bims-librar Biomed News
on Biomedical librarianship
Issue of 2021–08–22
fourteen papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society
  1. Development of a validated search filter for Ovid Embase for degenerative cervical myelopathy.
  2. Translated search strategies may require truncated subject headings for efficient public health retrieval.
  3. Identifying the roles of medical librarians in COVID-19 crisis in Iran.
  4. Information retrieval strategy in functional gastrointestinal disorders with emphasis on the sensitivity and precision.
  5. Data extraction methods for systematic review (semi)automation: A living systematic review.
  6. A framework to extract biomedical knowledge from gluten-related tweets: The case of dietary concerns in digital era.
  7. Do anxiety websites have the answers people are looking for?
  8. CORR Insights®: Most YouTube Videos About Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Have the Potential to Reinforce Misconceptions.
  9. The readability and reliability of online information about adenoidectomy.
  10. Readability of Online Materials Related to Vocal Cord Leukoplakia.
  11. Online Patient Information on Domiciliary Oxygen Therapy: An Evaluation of Quality, Suitability, Reliability, Readability and Content.
  12. Cannabis for pain: a cross-sectional survey of the patient information quality on the Internet.
  13. Patients With Cancer Searching for Cancer- or Health-Specific Web-Based Information: Performance Test Analysis.
  14. Image retrieval behavior of medical students.
  1. Health Info Libr J. 2021 Aug 19.
    Development of a validated search filter for Ovid Embase for degenerative cervical myelopathy.
    Maaz A Khan, Oliver M Mowforth, Isla Kuhn, Mark R N Kotter, Benjamin M Davies.
       BACKGROUND: Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) is a recently proposed umbrella term for symptomatic cervical spinal cord compression secondary to degeneration of the spine. Currently literature searching for DCM is challenged by the inconsistent uptake of the term 'DCM' with many overlapping keywords and numerous synonyms.
    OBJECTIVES: Here, we adapt our previous Ovid medline search filter for the Ovid embase database, to support comprehensive literature searching. Both embase and medline are recommended as a minimum for systematic reviews.
    METHODS: References contained within embase identified in our prior study formed a 'development gold standard' reference database (N = 220). The search filter was adapted for embase and checked against the reference database. The filter was then validated against the 'validation gold standard'.
    RESULTS: A direct translation was not possible, as medline indexing for DCM and the keywords search field were not available in embase. We also used the 'focus' function to improve precision. The resulting search filter has 100% sensitivity in testing.
    DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: We have developed a validated search filter capable of retrieving DCM references in embase with high sensitivity. In the absence of consistent terminology and indexing, this will support more efficient and robust evidence synthesis in the field.
    Keywords:   embase ; medline ; data mining; indexing; information retrieval; literature searching; review and systematic search; review systematic; search strategies
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12373
  2. Health Info Libr J. 2021 Aug 19.
    Translated search strategies may require truncated subject headings for efficient public health retrieval.
    Amy Finnegan, Paul Levay.
       BACKGROUND: Small databases, such as Health Management Information Consortium (HMIC) and Social Policy and Practice (SPP), can add value to systematic searches. Search strategies designed for large databases may not be appropriate in small sources. A different approach to translating strategies could ensure that small databases are searched efficiently.
    OBJECTIVES: To establish the contribution HMIC and SPP made to public health guidelines (PHGs); and to recommend an efficient method of translating search strategies.
    METHODS: Eight PHGs were analysed to establish how many included publications were retrieved from HMIC and SPP. Six options for translating strategies from MEDLINE, using variations of free text and subject terms, were compared.
    RESULTS: Health Management Information Consortium contributed 15 and SPP eight of the 483 publications cited in the PHGs. The free-text only search was the one option to miss an included publication. The heading word (with truncation) option was more precise than applying subject headings.
    DISCUSSION: There is a risk of missing relevant publications in free-text only searches and it is preferable to include subject terms efficiently.
