bims-librar 2019-11-10 papers

bims-librar

Biomed News

on Biomedical librarianship

Issue of 2019‒11‒10
23 papers selected by
Thomas Krichel
Open Library Society

Engaging Students in Searching the Literature.
How Medical Students Discover and Use Medical Information Tools.
Asking "Dr. Google" for a Second Opinion: The Devil Is in the Details.
Health care professional perceptions of online information and support for young people with cancer in the United Kingdom.
Adult palliative care in the USA: information-seeking behaviour patterns.
Identifying publications in questionable journals in the context of performance-based research funding.
Automatically Appraising the Credibility of Vaccine-Related Web Pages Shared on Social Media: A Twitter Surveillance Study.
Putting Misinformation Under a Microscope: Exploring Technologies to Address Predatory False Information Online.
Worldwide inequality in access to full text scientific articles: the example of ophthalmology.
Using Contingent Medical Librarians to Address Workforce Staffing Dilemmas.
Students' Experiences of Seeking Web-Based Animal Health Information at the Ontario Veterinary College: Exploratory Qualitative Study.
Mining Google Trends Data for Health Information: The Case of the Irish "CervicalCheck" Screening Programme Revelations.
DiseaSE: A Biomedical Text Analytics System for Disease Symptom Extraction and Characterization.
Quality and Readability of Online Information on In-Office Vocal Fold Injections.
Analysis of Readability, Quality, and Content of Online Information Available for "Stem Cell" Injections for Knee Osteoarthritis.
FluView and FluNet: Tools for Influenza Activity and Surveillance.
Using a Reflexive Process to Investigate Organizational Change: The Use of the Research Spider Matrix.
Evaluation of the Reliability, Utility, and Quality of Information Used in Total Extraperitoneal Procedure for Inguinal Hernia Repair Videos Shared on WebSurg.
Gamification of a Mobile Applications Lecture in a Pharmacy Course.
Evaluation of Spanish Language Proficiency and Resources Available in Academic Pediatric Orthopaedic Centers.
Elevating Evidence-Based Practice: A Multi-Site Workshop Pilot for Nurses.
Editor's Note.
From the Literature.

Med Ref Serv Q. 2019 Oct-Dec;38(4):38(4): 326-338

Engaging Students in Searching the Literature.

Carol Shannon.

  In 2014, the library curriculum for the College of Pharmacy was revised, with the number of sessions increased from one per term for two terms to one per term for three terms, instruction was scaffolded, and the flipped classroom model was employed, with active learning and assessments used throughout. This article will describe how the active learning portion of one session was gamified: why a "serious game" was the correct tool to use to improve student learning, how the game was created, and what was the theory underlying this transformation.

Keywords:  Active learning; database searching; flipped classroom; flipped learning; games; gamification; instructional design

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2019.1657726
Med Ref Serv Q. 2019 Oct-Dec;38(4):38(4): 347-357

How Medical Students Discover and Use Medical Information Tools.

Margaret A Hoogland.

  Many studies have examined how medical faculty and fourth-year medical students use information tools. Few studies have investigated how first, second, and third-year medical students discover and use information tools. In fall 2018, first, second, and third-year medical students received emails describing a study, which included a three-question survey and four interview questions. Of the 525 students, 122 completed the survey and 18 completed interviews. Results showed that clinical students most frequently use UpToDate, but preclinical students use multiple information tools. This report shows librarians can positively influence how preclinical students use information tools during medical school.

Keywords:  Information discovery; information use; medical information tools; medical students

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2019.1661197
Eur Urol Focus. 2019 Nov 02. pii: S2405-4569(19)30333-5. [Epub ahead of print]

Asking "Dr. Google" for a Second Opinion: The Devil Is in the Details.

Giovanni E Cacciamani, Paolo Dell'Oglio, Andrea Cocci, Giorgio I Russo, Andre De Castro Abreu, Inderbir S Gill, Alberto Briganti, Walter Artibani.

