bims-librar Biomed News
on Biomedical librarianship
Issue of 2020‒08‒02
nine papers selected by
Thomas Krichel
Open Library Society
  1. Information Overload in Emergency Medicine Physicians: A Multisite Case Study Exploring the Causes, Impact, and Solutions in Four North England National Health Service Trusts.
  2. Access to scientific literature by the conservation community.
  3. Caregivers of cancer patients: what are their information-seeking behaviours and resource preferences?
  4. Internet and social media use in dermatology patients: Search behavior and impact on patient-physician relationship.
  5. An Evaluation of COVID-19-related Medical Information on YouTube: A Cross-sectional Infodemiology Study of Korean Content.
  6. Global Research on Coronaviruses: An R Package.
  7. Does not compute: challenges and solutions in managing computable biomedical knowledge.
  8. A proposal for a new headache classification system for general practitioners.
  9. Data extraction methods for systematic review (semi)automation: A living review protocol.
  1. J Med Internet Res. 2020 Jul 27. 22(7): e19126
    Information Overload in Emergency Medicine Physicians: A Multisite Case Study Exploring the Causes, Impact, and Solutions in Four North England National Health Service Trusts.
    Laura Sbaffi, James Walton, John Blenkinsopp, Graham Walton.
      BACKGROUND: Information overload is affecting modern society now more than ever because of the wide and increasing distribution of digital technologies. Social media, emails, and online communications among others infuse a sense of urgency as information must be read, produced, and exchanged almost instantaneously. Emergency medicine is a medical specialty that is particularly affected by information overload with consequences on patient care that are difficult to quantify and address. Understanding the current causes of medical information overload, their impact on patient care, and strategies to handle the inflow of constant information is crucial to alleviating stress and anxiety that is already crippling the profession.OBJECTIVE: This study aims to identify and evaluate the main causes and sources of medical information overload, as experienced by emergency medicine physicians in selected National Health Service (NHS) trusts in the United Kingdom.
    METHODS: This study used a quantitative, survey-based data collection approach including close- and open-ended questions. A web-based survey was distributed to emergency physicians to assess the impact of medical information overload on their jobs. In total, 101 valid responses were collected from 4 NHS trusts in north England. Descriptive statistics, principal component analysis, independent sample two-tailed t tests, and one-way between-group analysis of variance with post hoc tests were performed on the data. Open-ended questions were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify key topics.
    RESULTS: The vast majority of respondents agreed that information overload is a serious issue in emergency medicine, and it increases with time. The always available culture (mean 5.40, SD 1.56), email handling (mean 4.86, SD 1.80), and multidisciplinary communications (mean 4.51, SD 1.61) are the 3 main reasons leading to information overload. Due to this, emergency physicians experience guideline fatigue, stress and tension, longer working hours, and impaired decision making, among other issues. Aspects of information overload are also reported to have different impacts on physicians depending on demographic factors such as age, years spent in emergency medicine, and level of employment.
    CONCLUSIONS: There is a serious concern regarding information overload in emergency medicine. Participants identified a considerable number of daily causes affecting their job, particularly the traditional culture of emergency departments being always available on the ward, exacerbated by email and other forms of communication necessary to maintain optimal, evidence-based practice standards. However, not all information is unwelcome, as physicians also need to stay updated with the latest guidelines on conditions and treatment, and communicate with larger medical teams to provide quality care.
    Keywords:  emergency medicine; information overload; national health care system; physicians
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2196/19126
  2. PeerJ. 2020 ;8 e9404
    Access to scientific literature by the conservation community.
    Daisy Larios, Thomas M Brooks, Nicholas B W Macfarlane, Sugoto Roy.
