/or new to the profession.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.644
  28. Database (Oxford). 2019 Jan 01. pii: baz064. [Epub ahead of print]2019
      This study proposes a text similarity model to help biocuration efforts of the Conserved Domain Database (CDD). CDD is a curated resource that catalogs annotated multiple sequence alignment models for ancient domains and full-length proteins. These models allow for fast searching and quick identification of conserved motifs in protein sequences via Reverse PSI-BLAST. In addition, CDD curators prepare summaries detailing the function of these conserved domains and specific protein families, based on published peer-reviewed articles. To facilitate information access for database users, it is desirable to specifically identify the referenced articles that support the assertions of curator-composed sentences. Moreover, CDD curators desire an alert system that scans the newly published literature and proposes related articles of relevance to the existing CDD records. Our approach to address these needs is a text similarity method that automatically maps a curator-written statement to candidate sentences extracted from the list of referenced articles, as well as the articles in the PubMed Central database. To evaluate this proposal, we paired CDD description sentences with the top 10 matching sentences from the literature, which were given to curators for review. Through this exercise, we discovered that we were able to map the articles in the reference list to the CDD description statements with an accuracy of 77%. In the dataset that was reviewed by curators, we were able to successfully provide references for 86% of the curator statements. In addition, we suggested new articles for curator review, which were accepted by curators to be added into the reference list at an acceptance rate of 50%. Through this process, we developed a substantial corpus of similar sentences from biomedical articles on protein sequence, structure and function research, which constitute the CDD text similarity corpus. This corpus contains 5159 sentence pairs judged for their similarity on a scale from 1 (low) to 5 (high) doubly annotated by four CDD curators. Curator-assigned similarity scores have a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.70 and an inter-annotator agreement of 85%. To date, this is the largest biomedical text similarity resource that has been manually judged, evaluated and made publicly available to the community to foster research and development of text similarity algorithms.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1093/database/baz064
  29. Am J Infect Control. 2019 Jun 25. pii: S0196-6553(19)30461-4. [Epub ahead of print]
      BACKGROUND: Influenza (flu) is pervasive and burdensome. The purpose of this study was to determine the readability levels of online articles related to flu.METHODS: Using the search term "influenza," the URL's of the first 100 English language Web sites were vetted for content to ascertain that the article met inclusion criteria. Five recommended readability tests were conducted using an online service to calculate readability. Overall, the analysis indicates that flu material found on the web is not being written at a level that is widely readable.
    RESULTS: None of the 100 sites included in the analysis received an acceptable score on all 5 assessments. One-sample independent t tests (α = 0.05, df = 99) indicated that it is highly unlikely that flu Web sites are being written at the desirable level. Of the 100 sampled sites, 33 had a .com, 29 had a .org, and 22 had a .gov extension. Extension type did not play a role in readability level of these sites.
    CONCLUSIONS: When creating content for the masses, health professionals should maximize their efforts by testing the readability as well as other factors that influence the likelihood that it will be understood.
    Keywords:  Comprehension; Health literacy; Internet; Reading
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2019.04.178
  30. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Jul 04. pii: E2374. [Epub ahead of print]16(13):
      According to the latest report by the World Health Organization, air pollution, one of the planet's most dangerous environmental carcinogens, has become one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths. In China this is a particularly crucial issue, with more than 100 cities and close to one billion individuals threatened by haze due to heavy air pollution in recent years. Beyond traditional channels, the rise of social media has led to greater online haze-related information sharing. Formative research suggests that Weibo is playing a larger role in the process of information seeking than traditional media. Given the severity of haze and the influential role of Weibo, a textual analysis was conducted based on Sina Weibo (Chinese Twitter) to provide health decision-makers and media consumers knowledge on how environmental health issues such as haze are framed in Chinese social media. Framing theory served to explain the differences across various outlets: People's Daily, China Daily, and the Chinese version of the Wall Street Journal. By analyzing 407 Weibo posts, five major frames emerged: (1) governmental concern, (2) public opinion and issue management, (3) contributing factors and effects, (4) socializing haze-related news, and (5) external haze-related news.