Considering how easy it is to access the Internet, it is natural to wonder whether people use this tool and which information they look for. Web searches might have an advantageous and/or harmful impact on patient-doctor decision-making. Google Trends (GT) is a free, easily accessible tool that enables analysis of worldwide "big data" on the relative popularity of a given search term over a specific period. GT is not a perfect tool due to its underlying limitations, and an appropriate examination is mandatory to elude misleading interpretation.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euf.2019.10.011
Adolesc Health Med Ther. 2019 ;10 103-116

Health care professional perceptions of online information and support for young people with cancer in the United Kingdom.

Sarah Lea, Ana Martins, Sue Morgan, Jamie Cargill, Rachel M Taylor, Lorna A Fern.

  Purpose: The internet is integral to young people, providing round-the-clock access to information and support. Young people with cancer report searching for online information and support. What they search for and why varies across their timeline and is mainly driven by negative emotion. We sought to understand how health care professionals (HCPs) perceived online information and support for young people with cancer.Population and methods: Semi-structured interviews with eight HCPs across the UK informed the development of a survey, completed by 38 HCPs. Framework analysis was used to identify key themes and the survey was analyzed descriptively.
Results: Seven themes emerged as integral to HCP's perceptions of online information and support, these included: views about young people's use of online resources; how needs change along the cancer timeline; different platforms where HCPs refer young people to online; whether young people's online needs are currently met; recognition of the emotional relationship between young people and the internet; barriers and concerns when referring young people to online resources; and strategies used in practice.
Conclusion: Professionals play an important role in signposting young people to online resources, where they are confident about the accuracy and delivery of information. The biggest perceived barrier to facilitating online access was the cost to the NHS, and most concerning factor for HCPs was keeping young people safe online. There is a need to develop online resources specific for young people on psychosocial topics beyond treatment to support young people and HCPs through this period.

Keywords:  adolescent; communication; information; internet; online; support; teenager; unmet needs; young adult

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2147/AHMT.S211142
BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2019 Nov 04. pii: bmjspcare-2019-001928. [Epub ahead of print]

Adult palliative care in the USA: information-seeking behaviour patterns.

Brian T Cheng, Joshua M Hauser.

  OBJECTIVE: Acceptance of palliative care (PC) in the USA has increased in recent decades with the growing number of recommendations for adoption from professional organisations. However, there are prevalent public misperceptions of PC that may prevent broader utilisation. This study seeks to identify the primary sources for PC information, which may help identify sources of misperception and improve PC messaging.METHODS: We analysed the 2018 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), a representative survey of USA population knowledge regarding cancer-related information. This is the first iteration to include questions on PC. Prevalence of preferred PC information sources was estimated; multivariable logistic regression invoking stepwise variable selection was used to determine associations with information-seeking behaviour.
RESULTS: Our study cohort consisted of 1127 American adults who were familiar with PC. Overall, 59.3% and 34.0% relied primarily on healthcare providers and internet or printed media, respectively. In stepwise regression models of seeking information from healthcare providers, predictors and their relative contributions to the multivariable model were higher education attainment (58.7%), age ≥60 years (21.5%) and female sex (15.0%). Higher income was the most robust predictor (35.1%) of reliance on internet and printed media for information, followed by being currently married (26.2%).
CONCLUSIONS: Overall, American adults rely on healthcare providers and media for PC information, with significant sociodemographic differences in information-seeking behaviour. These findings may be used to inform strategies to promote accurate PC awareness.

Keywords:  epidemiology; information sharing; knowledge; palliative care; survey

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjspcare-2019-001928
PLoS One. 2019 ;14(11): e0224541

Identifying publications in questionable journals in the context of performance-based research funding.

Joshua Eykens, Raf Guns, A I M Jakaria Rahman, Tim C E Engels.