    CONCLUSION: The heading word (with truncation) option did not miss the evidence included in the PHGs and was the most efficient method for translating MEDLINE to HMIC and SPP.
    Keywords:  database searching; information retrieval; review and systematic search; search strategies; subject headings
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12391
  3. J Educ Health Promot. 2021 ;10 226
    Identifying the roles of medical librarians in COVID-19 crisis in Iran.
    Zahra Kazempour, Mohammad Reza Soleymani, Nayere Sadat Soleimanzade Najafi, Hasan Ashrafi-Rizi.
       BACKGROUND: The best mechanisms for medical librarians to be more involved in health, especially during crisis condition, and to expand their roles are using experiences of other individuals and performing new activities. This study aimed to identify the roles of medical librarians in the COVID-19 crisis in Iran.
    MATERIALS AND METHODS: This research was done by a qualitative content analysis method. Research participants in the first phase included whole scientific papers (19 documents) which had been published by medical librarians related to the COVID-19 issue and in the second phase 10 medical librarians involved in the COVID-19 who were interviewed and continued until data saturation. Data were collected through each interview, and data analysis was performed using content analysis method. Then, obtained information of the first and second phases was merged together, and codes, subcategories as well as main categories were formed.
    RESULTS: According to the results, 7 main categories and 24 subcategories regarding the roles of librarians in COVID-19 crisis were identified. The main categories include hygiene services promotion, development of health information-seeking skills, health research services, interaction-level development, evidence-based policy development, information dissemination services promotion, and management services development. Furthermore, regarding barriers to the role of medical librarians in the COVID-19 crisis in Iran, four subcategories were identified that are medical librarian-related barriers, organization-related barriers, profession-related barriers, and context of society (country conditions)-related barriers.
    CONCLUSION: Medical librarians relatively have been able to provide effective health information services to managers, health-care specialists, and the general public in a variety of health fields.
    Keywords:  COVID-19; crisis management; medical librarians
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.4103/jehp.jehp_1352_20
  4. J Educ Health Promot. 2021 ;10 207
    Information retrieval strategy in functional gastrointestinal disorders with emphasis on the sensitivity and precision.
    Farideh Osareh, Roghayeh Ghazavi, Peyman Adibi.
       BACKGROUND: To determine functional gastrointestinal disorder (FGID) aspects, there should be a guideline to retrieve documents in this area for researchers with different levels of knowledge about these disorders. the objective of this study was conducted in order to compile different terms related to different categories of these disorders and to determine the sensitivity of them.
    MATERIALS AND METHODS: To set a proper search, some strategies were used to enhance the precision and sensitivity. After preparing the list of terms according to some sources such as thesauruses, Rome classification, related review articles, and so on, they were divided into seven categories and the queries in each of them were searched on the Scopus.
    RESULTS: The sensitivity for each of the terms in categories were calculated, and the highest values were as follow: FGIDs with 189 queries ("digestive* system* function* disorder*"), irritable bowel syndrome with 142 queries ("irritable colon*"), functional constipation with 13 queries ("function* disorder*" and constipation), functional diarrhea with 16 queries ("function* disorder*" and diarrhea), functional bloating with 29 queries ("function* disorder*" and bloat*), Functional Dyspepsia with 29 queries ("functional dyspep*"), and neurogenic bowel with 7 queries ("neurogenic bowel*").
    CONCLUSION: Given the values calculated for sensitivity, and considering the type of study, in order to retrieve documents in this area, it is necessary to apply all or part of the proposed queries to the search strategy.
    Keywords:  Functional gastrointestinal disorders; information retrieval; precision; sensitivity (recall)
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.4103/jehp.jehp_1270_20
  5. F1000Res. 2021 ;10 401
    Data extraction methods for systematic review (semi)automation: A living systematic review.
    Lena Schmidt, Babatunde K Olorisade, Luke A McGuinness, James Thomas, Julian P T Higgins.