    Keywords:  air pollution; environmental health; framing; social media; textual analysis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16132374
  31. Pharm Pract (Granada). 2019 Apr-Jun;17(2):17(2): 1498
      Background: The role of Drug Information Center (DIC) in a health-care setting has increased tremendously owing to the high influx of pharmaceutical molecules that pose serious challenges to physicians. DIC promotes rational prescribing behavior among physicians, leading to better patient outcome.Objectives: This study aimed to explore information-seeking behaviors and awareness of physicians regarding DIC services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
    Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among physicians working in government and private sectors between June to November 2018 by using an 18-item electronic anonymous questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed using IBM SPSS (Version 21). A P-value of <0.05 was taken as the level of significance between responses.
    Results: In total, 500 questionnaires were distributed among the included hospitals, and only 254 physicians (response rate: 50.8%), including 193 males (76%), participated in the study. The majority of participants (n = 83, 32.7%) had more than ten years of experience, and many of the respondents (n=131) worked as residents. Most of the physicians (62.9%) were aware of their institutional DIC. UpToDate was the most preferred drug information database among physicians. Regarding the improvement required in the DIC services, most of the physicians (23.6%) opined that the contact details should be available in all clinical wards.
    Conclusions: Only 10% of the respondents were not aware of the presence of DIC at their institution. The UpToDate online drug information database was the most frequently used database by the physicians. Our findings showed that there is a need for conducting educational programs for physicians regarding DIC services. Such an attempt can increase the frequency of drug-related queries and promote patient safety.
    Keywords:  Awareness; Drug Information Services; Information Seeking Behavior; Physicians; Reference Books; Saudi Arabia; Surveys and Questionnaires
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.18549/PharmPract.2019.2.1498
  32. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2019 Jul 05.
      The Internet is increasingly used for health-related purposes and evolves with the ever-changing needs of patients. The aim of this study was to assess the level of reliance on the Internet as a health information source, to examine which online communication activities are the most common for health purposes, and to determine the attitudes and needs of patients in this area and the factors affecting its use. A total of 1000 adults were selected from the Polish population by random sampling. The survey was administered by the Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI). The study concluded that 76.9% of the participants used the Internet for health purposes, among whom 72.6% of active and 27.4% of passive users were distinguished. The role of the Internet as a source of health information has increased, which corresponds to a growing interest in online health services. The majority of individuals searching for health information in the Internet lived in urban areas, had a high level of education, and was professionally active. We conclude that the increased interest in the use of the Internet related to health determines the direction in which e-health should be developed in the future.
    Keywords:  E-health services; E-patient; Health information; Health professionals; Internet user; Needs of patients; Online communication; Sociodemographic factors; Telecare
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/5584_2019_396
  33. AMIA Jt Summits Transl Sci Proc. 2019 ;2019 117-126
      Despite the recent developments in commercial Question Answering (QA) systems, medical QA remains a challenging task. In this paper, we study the factors behind the complexity of consumer health questions and potential improvement tracks. In particular, we study the impact of information source quality and question conciseness through three experiments. First, an evaluation of a QA method based on a Question-Answer collection created from trusted NIH resources, which outperformed the best results of the medical LiveQA challenge with an average score of 0.711. Then, an evaluation of the same approach using paraphrases and summaries of the test questions, which achieved an average score of 1.125. Our results provide an empirical evidence supporting the key role of summarization and reliable information sources in building efficient CHQA systems. The latter finding on restricting information sources is particularly intriguing as it contradicts the popular tendency ofrelying on big data for medical QA.
  34. Interact J Med Res. 2019 Jul 05. 8(3): e10355
      BACKGROUND: Regular physical activity (PA), adequate gestational weight gain (GWG), and healthy eating are important for the long-term health of both mother and baby. Hence, it is important that women receive current and updated advice on these topics and are encouraged to adopt a healthy lifestyle during pregnancy.OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the main information sources among pregnant women regarding PA, GWG, and nutrition as well as to evaluate how these information sources may affect their health behaviors.
    METHODS: A cross-sectional study design, comprising an electronic questionnaire, was distributed to 2 antenatal clinics, as well as pregnancy-related online chat forums and social media. The inclusion criteria were ≥18 years, ≥20 weeks gestation, and able to read and write Norwegian. In total, 150 pregnant women answered the questionnaire, which was a mix of 11-point Likert scales, close-ended questions, and semi-close-ended questions with the option to elaborate. The relationship between information sources and selected variables, including health behaviors and descriptive variables, were assessed by logistic regression, linear regression, or chi-square as appropriate (P<.05).