In this article we discuss the five yearly screenings for publications in questionable journals which have been carried out in the context of the performance-based research funding model in Flanders, Belgium. The Flemish funding model expanded from 2010 onwards, with a comprehensive bibliographic database for research output in the social sciences and humanities. Along with an overview of the procedures followed during the screenings for articles in questionable journals submitted for inclusion in this database, we present a bibliographic analysis of the publications identified. First, we show how the yearly number of publications in questionable journals has evolved over the period 2003-2016. Second, we present a disciplinary classification of the identified journals. In the third part of the results section, three authorship characteristics are discussed: multi-authorship, the seniority-or experience level-of authors in general and of the first author in particular, and the relation of the disciplinary scope of the journal (cognitive classification) with the departmental affiliation of the authors (organizational classification). Our results regarding yearly rates of publications in questionable journals indicate that awareness of the risks of questionable journals does not lead to a turn away from open access in general. The number of publications in open access journals rises every year, while the number of publications in questionable journals decreases from 2012 onwards. We find further that both early career and more senior researchers publish in questionable journals. We show that the average proportion of senior authors contributing to publications in questionable journals is somewhat higher than that for publications in open access journals. In addition, this paper yields insight into the extent to which publications in questionable journals pose a threat to the public and political legitimacy of a performance-based research funding system of a western European region. We include concrete suggestions for those tasked with maintaining bibliographic databases and screening for publications in questionable journals.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224541
J Med Internet Res. 2019 Nov 04. 21(11): e14007

Automatically Appraising the Credibility of Vaccine-Related Web Pages Shared on Social Media: A Twitter Surveillance Study.

Zubair Shah, Didi Surian, Amalie Dyda, Enrico Coiera, Kenneth D Mandl, Adam G Dunn.

  BACKGROUND: Tools used to appraise the credibility of health information are time-consuming to apply and require context-specific expertise, limiting their use for quickly identifying and mitigating the spread of misinformation as it emerges.OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to estimate the proportion of vaccine-related Twitter posts linked to Web pages of low credibility and measure the potential reach of those posts.
METHODS: Sampling from 143,003 unique vaccine-related Web pages shared on Twitter between January 2017 and March 2018, we used a 7-point checklist adapted from validated tools and guidelines to manually appraise the credibility of 474 Web pages. These were used to train several classifiers (random forests, support vector machines, and recurrent neural networks) using the text from a Web page to predict whether the information satisfies each of the 7 criteria. Estimating the credibility of all other Web pages, we used the follower network to estimate potential exposures relative to a credibility score defined by the 7-point checklist.
RESULTS: The best-performing classifiers were able to distinguish between low, medium, and high credibility with an accuracy of 78% and labeled low-credibility Web pages with a precision of over 96%. Across the set of unique Web pages, 11.86% (16,961 of 143,003) were estimated as low credibility and they generated 9.34% (1.64 billion of 17.6 billion) of potential exposures. The 100 most popular links to low credibility Web pages were each potentially seen by an estimated 2 million to 80 million Twitter users globally.
CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that although a small minority of low-credibility Web pages reach a large audience, low-credibility Web pages tend to reach fewer users than other Web pages overall and are more commonly shared within certain subpopulations. An automatic credibility appraisal tool may be useful for finding communities of users at higher risk of exposure to low-credibility vaccine communications.

Keywords:  credibility appraisal; health misinformation; machine learning; social media

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2196/14007
Med Ref Serv Q. 2019 Oct-Dec;38(4):38(4): 369-375

Putting Misinformation Under a Microscope: Exploring Technologies to Address Predatory False Information Online.

Ariel Pomputius.

  The dissemination of misinformation in health care and the sciences has become a growing concern over the last five years. Whether the false information is spread with malice or merely ignorance, researchers, providers, librarians, regulatory bodies, and internet platform providers have all begun taking steps to identify false information and halt its proliferation online. Some companies have begun looking at ways to apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to timely and widespread identification efforts. This column will investigate what technologies are currently being considered for addressing the misinformation crisis, discuss concerns over the application of such technologies, and consider methods for libraries to become more involved with the technological side of the issue.

Keywords:  Artificial intelligence; emerging technology; libraries; misinformation; predatory publishers

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2019.1657739
PeerJ. 2019 ;7 e7850

Worldwide inequality in access to full text scientific articles: the example of ophthalmology.