      Background: The reliable and usable (semi)automation of data extraction can support the field of systematic review by reducing the workload required to gather information about the conduct and results of the included studies. This living systematic review examines published approaches for data extraction from reports of clinical studies. Methods: We systematically and continually search MEDLINE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), arXiv, and the dblp computer science bibliography databases. Full text screening and data extraction are conducted within an open-source living systematic review application created for the purpose of this review. This iteration of the living review includes publications up to a cut-off date of 22 April 2020. Results: In total, 53 publications are included in this version of our review. Of these, 41 (77%) of the publications addressed extraction of data from abstracts, while 14 (26%) used full texts. A total of 48 (90%) publications developed and evaluated classifiers that used randomised controlled trials as the main target texts. Over 30 entities were extracted, with PICOs (population, intervention, comparator, outcome) being the most frequently extracted. A description of their datasets was provided by 49 publications (94%), but only seven (13%) made the data publicly available. Code was made available by 10 (19%) publications, and five (9%) implemented publicly available tools. Conclusions: This living systematic review presents an overview of (semi)automated data-extraction literature of interest to different types of systematic review. We identified a broad evidence base of publications describing data extraction for interventional reviews and a small number of publications extracting epidemiological or diagnostic accuracy data. The lack of publicly available gold-standard data for evaluation, and lack of application thereof, makes it difficult to draw conclusions on which is the best-performing system for each data extraction target. With this living review we aim to review the literature continually.
    Keywords:  Data Extraction; Natural Language Processing; Reproducibility; Systematic Reviews; Text Mining
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.51117.1
  6. Artif Intell Med. 2021 Aug;pii: S0933-3657(21)00124-X. [Epub ahead of print]118 102131
    A framework to extract biomedical knowledge from gluten-related tweets: The case of dietary concerns in digital era.
    Martín Pérez-Pérez, Gilberto Igrejas, Florentino Fdez-Riverola, Anália Lourenço.
      Big data importance and potential are becoming more and more relevant nowadays, enhanced by the explosive growth of information volume that is being generated on the Internet in the last years. In this sense, many experts agree that social media networks are one of the internet areas with higher growth in recent years and one of the fields that are expected to have a more significant increment in the coming years. Similarly, social media sites are quickly becoming one of the most popular platforms to discuss health issues and exchange social support with others. In this context, this work presents a new methodology to process, classify, visualise and analyse the big data knowledge produced by the sociome on social media platforms. This work proposes a methodology that combines natural language processing techniques, ontology-based named entity recognition methods, machine learning algorithms and graph mining techniques to: (i) reduce the irrelevant messages by identifying and focusing the analysis only on individuals and patient experiences from the public discussion; (ii) reduce the lexical noise produced by the different ways in how users express themselves through the use of domain ontologies; (iii) infer the demographic data of the individuals through the combined analysis of textual, geographical and visual profile information; (iv) perform a community detection and evaluate the health topic study combining the semantic processing of the public discourse with knowledge graph representation techniques; and (v) gain information about the shared resources combining the social media statistics with the semantical analysis of the web contents. The practical relevance of the proposed methodology has been proven in the study of 1.1 million unique messages from >400,000 distinct users related to one of the most popular dietary fads that evolve into a multibillion-dollar industry, i.e., gluten-free food. Besides, this work analysed one of the least research fields studied on Twitter concerning public health (i.e., the allergies or immunology diseases as celiac disease), discovering a wide range of health-related conclusions.
    Keywords:  Graph mining; Health for informatics; Machine learning; Social media; Sociome profiling; Text mining
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artmed.2021.102131
  7. Patient Educ Couns. 2021 Aug 04. pii: S0738-3991(21)00516-4. [Epub ahead of print]
    Do anxiety websites have the answers people are looking for?
