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Quality assurance (QA) is an important process in ensuring that systematic reviews and other evidence syntheses are supported by a high-quality search. This paper describes how the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK established a development pathway to ensure its information specialists had the skills, knowledge and confidence to undertake search QA. The key component of the pathway is that it blends technical knowledge with interpersonal skills. The pathway develops technical skills in the early steps before using peer support activities to build confidence while undertaking a range of searches. QA is effective when the search lead communicates the contextual information that has influenced search development. QA is treated as a collaboration to get the right search for the review. The key requirements for search QA, alongside technical knowledge, are communication, collaboration and negotiation skills.
To mark the CILIP Health Libraries Group celebrations of their 75th anniversary, this year's Virtual Issue brings together Health Information and Libraries Journal manuscripts that have been particularly influential or generated most interest in our readers, or represent a significant event in the journal's own history, while still having relevance to contemporary health library and knowledge service practice.
Pandemics highlight the increasing role of information and communications technology for improving access to health care. This study aimed to present a bibliometric analysis of the concept of digital divide reported in the published articles concerning the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
To conduct this bibliometric analysis of research topics and trends, we used VOSviewer software. We developed a search strategy to retrieve peer-reviewed publications related to ‘digital divide in the COVID-19 era' from the Scopus database.
In total, 241 publications on the topic of digital divide and COVID-19 were retrieved from Scopus database between 2020 and 2021. The analysis of keywords co-occurrence of research topics revealed four main clusters including: ‘telemedicine’, ‘Internet access and Internet use’, ‘e-learning’ and ‘epidemiology’. Seven characteristic categories were examined in these research topics, including: sociodemographic, economic, social, cultural, personal, material and motivational.
‘Telemedicine’ and ‘Internet access and Internet use’ as the largest clusters are connected to topics addressing inequalities in online health care access. Thus, policymakers should develop or modify policies in more egalitarian Internet access for all community members not only during a pandemic like the COVID-19 but also at regular times.
To identify and assess the main characteristics and the potential risk of bias of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in nursing conducted by Spanish research teams.
Scoping review of an electronic search in three major databases (date of search: October 2021). For the eligible studies, both descriptive data, and data to assess the potential risk of bias, were collected and analysed.
Of 3391 references retrieved, 199 were eligible. These RCTs were published in 122 journals, most of them in English (101, 82.1%) and were included in the Journal Citation Report (JCR) (107, 87.7%). Moreover, 32 (26.2%) of those included in the JCR were classified under nursing. Two thirds (81, 66.4%) of the journals followed the CONSORT guidelines. A total of 65 RCTs (33.7%) had a high overall risk of bias.
Most of the identified RCTs were published in journals not specific to nursing and in English language. Also, shortcomings in RCT design and reporting were observed despite recommendations to adhere the CONSORT guidelines.
Comprehensive identification of RCTs in nursing may require searching in journals other than nursing-related. RCTs from Spanish research teams are more likely to be published in international journals published in English. CONSORT should be strongly advised to encourage proper design and reporting of RCTs.
It is difficult to engage busy healthcare professionals in research. Yet during the COVID-19 pandemic, gaining their perspectives has never been more important.
To explore social media data for insights into the wellbeing of UK General Practitioners (GPs) during the Covid-19 pandemic.
We used a combination of search approaches to identify 381 practising UK NHS GPs on Twitter. Using a two stage social media analysis, we firstly searched for key themes from 91,034 retrieved tweets (before and during the pandemic). Following this we used qualitative content analysis to provide in-depth insights from 7145 tweets related to wellbeing.
Social media proved a useful tool to identify a cohort of UK GPs; following their tweets longitudinally to explore key themes and trends in issues related to GP wellbeing during the pandemic. These predominately related to support, resources and public perceptions and fluctuations were identified at key timepoints during the pandemic, all achieved without burdening busy GPs.
Social media data can be searched to identify a cohort of GPs to explore their wellbeing and changes over time.
Systematic reviews require detailed planning of complex processes which can present logistical challenges. Understanding these logistical challenges can help with planning and execution of tasks
To describe the perspectives of expert searchers on the main logistical challenges when carrying out supplementary searches for systematic reviews, in particular, forward citation searching and web searching.
Qualitative interviews were undertaken with 15 experts on searching for studies for systematic reviews (e.g. information specialists) working in health and social care research settings. Interviews were undertaken by video-call between September 2020 and June 2021. Data analysis used thematic network analysis.
We identified three logistical challenges of using forward citation searching and web searching which were organised under the global theme of ‘tension’: time, team and technology. Several subthemes were identified which supported the organising themes, including allocating time, justifying time and keeping to time; reviewer expectations and contact with review teams; and access to resources and reference management.
Forward citation searching and web searching are logistically challenging search methods for a systematic review. An understanding of these challenges should encourage expert searchers and review teams to maintain open channels of communication, which should also facilitate improved working relationships.
Given the increasing volume of published research in bibliographic databases, efficient retrieval of evidence is crucial and represents an opportunity to integrate novel techniques such as text mining.