Christophe Boudry, Patricio Alvarez-Muñoz, Ricardo Arencibia-Jorge, Didier Ayena, Niels J Brouwer, Zia Chaudhuri, Brenda Chawner, Emilienne Epee, Khalil Erraïs, Akbar Fotouhi, Almutez M Gharaibeh, Dina H Hassanein, Martina C Herwig-Carl, Katherine Howard, Dieudonne Kaimbo Wa Kaimbo, Patricia-Ann Laughrea, Fernando A Lopez, Juan D Machin-Mastromatteo, Fernando K Malerbi, Papa Amadou Ndiaye, Nina A Noor, Josmel Pacheco-Mendoza, Vasilios P Papastefanou, Mufarriq Shah, Carol L Shields, Ya Xing Wang, Vasily Yartsev, Frederic Mouriaux.

  Background: The problem of access to medical information, particularly in low-income countries, has been under discussion for many years. Although a number of developments have occurred in the last decade (e.g., the open access (OA) movement and the website Sci-Hub), everyone agrees that these difficulties still persist very widely, mainly due to the fact that paywalls still limit access to approximately 75% of scholarly documents. In this study, we compare the accessibility of recent full text articles in the field of ophthalmology in 27 established institutions located worldwide.Methods: A total of 200 references from articles were retrieved using the PubMed database. Each article was individually checked for OA. Full texts of non-OA (i.e., "paywalled articles") were examined to determine whether they were available using institutional and Hinari access in each institution studied, using "alternative ways" (i.e., PubMed Central, ResearchGate, Google Scholar, and Online Reprint Request), and using the website Sci-Hub.
Results: The number of full texts of "paywalled articles" available using institutional and Hinari access showed strong heterogeneity, scattered between 0% full texts to 94.8% (mean = 46.8%; SD = 31.5; median = 51.3%). We found that complementary use of "alternative ways" and Sci-Hub leads to 95.5% of full text "paywalled articles," and also divides by 14 the average extra costs needed to obtain all full texts on publishers' websites using pay-per-view.
Conclusions: The scant number of available full text "paywalled articles" in most institutions studied encourages researchers in the field of ophthalmology to use Sci-Hub to search for scientific information. The scientific community and decision-makers must unite and strengthen their efforts to find solutions to improve access to scientific literature worldwide and avoid an implosion of the scientific publishing model. This study is not an endorsement for using Sci-Hub. The authors, their institutions, and publishers accept no responsibility on behalf of readers.

Keywords:  Access to literature; Articles; Bibliodiversity; Google Scholar; Hinari; Online Reprint Request; Open access; Ophthalmology; Pay-per-view; Paywall; PubMed Central; ResearchGate; Sci-Hub; Science publishing

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7850
Med Ref Serv Q. 2019 Oct-Dec;38(4):38(4): 376-386

Using Contingent Medical Librarians to Address Workforce Staffing Dilemmas.

Anna Beth Morgan.

  Experienced medical librarians have been recruited by Mayo Clinic to provide contingency staffing. Functioning as just-in-time librarians, a nontraditional staffing plan was introduced in 2016 to affordably lessen stressors caused by fluctuating demands for library services such as literature searching. Contingent medical librarians were also needed to provide staffing coverage during the absences of existing full-time librarians, particularly Mayo's librarians employed as solo librarians working in hospital and smaller academic libraries. A four-year, nontraditional staffing plan which incorporates contingent medical librarians has proved to be a helpful, affordable, and sustainable staffing alternative for the libraries at Mayo Clinic.

Keywords:  Alternative staffing; contingent worker; cost-benefit analysis; flexible staffing; fluctuating demands; librarians; library staffing; medical libraries

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2019.1657732
JMIR Med Educ. 2019 Nov 08. 5(2): e13795

Students' Experiences of Seeking Web-Based Animal Health Information at the Ontario Veterinary College: Exploratory Qualitative Study.

Nanette Lai, Deep Khosa, Andria Jones-Bitton, Cate E Dewey.