    Matthew T Bernstein, Kristin A Reynolds, Lorna S Jakobson, Sarah K Petty, Teaghan A M Pryor, Brenda M Stoesz, Gillian M Alcolado, Patricia Furer.
      OBJECTIVES AND METHODS: A wealth of online anxiety information exists but much of it is not evidence-based or well-balanced. This study evaluated anxiety websites (N = 20) on readability, quality, usability, visual design, and content.
    RESULTS: Overall, websites were of reasonable quality but only half were considered understandable according to the PEMAT usability scale (70% cutoff value). The average reading level across websites was 11.2 (SMOG), which is higher than NIH recommended grade 6-7 level. Websites had variable design features and a trending association suggested websites with better design come up earlier in search results. The number of topics covered varied across websites and most did not adequately cover all topics of interest. Most websites included information about psychological and self-help treatments, how treatment works, and what treatment entails. The Top 5 websites were: (1) Anxiety BC, (2) ADAA, (3) Mind, (4) Beyond Blue, and (5) Web MD.
    CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to evaluate existing anxiety information websites based on the dimensions described above and their relationship to Google search results.
    PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: This study highlights the importance of considering several dimensions in developing mental health resources and provides direction for strategies to improve existing websites and/or develop new resources.
    Keywords:  Anxiety; Information quality; Internet; Patient education; Treatment decision making; Websites
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2021.08.002
  8. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2021 Aug 09.
    CORR Insights®: Most YouTube Videos About Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Have the Potential to Reinforce Misconceptions.
    Robert J Goitz.
      
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/CORR.0000000000001896
  9. J Laryngol Otol. 2021 Aug 16. 1-10
    The readability and reliability of online information about adenoidectomy.
    O Ahmadi, A J Wood.
      
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022215121002164
  10. OTO Open. 2021 Jul-Sep;5(3):5(3): 2473974X211032644
    Readability of Online Materials Related to Vocal Cord Leukoplakia.
    Matthew Shneyderman, Grace E Snow, Ruth Davis, Simon Best, Lee M Akst.
       Objectives: To assess readability and understandability of online materials for vocal cord leukoplakia.
    Study Design: Review of online materials.
    Setting: Academic medical center.
    Methods: A Google search of "vocal cord leukoplakia" was performed, and the first 50 websites were considered for analysis. Readability was measured by the Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG). Understandability and actionability were assessed by 2 independent reviewers with the PEMAT-P (Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for Printable Materials). Unpaired t tests compared scores between sites aimed at physicians and those at patients, and a Cohen's kappa was calculated to measure interrater reliability.
    Results: Twenty-two websites (17 patient oriented, 5 physician oriented) met inclusion criteria. For the entire cohort, FRES, FKGL, and SMOG scores (mean ± SD) were 36.90 ± 20.65, 12.96 ± 3.28, and 15.65 ± 3.57, respectively, indicating that materials were difficult to read at a >12th-grade level. PEMAT-P understandability and actionability scores were 73.65% ± 7.05% and 13.63% ± 22.47%. Statistically, patient-oriented sites were more easily read than physician-oriented sites (P < .02 for each of the FRES, FKGL, and SMOG comparisons); there were no differences in understandability or actionability scores between these categories of sites.
    Conclusion: Online materials for vocal cord leukoplakia are written at a level more advanced than what is recommended for patient education materials. Awareness of the current ways that these online materials are failing our patients may lead to improved education materials in the future.
    Keywords:  Flesch Reading Ease Score; Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level; Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for Printable Materials; readability; understandability; vocal cord leukoplakia
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/2473974X211032644
  11. Chest. 2021 Aug 11. pii: S0012-3692(21)03662-X. [Epub ahead of print]
    Online Patient Information on Domiciliary Oxygen Therapy: An Evaluation of Quality, Suitability, Reliability, Readability and Content.
    Hui Li Ang, Hann Hsiang Tan, Karla M Logie, Christine F McDonald, Yet Hong Khor.