      Access to the scientific literature is perceived to be a challenge to the biodiversity conservation community, but actual level of literature access relative to needs has never been assessed globally. We examined this question by surveying the constituency of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a proxy for the conservation community, generating 2,285 responses. Of these respondents, ∼97% need to use the scientific literature in order to support their IUCN-related conservation work, with ∼50% needing to do so at least once per week. The crux of the survey revolved around the question, "How easy is it for you currently to obtain the scientific literature you need to carry out your IUCN-related work?" and revealed that roughly half (49%) of the respondents find it not easy or not at all easy to access scientific literature. We fitted a binary logistic regression model to explore factors predicting ease of literature access. Whether the respondent had institutional literature access (55% do) is the strongest predictor, with region (Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) and sex (male) also significant predictors. Approximately 60% of respondents from Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have institutional access compared to ∼50% in Asia and Latin America, and ∼40% in Eastern Europe and in Africa. Nevertheless, accessing free online material is a popular means of accessing literature for both those with and without institutional access. The four journals most frequently mentioned when asked which journal access would deliver the greatest improvements to the respondent's IUCN-related work were Conservation Biology, Biological Conservation, Nature, and Science. The majority prefer to read journal articles on screen but books in hard copy. Overall, it is apparent that access to the literature is a challenge facing roughly half of the conservation community worldwide.
    Keywords:  Access to literature; Biodiversity conservation; Conservation organisations; Information seeking; Libraries; Open access
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9404
  3. Ecancermedicalscience. 2020 ;14 1068
    Caregivers of cancer patients: what are their information-seeking behaviours and resource preferences?
    Gek Phin Chua, Quan Sing Ng, Hiang Khoon Tan, Whee Sze Ong.
      Cancer impacts not only the patient but also the family members who share the distressing trajectory of the patient. The literature indicates that caregivers have many unmet information needs while providing care and support to the cancer patients, and caregivers have to resort to seeking information to supplement their information needs. This study aims to establish the prevalence of health-information-seeking behaviours among caregivers of cancer patients as a means of ascertaining if their information needs have been met and their information source and resource preference. Data were obtained via a self-reported questionnaire from caregivers of cancer patients at the National Cancer Centre Singapore between 10 September and 7 December 2018. A total of 986 caregivers responded of which 180 (18%) caregivers did not undertake information search and the common reasons were 'trust healthcare professionals' (HCPs) more than other sources (64%), and 'HCPs provide enough information' (59%). Among the 795 caregivers who have searched for cancer information, about half of these caregivers (54%) have searched information on the Internet and another 15% have obtained their information from HCPs in their most recent search. A total of 371 (47%) caregivers have used their preferred source of information to conduct their most recent information search. The top three most commonly sought information was treatment (35.6%), disease (35.6%) and side effects (26.5%). Almost half (46%) of these caregivers was concerned about the quality of information they have found on the Internet. Our study supports that information-seeking is prevalent amongst caregivers of cancer patients and reveals the prevalence of Internet use and the concerns associated with its use. Patterns of information-seeking revealed a discrepancy between preferred and actual source. The results also suggest that HCPs play a significant role in the information-seeking behaviours of caregivers of cancer patients.
    Keywords:  Internet; cancer; caregivers; information sources; trust
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3332/ecancer.2020.1068
  4. Dermatol Ther. 2020 Jul 29. e14098
    Internet and social media use in dermatology patients: Search behavior and impact on patient-physician relationship.
    L Gantenbein, A Navarini, L V Maul, O Brandt, S M Mueller.
      BACKGROUND: The traditional patient-physician relationship is being changed by the patients' searches for medical information on the Internet and in social media (SM). Freely available medical information online bears enormous potential but also holds dangers.METHODS: In this cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study, the patients' motivation, preferences and unmet needs when searching for medical information online and the impact on the patient-physician relationship were assessed using Spearman's correlation coefficients, χ2 -tests and paired t-tests.
    RESULTS: Amongst 460 participants, 82.4% had already used the Internet/SM to gain medical information, but in only 9.4% their dermatologists had raised this topic. Online search for medical information was associated with female gender (p=0.048), a higher skin-related burden (p=0.020), education (p=0.072), income (p=0.019), anxiety (p=0.004) and adnexal skin diseases (p=0.043). For 16.1% of patients, "the Internet/SM" was their most important source of medical information; 81.4% deemed the impact of their online searches on their patient-physician relationship as neutral, 16.0% as positive, 2.6% as negative. The patients' top 3 unmet needs were "Online consultations", "Professional content on YouTube™" and "Chat opportunities".