  BACKGROUND: Although searching for health information on the internet has offered clear benefits of rapid access to information for seekers such as patients, medical practitioners, and students, detrimental effects on seekers' experiences have also been documented. Health information overload is one such side effect, where an information seeker receives excessive volumes of potentially useful health-related messages that cannot be processed in a timely manner. This phenomenon has been documented among medical professionals, with consequences that include impacts on patient care. Presently, the use of the internet for health-related information, and particularly animal health information, in veterinary students has received far less research attention.OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to explore veterinary students' internet search experiences to understand how students perceived the nature of Web-based information and how these perceptions influence their information management.
METHODS: For this qualitative exploratory study, 5 separate focus groups and a single interview were conducted between June and October 2016 with a sample of 21 veterinary students in Ontario, Canada.
RESULTS: Thematic analysis of focus group transcripts demonstrated one overarching theme, The Overwhelming Nature of the Internet, depicted by two subthemes: Volume and Type of Web-based Health Information and Processing, Managing, and Evaluating Information.
CONCLUSIONS: Integrating electronic health information literacy training into human health sciences students' training has shown to have positive effects on information management skills. Given a recent Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges report that considers health literacy as a professional competency, results of this study point to a direction for future research and for institutions to contemplate integrating information literacy skills in veterinary curricula. Specifically, we propose that the information literacy skills should include knowledge about access, retrieval, evaluation, and timely application of Web-based information.

Keywords:  computer literacy; focus groups; internet; perception; veterinary education

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2196/13795
Cureus. 2019 Aug 29. 11(8): e5513

Mining Google Trends Data for Health Information: The Case of the Irish "CervicalCheck" Screening Programme Revelations.

Paul M Ryan, C Anthony Ryan.

  Background In April 2018, the Irish cervical smear screening programme, "CervicalCheck", came under intense scrutiny as the accuracy of hundreds of "negative" results were brought in question. Aim The goal of this brief report was to assess the impact of this real-life event on public information-seeking behaviour, using Google search anomalies as a proxy. Irish relative search volume data for several terms relating to cervical testing/cancer and human papillomavirus were extracted for a five-year period from February 2014 to January 2019 and analysed for the presence of anomalous spikes and shifts in the mean baseline. Results An unprecedented positive spike in searches relating to cervical testing/cancer was observed immediately after the CervicalCheck revelations, which remained anomalous for the month to follow (p < 0.05). This public interest preceded a mirroring increase in uptake of complimentary consultations offered by the Department of Health to the women concerned. Despite this service engagement and interest in cervical health, the relative search volumes for terms "human papillomavirus infection" and "HPV vaccine" were just 78 and 51% of their maximum search volume for the five-year period. Conclusions Anomaly analysis revealed an unprecedented spike in information-seeking behaviour following the CervicalCheck revelations. However, this was not associated with a comparable elevation in HPV interest. This suggests that more public education and promotion of the HPV vaccine is warranted, in the context of vastly reduced uptake in recent years. Finally, Google Trends data represents a free an open source means by which to assess information-seeking behaviour of the public in relation to health and disease.

Keywords:  cervicalcheck; google trends; hpv; smear test

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.5513
J Biomed Inform. 2019 Oct 31. pii: S1532-0464(19)30242-4. [Epub ahead of print] 103324

DiseaSE: A Biomedical Text Analytics System for Disease Symptom Extraction and Characterization.

Muhammad Abulaish, Md Aslam Parwez, Jahiruddin.

  Due to increasing volume and unstructured nature of the scientific literatures in biomedical domain, most of the information embedded within them remain untapped. This paper presents a biomedical text analytics system, DiseaSE (Disease Symptom Extraction), to identify and extract disease symptoms and their associations from biomedical text documents retrieved from the PubMed database. It implements various NLP and information extraction techniques to convert text documents into record-size information components that are represented as semantic triples and processed using TextRank and other ranking techniques to identify feasible disease symptoms. Eight different diseases, including dengue, malaria, cholera, diarrhoea, influenza, meningitis, leishmaniasis, and kala-azar are considered for experimental evaluation of the proposed DiseaSE system. On analysis, we found that the DiseaSE system is able to identify new symptoms that are even not catalogued on standard websites such as Center for Disease Control (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), and National Health Survey (NHS). The proposed DiseaSE system also aims to compile generic associations between a disease and its symptoms, and presents a graph-theoretic analysis and visualization scheme to characterize disease at different levels of granularity. The identified disease symptoms and their associations could be useful to generate a biomedical knowledgebase (e.g., a disease ontology) for the development of e-health and disease surveillance systems.