       BACKGROUND: Domiciliary oxygen therapy (DOT) is a complex intervention and has significant impact on patients' daily activities, quality of life, and mental wellbeing. Suitable education is pertinent in improving patients' understanding and usage of DOT, as those receiving appropriate education have a better knowledge of their prescription, clearer expectations, and improved adherence to DOT.
    RESEARCH QUESTION: Do currently available online patient resources on DOT provide high-quality information for patients?
    STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: We evaluated the first 100 results of three major search engines [Google, Yahoo and Bing] using the terms, "home oxygen therapy" and "information or education". Website content was assessed based on Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand and British Thoracic Society domiciliary oxygen guidelines. Validated tools were used to evaluate resource quality [DISCERN instrument], suitability [Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM)], reliability [Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmarks and the Health on the Net (HON) code], and readability [Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level].
    RESULTS: Thirty-six websites met study inclusion criteria. Websites from foundation/advocacy organisations scored the highest in quality and suitability, with a median DISCERN total score of 48.0 (interquartile range: 43.5-60.0) or "fair" and a median SAM suitability score of 70% (53.0-71.0) or "superior". Industry/for-profit websites had the best content score of 7.8 (5.0-8.6). The HON accreditation seal was present on 14% of the websites and only five websites met the four JAMA benchmarks. The median readability scores exceeded the recommended reading grades of 6th to 8th level for consumer health-related educational resources.
    INTERPRETATION: The overall quality, suitability, reliability, and content of online health resources for DOT are of a low-to-moderate standard, with the reading grade at an unsuitable level for the general population. Health professionals should be aware of the limitations of currently available online DOT patient resources.
    Keywords:  ambulatory oxygen therapy; education; long term oxygen therapy; nocturnal oxygen therapy; qualitative research
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2021.07.2171
  12. J Cannabis Res. 2021 Aug 16. 3(1): 36
    Cannabis for pain: a cross-sectional survey of the patient information quality on the Internet.
    Jeremy Y Ng, Darragh A Dzisiak, Jessica B Saini.
       BACKGROUND: Cannabis has increasingly become an alternative treatment for chronic pain, however, there is evidence of concomitant negative health effects with its long-term usage. Patients contemplating cannabis use for pain relief commonly see information online but may not be able to identify trustworthy and accurate sources, therefore, it is imperative that healthcare practitioners play a role in assisting them in discerning the quality of information. The present study assesses the quality of web-based consumer health information available at the intersection of cannabis and pain.
    METHODS: A cross-sectional quality assessment of website information was conducted. Three countries were searched on Google: Canada, the Netherlands, and the USA. The first 3 pages of generated websites were used in each of the 9 searches. Eligible websites contained cannabis consumer health information for pain treatment. Only English-language websites were included. Encyclopedias (i.e. Wikipedia), forums, academic journals, general news websites, major e-commerce websites, websites not publicly available, books, and video platforms were excluded. Information presented on eligible websites were assessed using the DISCERN instrument. The DISCERN instrument consists of three sections, the first focusing on the reliability of the publication, the second investigating individual aspects of the publication, and the third providing an overall averaged score.
    RESULTS: Of 270 websites identified across searches, 216 were duplicates, and 18 were excluded based on eligibility criteria, resulting in 36 eligible websites. The average summed DISCERN score was 48.85 out of 75.00 (SD = 8.13), and the average overall score (question 16) was 3.10 out of 5.00 (SD = 0.62). These overall scores were calculated from combining the scores for questions 1 through 15 in the DISCERN instrument for each website. Websites selling cannabis products/services scored the lowest, while health portals scored the highest.
    CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that online cannabis consumer health information for the treatment/management of pain presents biases to readers. These biases included websites: (1) selectively citing studies that supported the benefits associated with cannabis use, while neglecting to mention those discussing its risks, and (2) promoting cannabis as "natural" with the implication that this equated to "safe". Healthcare providers should be involved in the guidance of patients' seeking and use of online information on this topic.