    RESULTS: Mean age (years), gestation week, and prepregnancy body mass index (kg/m2) were 31.1 (SD 4.3), 30.6 (SD 5.9), and 24.2 (SD 4.2), respectively. More than eight out of 10 had received or retrieved information about nutrition (88.7%, 133/150) and PA (80.7%, 121/150), whereas 54.0% (81/150) reported information on GWG. When combining all 3 lifestyle factors, 38.5% had retrieved information from blogs and online forums and 26.6%, from their midwife or family physician. Women who reported the internet and media as their primary source of information on weight gain had increased odds of gaining weight below the Institute of Medicine (IOM) guidelines compared with gaining within the guidelines (odds ratio [OR] 15.5, 95% CI 1.4-167.4; P=.02). Higher compliance with nutritional guidelines was seen among those who cited the internet and media as their main source of information on nutrition (beta=.7, 95% CI 0.07-1.3; P=.03). On the other side, receiving advice from friends and family on weight gain was significantly associated with gaining weight above the IOM guidelines compared with gaining within the guidelines (OR 12.0, 95% CI 1.3-111.7; P=.03). No other associations were found between information sources and health behaviors.
    CONCLUSIONS: The small number of health professionals giving information and the extensive use of internet- and media-based sources emphasize the need to address the quality of internet advice and guide women toward trustworthy sources of information during pregnancy. The association between information sources and PA, GWG, and nutrition requires further research.
    Keywords:  behavior; diet; gestational weight gain; physical activity; pregnancy; prenatal care
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2196/10355
  35. Health Inf Manag. 2019 Jul 02. 1833358319857354
      BACKGROUND: The popularity of the Internet as a source of health-related information for low back pain (LBP) is growing. Although research has evaluated information quality in health-related websites, few studies have considered whether content and presentation match consumer preferences.OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether LBP website content and presentation matched preferences of consumers with LBP, whether matching preference of consumers changed over 8 years as recognition of people-centred healthcare has developed and whether this differs between countries of Internet searching.
    METHOD: The most prominent and top 20 LBP websites were identified using common search engines in 2010, 2015 and 2018. Websites identified in the top 20 in 2010 were followed up if not identified in 2015 and 2018. Two reviewers independently evaluated websites with a 16-item checklist developed from research of consumer preferences. In 2015, websites were identified using searches conducted using IP addresses from Australia, the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom and Canada. After removal of duplicates, 55 websites were evaluated in 2010. In 2015 and 2018, 33 and 28 new sites, respectively, were identified, and 37 previous websites were re-evaluated.
    RESULTS: In 2010 and 2015, websites predominantly originated from USA and were sponsored by "for-profit" organisations. In 2018, most websites originated from Australian "not-for-profit" organisations. None of the websites provided information on all content areas. At least 55% of websites were rated as poor or fair. No site rated as excellent overall. There was some worsening over time. Country of search did not affect results.
    CONCLUSION: Websites retrieved using typical searches did not meet information and presentation preferences of people with LBP.
    Keywords:  Internet; consumer health information; health information management; information dissemination; low back pain; needs assessment; public access to information; quality
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/1833358319857354
  36. Zhonghua Lao Dong Wei Sheng Zhi Ye Bing Za Zhi. 2019 Jun 20. 37(6): 425-431
      Objective: To understand the research status of occupational asthma and provide information for related research on occupational asthma in the future. Methods: Papers on occupational asthma published from January 1998 to December 2017 had been retrieved in Web of Science core collection database on 9 October 2018. The data retrieval strategies were set as follows: #1 TS=(occupational AND asthma), #2 TS=(occupational AND asthmas), #3 TS=(occupational asthma OR occupational asthmas), #1 OR #2 OR #3. Three thousand two hundred and twelve publications were analyzed by bibliometric and visualizer. Results: Yearly output of articles in this field had been at a stable high level and annual total citations had been increasing. A significant positive correlation was found between the year and annual total citations (r=0.97, P<0.05). The most productive countries were European countries except the United States and Canada. Our country had few literatures accounting for 1.21 percent of the total and the research on occupational asthma in our country started relatively late which were published mainly from 2013 to 2017. The most studied category and journal were public environmental occupational health and Am J Ind Med respectively. "occupational exposure", "allergy" and "rhinitis" were key words with high frequency. Conclusion: Yearly output of publications of occupational asthma has been at a stable high level. Our country should do more research to provide a scientific basis for further prevention and management of occupational asthma.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; Occupational asthma
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3760/cma.j.issn.1001-9391.2019.06.005