Keywords:  Biomedical text mining; Disease characterization; Entity extraction; Symptom extraction; Visualizationjahiruddin@jmi.ac.in

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2019.103324
Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 2019 Nov 08. 3489419887406

Quality and Readability of Online Information on In-Office Vocal Fold Injections.

Grace S Yi, Amanda Hu.

  OBJECTIVES: Vocal fold injection augmentations are increasingly being performed in the office setting on awake patients, as opposed to the operating room. These procedures thus require patient cooperation and education. As the Internet is a widely-used resource for patients, our aim was to assess the quality and readability of online resources on in-office awake vocal fold injections.METHODS: An online Google search using the terms "office vocal fold injection medialization" and "awake vocal fold injection" was conducted. The first 50 English-language websites were categorized into professional- and patient-targeted, and major and minor sources. They were analyzed using the Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL) test, and DISCERN quality score.
RESULTS: Fifty websites were evaluated, and the overall DISCERN score was 2.60 ± 1.01, the mean FRES was 32.16 ± 19.10, and the mean FKGL was 13.76 ± 4.12. Between the 25 professional-targeted and 25 patient-targeted websites, professional-targeted sites had significantly higher DISCERN (P < .05) and FKGL (P < .05) scores, and lower FRES (P < .05) scores. Between the 30 major and 20 minor websites, major websites had significantly lower FRES (P < .05) and higher FKGL (P < .05) scores, and there was a trend toward significance for higher DISCERN scores (P = .052).
CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that half of the top Google results for our topic were not written for patient education, but rather for health care professionals. The reading level of this information exceeds the recommended grade level for patient education materials, and may be less comprehensible than intended. While patient-targeted materials are easier to read than professional-targeted sites, they are of lower quality. The quality of the available online information on this topic is suboptimal for both patients and health care providers. This research highlights the need for more appropriate patient education materials given low health literacy rates.

Keywords:  health information; injection laryngoplasty; laryngeal diseases; miscellaneous; patient education material; vocal fold injection; vocal fold injection augmentation; vocal fold paralysis

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/0003489419887406
J Arthroplasty. 2019 Oct 16. pii: S0883-5403(19)30971-4. [Epub ahead of print]

Analysis of Readability, Quality, and Content of Online Information Available for "Stem Cell" Injections for Knee Osteoarthritis.

Mitchell K Ng, Michael A Mont, Nicolas S Piuzzi.

  BACKGROUND: An increasing number of patients use the Internet to obtain health information, although online information is unregulated and highly variable. We aimed to assess the readability, quality, and content of online information available for "stem cell" injections for knee osteoarthritis.METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis was performed on March 2019, inputting the search term "stem cells osteoarthritis" into the 3 most popular global search engines: Google, Bing, and Yahoo. The first 50 search results of each engine were evaluated/categorized. Readability was assessed using Flesch-Kincaid Ease/Grade Level. Quality/content was assessed through DISCERN score and a stem cell content score created for this study.
RESULTS: Eighty-two websites were analyzed (18 academic websites, 21 commercial, 13 government/non-profit, 30 physician). Among all websites, mean Flesch-Kincaid readability was 35.9 with a grade level of 13.6. The average DISCERN score was 49.5/80 with statistically significant differences between academic vs physician websites (64.6 vs 38.1, P < .001), and commercial vs physician websites (52.3 vs 38.1, P = .001). Mean stem cell content score was 6.5/19 with a statistically significant difference between academic vs physician websites (8.5 vs 5.1, P = .007).
CONCLUSION: Readability of online materials available for patients regarding "stem cell" treatment for knee osteoarthritis is significantly higher than the grade 6-8 recommended by the National Institutes of Health. The quality and content of websites is highly variable, with physician websites scoring especially low. Improving quality and readability of online materials that discuss risks/benefits of stem cell injections may potentially enhance the physician-patient therapeutic alliance and indirectly lead to better patient outcomes.