    Keywords:  Cannabis; Consumer Health Information; Internet; Marijuana; Pain; Quality of Information
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s42238-021-00093-x
  13. J Med Internet Res. 2021 Aug 16. 23(8): e23367
    Patients With Cancer Searching for Cancer- or Health-Specific Web-Based Information: Performance Test Analysis.
    Lukas Lange-Drenth, Holger Schulz, Gero Endsin, Christiane Bleich.
       BACKGROUND: Searching the internet for cancer-related information helps patients with cancer satisfy their unmet information needs and empowers them to play a more active role in the management of their disease. However, to benefit from the search, patients need a sufficient level of skill to search, select, appraise, and apply web-based health information.
    OBJECTIVE: We aim to study the operational, navigational, information, and evaluation skills and problems of patients with cancer performing cancer-related search tasks using the internet.
    METHODS: A total of 21 patients with cancer were recruited during their stay at the rehabilitation clinic for oncological rehabilitation. Participants performed eight cancer-related search tasks using the internet. The participants were asked to think aloud while performing the tasks, and the screen activities were recorded. The types and frequencies of performance problems were identified and coded into categories following an inductive coding process. In addition, the performance and strategic characteristics of task execution were summarized descriptively.
    RESULTS: All participants experienced problems or difficulties in executing the tasks, and a substantial percentage of tasks (57/142, 40.1%) could not be completed successfully. The participants' performance problems were coded into four categories, namely operating the computer and web browser, navigating and orientating, using search strategies, and evaluating the relevance and reliability of web-based information. The most frequent problems occurred in the third and fourth categories. A total of 90% (19/21) of participants used nontask-related search terms or nonspecific search terms. A total of 95% (20/21) of participants did not control for the source or topicality of the information found. In addition, none of the participants verified the information on 1 website with that on another website for each task.
    CONCLUSIONS: A substantial group of patients with cancer did not have the necessary skills to benefit from cancer-related internet searches. Future interventions are needed to support patients in the development of sufficient internet-searching skills, focusing particularly on information and evaluation skills.
    Keywords:  cancer; digital literacy; eHealth; eHealth literacy; health education; health information; internet; mobile phone; telemedicine; web-based
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2196/23367
  14. J Educ Health Promot. 2021 ;10 215
    Image retrieval behavior of medical students.
    Mona Kamali, Hasan Ashrafi-Rizi, Mina Afshar.
       BACKGROUND: The first step to properly designing image retrieval systems with the aim of meeting the needs of students and researchers is to be fully aware of their behavior in the face of these systems and image resources. The purpose of this study is to identify image retrieval behavior of medical students.
    MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study is an applied research that has been done by descriptive-survey method. The statistical population of this study is 816 general (clinical) medical students who are studying in the fourth and fifth years. Using Morgan and Krejcie table, the number of statistical sample members was 265 who were selected using random sampling method. Research data have been gathered using a questionnaire (researcher made) and then analyzed using SPSS22 software.
    RESULTS: The findings showed that 78.1% of students consider the use of images in class presentations or scientific reporting as the most important reason. According to 73.6% of respondents, the highest rate of image search is in the form of videos. About 76.2% of them consider general search engines to be the most common source for receiving images. For this purpose, only 3.8% of students refer to the librarians. Among the databases from which medical images can be obtained, the most well-known source was the Springer website, which 30.6% of respondents were familiar.
    CONCLUSION: The process of meeting the image-seeking needs is influenced by various individual, social, and other factors. This study can improve this process by providing the necessary suggestions to medical students, for eliminating barriers and problems in accessing reliable resources and visual information they require, to clarify the necessity of promoting technical knowledge to search accurately and to help for finding solutions to medical and treatment educational centers to have access to reliable and up-to-date information.
    Keywords:  image retrieval; image retrieval behavior; information behavior; medical students
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.4103/jehp.jehp_1042_20
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