To develop and validate a geographic search filter for identifying research from the United States (US) in Ovid MEDLINE.
US and non-US citations were collected from bibliographies of evidence-based reviews. Citations were partitioned by US/non-US status and randomly divided to a training and testing set. Using text mining, common one- and two-word terms in title/abstract fields were identified, and frequencies compared between US/non-US citations.
Common US-related terms included (as ratio of frequency in US/non-US citations) US populations and geographic terms [e.g., ‘Americans’ (15.5), ‘Baltimore’ (20.0)]. Common non-US terms were non-US geographic terms [e.g., ‘Japan’ (0.04), ‘French’ (0.05)]. A search filter was developed with 98.3% sensitivity and 82.7% specificity.
This search filter will streamline the identification of evidence from the US. Periodic updates may be necessary to reflect changes in MEDLINE's controlled vocabulary.
Text mining was instrumental to the development of this search filter. A novel technique generated a gold standard set comprising >20,000 citations. This method may be adapted to develop subsequent geographic search filters.
NHS knowledge and library staff are a highly specialist workforce delivering an economic benefit of £77 million per annum to the health service in England. To achieve their full potential and meet the changing needs of the NHS, it is vital that the workforce remains up to date through the continuing development of their skills, knowledge, and behaviours. This article outlines the work of Health Education England to gain Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP—The Library and Information Association) quality accreditation for the short course offers delivered through the NHS Knowledge for Healthcare Learning Academy. It summarises the benefits of this accreditation for Health Education England, for employers, and for knowledge and library staff participating in the short courses. Learning points from the experience of the accreditation process are described and shared.
Twitter is rich in data for text and data analytics research, with the ability to capture trends.
This study examines Canadian tweets on marijuana legalization and terminology used. Presented as a case study, Twitter analytics will demonstrate the varied applications of how this kind of research method may be used to inform library practice.
Twitter API was used to extract a subset of tweets using seven relevant hashtags. Using open-source programming tools, the sampled tweets were analysed between September to November 2018, identifying themes, frequently used terms, sentiment, and co-occurring hashtags.
More than 1,176,000 tweets were collected. The most popular hashtag co-occurrence, two hashtags appearing together, was #cannabis and #CdnPoli. There was a high variance in the sentiment analysis of all collected tweets but most scores had neutral sentiment.
The case study presents text-mining applications relevant to help make informed decisions in library practice through service analysis, quality analysis, and collection analysis.
Findings from sentiment analysis may determine usage patterns from users. There are several ways in which libraries may use text mining to make evidence-informed decisions such as examining all possible terminologies used by the public to help inform comprehensive evidence synthesis projects and build taxonomies for digital libraries and repositories.
The research goals were to obtain an understanding of who the users of e-books in the NHS are, what they are using e-books for, and when and how they use them. This article presents the methodology used and the findings from the research. It also explores the outputs and next steps from the research, both for the individual countries and collectively. The Five Nations group, (library leads in England, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Scotland and Wales) commissioned research into healthcare staff use and non-use of e-books to understand the behaviours, needs and expectations of healthcare staff and to identify shared challenges around e-books to inform policy and practice.
Patient education information material (PEIM) is an essential component of patient education programs in increasing patients' ability to cope with their diseases. Therefore, it is essential to consider the criteria that will be used to prepare and evaluate these resources.
This paper aims to identify these criteria and recognize the tools or methods used to evaluate them.
National and international databases and indexing banks, including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, the Cochrane Library, Magiran, SID and ISC, were searched for this review. Original or review articles, theses, short surveys, and conference papers published between January 1990 and June 2022 were included.
Overall, 4688 documents were retrieved, of which 298 documents met the inclusion criteria. The criteria were grouped into 24 overarching criteria. The most frequently used criteria were readability, quality, suitability, comprehensibility and understandability.
This review has provided empirical evidence to identify criteria, tools, techniques or methods for developing or evaluating a PEIM. The authors suggest that developing a comprehensive tool based on these findings is critical for evaluating the overall efficiency of PEIM using effective criteria.
Medication use typically involves physicians prescribing, pharmacists reviewing, and nurses administering medications to patients. Drug information (DI) is often required during the process, with the various health care professionals (HCPs) seeking information differently according to their needs and familiarity with various resources.
This systematic literature review aims to evaluate studies on drug information-seeking behaviour (ISB) of physicians, nurses and pharmacists to ascertain their DI needs, DI sources used, facilitators and barriers to DI-seeking.
A systematic search was conducted on PubMed, Embase.com, Scopus, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Cochrane Library to identify eligible primary research articles published between January 2000 and May 2020.
The reviewed studies (N = 48) revealed that HCPs have a wide range of DI needs, with the top needs being similar across the three HCPs. Information sources used most often by all three groups were tertiary, followed by human and primary sources. Factors relating to the source characteristics were the most reported facilitators and barriers to DI-seeking. Some differences in drug ISB were also identified.
Our findings can also guide information providers and educators to optimize information provision. It may also facilitate effective communication amongst HCPs when obtaining DI from or providing DI to one another.