Keywords:  biologic therapies; consumer health information; knee osteoarthritis; patient education; stem cells

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arth.2019.10.013
Med Ref Serv Q. 2019 Oct-Dec;38(4):38(4): 358-368

FluView and FluNet: Tools for Influenza Activity and Surveillance.

Deborah H Charbonneau, LaTeesa N James.

  Online resources can assist with locating and monitoring the spread of influenza. The aim of this review is to describe two online tools for tracking influenza activity: FluView from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States and FluNet from the World Health Organization. Overall, these freely available online resources for influenza activity and surveillance may be helpful to a range of audiences including health providers, local governments, hospitals, schools, librarians, travelers, and members of the general public.

Keywords:  Flu; influenza; information resources; maps; monitoring; outbreak; surveillance; visualizations

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2019.1657734
Med Ref Serv Q. 2019 Oct-Dec;38(4):38(4): 312-325

Using a Reflexive Process to Investigate Organizational Change: The Use of the Research Spider Matrix.

Ardis Hanson, Krystal Bullers, Allison M Howard, Randall L Polo, Stephanie M Tomlinson, John J Orriola.

  Academic health sciences libraries increasingly are urged to develop research support services for faculty and students. However, moving to a research-centric culture is not easy. It requires assessment of existing competencies (defined as knowledge, experience, and skills) to identify capacity and gaps and to inform individualized and unit-level professional development activities. This case study examines the self-assessment process undertaken by librarians at a large urban academic health sciences library as they began to build a new research support services unit.

Keywords:  Health science libraries; librarian evaluation; organizational change; organizational innovation; research culture; self-assessment; workforce planning

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2019.1657724
Cureus. 2019 Sep 04. 11(9): e5566

Evaluation of the Reliability, Utility, and Quality of Information Used in Total Extraperitoneal Procedure for Inguinal Hernia Repair Videos Shared on WebSurg.

Abdulcabbar Kartal, Abut Kebudi.

  Purpose The Internet is widely used by patients and physicians for obtaining medical information. WebSurg is a valuable information resource that can improve the learning experience of medical professionals if used appropriately. This study aimed to evaluate the quality and accuracy of videos on the total extraperitoneal procedure (TEP) for inguinal hernia repair. Methods We included 32 videos returned by the WebSurg search engine in response to the keyword "TEP." Video popularity was evaluated using the video power index (VPI). The videos' educational quality was measured using the DISCERN score, Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria, and Global Quality Score (GQS). Technical quality was measured using the TEP Scoring System (TepSS) by three surgeons who performed TEP routinely. Results All videos were obtained from medical doctors; 12.5% of the videos were uploaded from Belgium; 3.1%, China; 6.3%, Colombia; 6.3%, England; 59.4%, France; 9.4%, Germany; and 3.1%, Korea. No significant differences were noted in terms of the VPI, DISCERN scores, JAMA benchmark criteria, GQSs, and TepSS scores (p > 0.05). The mean VPI, DISCERN score, JAMA benchmark criteria, GQS, and TepSS score were 9454.53 ± 15085.57, 32.75 ± 6.99, 2.31 ± 0.47, 1±0, and 9.25 ± 2.36, respectively. No significant associations were noted between the VPI and DISCERN score, JAMA benchmark criteria, and GQS (p > 0.05). Similarly, there was no significant association between the VPI and TepSS scores (r = 0.100; p = 0.587). Conclusions The online information on TEP is of suboptimal quality. Although limited information is available on preoperative and postoperative processes, the educational potential of WebSurg cannot be ignored.

Keywords:  inguinal hernia; internet; surgical video; technical quality; tep; websurg

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.5566
Med Ref Serv Q. 2019 Oct-Dec;38(4):38(4): 339-346

Gamification of a Mobile Applications Lecture in a Pharmacy Course.

