bims-librar 2018-05-06 papers

Issue of 2018‒05‒06
four papers selected by
Thomas Krichel
Open Library Society

Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2018 Feb;pii: S1877-1297(17)30061-8. [Epub ahead of print]10(2): 195-200

Medical apps used during advanced pharmacy practice experiences.

Krista L Donohoe, Abigale T Matulewicz, Fawaz M Alotaibi, Kelechi C Ogbonna.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine what type of medical applications (apps) are being used by fourth-year students during advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs).EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: Recent doctor of pharmacy school graduates were surveyed pertaining to their use of medical apps on APPEs, frequency of use for select apps, willingness to buy apps and at what cost, and their perceived importance on using medical apps in their pharmacy practice. The survey concluded by inquiring if medical apps should be taught in the pharmacy curriculum.
FINDINGS: Ninety of 132 recent graduates responded to the survey and over 97% of the students used medical apps on their APPEs. Lexicomp®, UpToDate® and the Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD) Risk calculator were the most frequently used applications during APPEs. Of those surveyed, 83% believe that medical apps should be taught in pharmacy school.
DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY: Medical apps are frequently used on APPEs. It may be prudent to teach students how to use and evaluate medical apps before going on experiences so that students and patients can get the most benefit from these tools.

Keywords: APPEs; Educational technology; Medical applications; Medical apps; Mobile devices

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cptl.2017.10.007

Int J Cardiol. 2018 Jul 01. pii: S0167-5273(17)36599-3. [Epub ahead of print]262 25-27

Does Googling lead to statin intolerance?

Sarah Khan, Anne Holbrook, Baiju R Shah.

BACKGROUND: The nocebo effect, where patients with expectations of adverse effects are more likely to experience them, may contribute to the high rate of statin intolerance found in observational studies. Information that patients read on the internet may be a precipitant of this effect. The objective of the study was to establish whether the number of websites about statin side effects found using Google is associated with the prevalence of statin intolerance.METHODS: The prevalence of statin intolerance in 13 countries across 5 continents was established in a recent study via a web-based survey of primary care physicians and specialists. Using the Google search engine for each country, the number of websites about statin side effects was determined, and standardized to the number of websites about statins overall. Searches were restricted to pages in the native language, and were conducted after connecting to each country using a virtual private network (VPN).
RESULTS: English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, UK, USA) had the highest prevalence of statin intolerance and also had the largest standardized number of websites about statin side effects. The sample Pearson correlation coefficient between these two variables was 0.868.
CONCLUSIONS: Countries where patients using Google are more likely to find websites about statin side effects have greater levels of statin intolerance. The nocebo effect driven by online information may be contributing to statin intolerance.

Keywords: Internet; Nocebo effect; Statins

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2018.02.085

Epilepsy Behav. 2018 Apr 26. pii: S1525-5050(18)30086-6. [Epub ahead of print]83 162-167

Research on dissociative seizures: A bibliometric analysis and visualization of the scientific landscape.

Stoyan Popkirov, Johannes Jungilligens, Uwe Schlegel, Jörg Wellmer.

Dissociative seizures are a common and often elusive differential diagnosis in epilepsy centers. Considering their high prevalence, long diagnostic delays, and disappointing rates of treatment response, scientific research dedicated to dissociative seizures is surprisingly scarce. In order to chart the scientific landscape of dissociative seizures and to visualize thematic clusters and trends in research, a comprehensive bibliometric analysis was performed. The Web of Science database was examined to identify relevant English language documents from the last half-century. A total of 1751 documents with titles referring to dissociative seizures were identified. Automated textual analysis of all titles and abstracts revealed that research clusters around three major topics: differential diagnosis in epilepsy centers, management and treatment, and psychopathology. Time analysis of term networks revealed that the focus of clinical research has moved from diagnostic procedures to treatment approaches. Furthermore, interest within etiological research is shifting from an emphasis on early life trauma and personality traits to the role of anxiety and emotion regulation. With respect to individual contributing authors, a relatively small network of prolific scientists with a remarkable degree of collaboration emerges. By mapping relevant publications, it becomes evident that dissociative seizures still represent a subject mostly within the realm of neurology and epileptology, with a tendency to settle in the latter domain. This analysis sheds light on an important niche subject and highlights trends in research focus and output.

Keywords: Bibliometric; Dissociative seizures; Literature; Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2018.03.041

Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2018 May;pii: S1744-3881(18)30064-1. [Epub ahead of print]31 47-52

Bibliometric analysis of apitherapy in complementary medicine literature between 1980 and 2016.

Engin Şenel, Emre Demir.

Apitherapy is the medical use and the application of honey bee products and in recent years there has been a growing interest in studies of this field. We aimed to perform a bibliometric study in the apitherapy literature. We used Web of Science database in this study and our search retrieved a total of 6917 documents of which great majority (82.4%) was original articles. Brazil was found to ranked first on the publication number with 889 papers followed by the USA, China, Japan and Turkey. We measured a productivity score for each country and the most productive countries in apitherapy field were Switzerland (2.978), Croatia (2.074), and Bulgaria (1.840). Propolis was the most used keyword followed by bee venom, flavonoids, apis mellifera and apoptosis. A moderate correlation was detected between number of publications and GDP. To the best of our knowledge our study was the first in this area and we proposed that further studies should be supported in this field.

Keywords: Apitherapy; Bee venom; Bibliometrics; Propolis; Publication trend analysis; Royal jelly; Scientometrics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2018.02.003