This Regular Feature is based on a PhD study assessing the level of health literacy among university students in Pakistan. A cross-sectional survey was carried out using the validated European Health Literacy Survey (HLS-EU-Q) and non-parametric tests used to analyse data with the aim of determining the influence of personal determinants on health literacy skills. The findings of the study concluded that the population had a low health literacy level with limited skills in accessing, understanding, appraising and applying information for health care. Gender, age, and native languages, all had a statistically significant influence on health literacy skills. Practical implications are presented for the role of university libraries in supporting the development of health literacy in their undergraduate student populations are presented, including the need for the provision of health information in native languages.
Bibliometric methods may be used to examine research trends, and information visualisation techniques are useful in illustrating the diffusion of knowledge and how theories are applied.
The present study aimed to illustrate how Orem's Self-Care Deficiency Nursing Theory (SCDNT) has been cited and applied in nursing science and beyond.
A bibliometric analysis examined scientific publications that cited Orem's nursing theory. In addition, the diffusion of SCDNT was assessed using data visualisation methods and integration scores of SCDNT versions were calculated to define trends in its theoretical usage in other scientific domains.
The information visualisation demonstrated increased usage of SCDTN in different disciplines. Integration scores demonstrated that the scientific community still recognises and uses versions of SCDTN.
Studying citation patterns helps to identify which publications are still cited and relevant, as well as illustrating the dissemination of theory. Findings may be used in the collection weeding of SCDTN book versions.
Findings provided nursing scientists with a better conceptual understanding of SCDNT diffusion and development. For academic library managers, the findings identify which SCDNT should be retained for historical interest and curriculum needs.
As more people across Generations X, Y, and Z continue to use the Internet meet their information needs, this study assesses the characteristics influencing the online health information seeking behaviour (OHISB) of non-medical university students. Previous studies on the subject in Nigeria have largely assessed the concept of OHISB among university students without examining the determinants of such behaviour.
To determine the predictors of OHISB among non-medical undergraduate students of a Nigerian private university.
Adopting a cross-sectional research design, the study utilized a semi-structured questionnaire administered via Google forms. Some 361 non-medical undergraduate students were recruited purposively with a response rate of 84.2%. The questionnaire obtained data on students' socio-demographics, Internet usage, and OHISB.
Presence of a chronic condition, gender, and college showed significant associations with students' OHISB. ‘Mothers' occupation’ and ‘prior experience’ became significant predictors of students' OHISB.
The results align with studies that stressed that chronically ill persons would search for health information on the internet and that presence of chronic illness is among the predictors of OHISB.
These findings add to evidence from other countries that had identified health literacy and presence of chronic illness as significant predictors of OHISB among students.
Consumer health libraries connect communities to reliable and accurate health information while Little Free Libraries (LFL) provide communities globally with access to free books with a ‘take one leave one’ type policy.
To discuss how medical librarians used already established LFLs as outreach opportunities to provide consumer health books to rural locations in East Tennessee's Appalachia region in the United States.
Researchers reviewed the population's literacy levels, the Index of Medical Underservice scores, and the availability of established LFLs. Twenty-two established LFL locations were selected and one new LFL was built for an eye clinic. Eleven health books were purchased for each established LFL, and 33 books were purchased for the new LFL.
Researchers went back to each location 5 months after delivery. 90% of the books were taken from the already established LFLs. Ten books were taken from the new LFL.
Using already established LFLs is a great opportunity to provide relevant health information to rural communities. The new LFL allowed for a partnership between the library and a rural eye clinic.
By distributing health books to already established LFLs, researchers brought relevant health information books to rural and medically underserved communities.
Information is critical for patients having to decide about the best treatment option, and an in-depth understanding of their information behaviour can help health and information services to improve and facilitate their access to reliable information.
To investigate the health information-seeking behaviour and information sources and their roles in decision making among breast cancer patients in Romania in the context of the surgical treatment.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 patients who were treated surgically for breast cancer at the Bucharest Oncology Institute.
Most participants searched for information independently, before and after the operation, and their information needs evolved during the progression of their disease. The surgeon was regarded as the most trusted source of information. Most patients adopted a paternalistic or a shared approach for decision making.
Besides findings consistent with research from other countries, our study also revealed findings in contrast to previous research. None of the interviewed patients made any reference to the library as a source of information even if books were mentioned.
Health information specialists should develop a detailed guide and online information services to help physicians and other health professionals to provide relevant and reliable health care information to surgical inpatients from Romania.
From the point of view of the development of libraries, technology has made possible the emergence and development of library automation; digital libraries; mobile libraries; and smart libraries. This article briefly describes the impact of technological developments and application in Health Science Libraries in China in relation to collections development, service provision and the role of library associations.
The rigours of the past few years have demonstrated the importance of good health literacy levels with the imperative of being able to obtain and interpret information to maintain and improve one's health never more apparent. With this in mind, this issue is focused on consumer health information, the gender and population group differences that exist in information seeking behaviour, the challenges of understanding medical explanations and terminology, and existing criteria to assess and ultimately produce better consumer health information.
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