Emily P Jones, Christopher S Wisniewski.

  This report describes a librarian's development of an interactive and competitive trivia game using Poll Everywhere, an audience response system software. The trivia game was implemented during a live lecture session on drug information mobile applications taught to first-year pharmacy students. To add a fun and engaging reference for students, the librarian decided to model the game after HQ, a free trivia gaming app. Development of the session, student response, changes to future iterations, and lessons learned by the librarian are described.

Keywords:  Gamification; audience response systems; drug information; librarians; mobile apps; pharmacy education

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2019.1657728
J Pediatr Orthop. 2019 Oct 29.

Evaluation of Spanish Language Proficiency and Resources Available in Academic Pediatric Orthopaedic Centers.

Andrew D Sobel, Jose M Ramirez, Devin F Walsh, Steven F Defroda, Aristides I Cruz.

INTRODUCTION: Given the rapidly increasing population of Spanish-speaking patients in the United States, medical providers must have the capability to effectively communicate both with pediatric patients and their caregivers. The purpose of this study was to query the Spanish language proficiency of pediatric orthopaedic surgeons, assess the educational resources available to Spanish-speaking patients and their families, and identify the barriers to care at academic pediatric orthopaedic centers.METHODS: The Web sites of medical centers within the United States that have pediatric orthopaedic surgery fellowships recognized by the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA) were accessed. Web sites were investigated for a health library as well as the availability of interpreter services. Profiles of attending surgeons within each Pediatric Orthopaedic Department were evaluated for evidence of Spanish proficiency as well as educational qualifications. Centers were contacted by phone to determine if the resources and physicians who could converse in Spanish were different than what was readily available online and if automated instructions in Spanish or a person who could converse in Spanish were available.
RESULTS: Forty-six centers with 44 fellowship programs were identified. The profiles of 12 of 334 (3.6%) surgeons who completed pediatric orthopaedic fellowships indicated Spanish proficiency. Seventeen physicians (5.1%) were identified as proficient in Spanish after phone calls. Thirty-eight pediatric orthopaedic centers (82.6%) noted interpreter service availability online, although services varied from around-the-clock availability of live interpreters to interpreter phones. When contacted by phone, 45 of 46 centers (97.8%) confirmed the availability of any interpreter service for both inpatient and outpatient settings. Sixteen centers (34.8%) had online information on orthopaedic conditions or surgical care translated into Spanish. Twenty centers (43.5%) did not have automated phone messages in Spanish or live operators that spoke Spanish.
CONCLUSIONS: There is a scarcity of surgical providers in pediatric orthopaedic centers proficient in Spanish, demonstrating a large discrepancy with the growing Hispanic population. Interpreter services are widely available, although there is variability in the services provided. Considerable barriers exist to Spanish-speaking patients who attempt to access care by phone or online.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/BPO.0000000000001466
Med Ref Serv Q. 2019 Oct-Dec;38(4):38(4): 387-401

Elevating Evidence-Based Practice: A Multi-Site Workshop Pilot for Nurses.

Diana Almader-Douglas, Tara Brigham, Lisa Marks, Heather Jett.

  Leveraging an established evidence-based practice (EBP) workshop at the Mayo Clinic campus in Arizona, the manager of Nursing Research asked local library staff to discuss the research process and to demonstrate to the attendees how to use literature databases to support their research projects and EBP practices on their units. The EBP workshop was presented via video conference from the originating location to two remote locations within the organization. Each remote site had a librarian in attendance to support the librarian at the originating campus. This method allowed the librarians at each site to guide and assist patrons and establish a face-to-face connection with attendees.

Keywords:  Evidenced-based practice; librarian support; nursing research

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2019.1657737
Med Ref Serv Q. 2019 Oct-Dec;38(4):38(4): 311

Editor's Note.

Jonquil D Feldman.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2019.1665381
Med Ref Serv Q. 2019 Oct-Dec;38(4):38(4): 402-408

From the Literature.

Terry Henner.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2019.1657738