    CONCLUSIONS: Online search for medical information is a very important topic for most dermatology patients with a predominantly neutral impact on patient-physician relationship, not adequately addressed by dermatologists. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
    Keywords:  Internet; dermatologist; physician-patient relationship; skin diseases; social media
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/dth.14098
  5. J Med Internet Res. 2020 Jul 27.
    An Evaluation of COVID-19-related Medical Information on YouTube: A Cross-sectional Infodemiology Study of Korean Content.
    Hana Moon, Geon Ho Lee.
      BACKGROUND: In South Korea, the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases has declined rapidly, and much sooner than in other countries. South Korea is one of the most digitalized countries in the world, and YouTube may have served as a rapid delivery mechanism for increasing public awareness of COVID-19. Thus, the platform may have helped the South Korean public fight the spread of the disease.OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to compare the reliability, overall quality, title-content consistency, and content coverage of Korean-language YouTube videos on COVID-19, which have been uploaded by different sources.
    METHODS: Two hundred of the most viewed YouTube videos from January 1, 2020 to April 30, 2020 were screened, searching in Korean for the terms "Coronavirus," "COVID," "Corona," "Wuhan virus," and "Wuhan pneumonia." Non-Korean videos and videos that were duplicated, irrelevant, or live-streamed were excluded. Source and video metrics were collected. The videos were scored based on the following criteria: modified DISCERN index, Journal of the American Medical Association Score (JAMAS) benchmark criteria, global quality score (GQS), title-content consistency index (TCCI), and medical information and content index (MICI).
    RESULTS: Of the 105 total videos, 37.14% (39/105) contained misleading information; independent user-generated videos showed the highest proportion of misleading information at 68.09% (32/47), while all of the government-generated videos were useful. Government agency-generated videos achieved the highest median score of DISCERN (5.0 [IQR 5.0-5.0]), JAMAS (4.0 [IQR 4.0-4.0]), GQS (4.0 [IQR 3.0-4.5]), and TCCI (5.0 [IQR 5.0-5.0]), while independent user-generated videos achieved the lowest median score of DISCERN (2.0 [IQR 1.0-3.0]), JAMAS (2.0 [IQR 1.5-2.0]), GQS (2.0 [IQR 1.5-2.0]), and TCCI (3.0 [IQR 3.0-4.0]). However, the total MICI was not significantly different among sources. "Transmission and precautionary measures" were the most commonly covered content by government agencies, news agencies, and independent users. In contrast, the most mentioned content by news agencies was "prevalence," followed by "transmission and precautionary measures."
    CONCLUSIONS: Misleading videos had more likes, fewer comments, and longer running times than useful videos. Korean-language YouTube videos on COVID-19 uploaded by different sources varied significantly in terms of reliability, overall quality, and title-content consistency, but the content coverage was not significantly different. Government-generated videos had higher reliability, overall quality, and title-content consistency than independent user-generated videos.
    CLINICALTRIAL:
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2196/20775
  6. J Med Internet Res. 2020 Jul 26.
    Global Research on Coronaviruses: An R Package.
    Thierry Warin.
      BACKGROUND: In these trying times, we developed an R package about bibliographic references on coronaviruses. Working with reproducible research principles based on open science, disseminating scientific information, providing easy access to scientific production on this particular issue and offering a rapid integration in researchers' workflows may help save time in this race against the virus, notably in terms of public health.OBJECTIVE: The goal is to simplify the workflow of interested researchers, with multi-disciplinary in mind. With more than 60,500 medical bibliographic references at the time of publication, this package is among the largest ones about coronaviruses. This package could be of interest to epidemiologists, researchers in scientometrics, biostatisticians, as well as data scientists broadly defined.
    METHODS: This package collects references from PubMed and organizes the data in a data frame. Then, we built functions to sort through this collection of references. Researchers can also integrate the data into their pipeline and implement them in R within their code libraries.
    RESULTS: We provide a short use case in this article based on a bibliometric analysis of the references made available by this package. Classification techniques can also be used to go through the large volume of references and allow researchers to save time on this part of their research. Network analysis can be used to filter the dataset. Text mining techniques can also help researchers calculate similarity indices and help them focus on the parts of the literature that are relevant for their research.
    CONCLUSIONS: This package aims at accelerating research on coronaviruses. Epidemiologists can integrate this package int their workflow. It is also possible to add a machine learning layer on top of this package to model the latest advances in research about coronaviruses as we update this package daily. It is also the only one of this size - to the best of our knowledge - to be built in the R language.
    CLINICALTRIAL:
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2196/19615
  7. BMJ Health Care Inform. 2020 Jul;pii: e100123. [Epub ahead of print]27(2):
    Does not compute: challenges and solutions in managing computable biomedical knowledge.
    David Wong, Niels Peek.
      Computers can potentially play a key role in resolving knowledge mobilisation bottlenecks in health and care through decision support at the point of care based on computable biomedical knowledge (CBK). But the management of CBK comes with a range of significant computer science challenges. Some of these have been suitably addressed through the development of CBK methods and tools, while others require further research and development. We review the main challenges associated with creating, reasoning with and sharing CBK, and describe current state-of-the-art solutions as well as outstanding issues. We argue that a radical approach, in which all evidence generation is suitable for computation at the outset, is ultimately needed to take full advantage of CBK.
    Keywords:  computer methodologies; medical informatics
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2019-100123
  8. Med Hypotheses. 2020 Jul 15. pii: S0306-9877(20)31814-4. [Epub ahead of print]143 110103
    A proposal for a new headache classification system for general practitioners.
    Jeong Won Seong, Dong Rak Kwon.
      We proposes a new method of headache classification, which is simpler for use in general practice and is based on a pathophysiological approach, in preference to the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD) broad classification for headaches. In the ICDH classification, three main categories and numerous sub-categories and divisions are available with a view to addressing the symptoms and the aetiology of headache. However, the ICDH classification system is complex, with its many subdivisions, and it is cumbersome to use. Moreover, it is likely that not all medical professionals are readily familiar with it. A new classification system that is easy to learn and clinically user-friendly is necessary for primary care physicians to diagnose and classify headaches. We believe that our study makes a significant contribution to the literature because we propose a new method of classification for headaches that is based on clinical experience and addresses the pathogenesis of headaches.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2020.110103
  9. F1000Res. 2020 ;9 210
    Data extraction methods for systematic review (semi)automation: A living review protocol.
    Lena Schmidt, Babatunde K Olorisade, Luke A McGuinness, Julian P T Higgins.
      Background: Researchers in evidence-based medicine cannot keep up with the amounts of both old and newly published primary research articles. Conducting and updating of systematic reviews is time-consuming. In practice, data extraction is one of the most complex tasks in this process. Exponential improvements in computational processing speed and data storage are fostering the development of data extraction models and algorithms. This, in combination with quicker pathways to publication, led to a large landscape of tools and methods for data extraction tasks. Objective: To review published methods and tools for data extraction to (semi)automate the systematic reviewing process. Methods: We propose to conduct a living review. With this methodology we aim to do monthly search updates, as well as bi-annual review updates if new evidence permits it. In a cross-sectional analysis we will extract methodological characteristics and assess the quality of reporting in our included papers. Conclusions: We aim to increase transparency in the reporting and assessment of machine learning technologies to the benefit of data scientists, systematic reviewers and funders of health research. This living review will help to reduce duplicate efforts by data scientists who develop data extraction methods. It will also serve to inform systematic reviewers about possibilities to support their data extraction.
    Keywords:  Data Extraction; Natural Language Processing; Reproducibility; Systematic reviews; Text mining
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.22781.1
This page is being maintained by Thomas Krichel. It was last updated on 2021‒07‒23 at 09:39:01.