Medical WordNet: A new methodology for the construction and validation of information resources for consumer health

A consumer health information system must be able to comprehend both expert and non-expert medical vocabulary and to map between the two. We describe an ongoing project to create a new lexical database called Medical WordNet (MWN), consisting of medically relevant terms used by and intelligible to non-expert subjects and supplemented by a corpus of natural-language sentences that is designed to provide medically validated contexts for MWN terms. The corpus derives primarily from online health information sources targeted to consumers, and involves two sub-corpora, called Medical FactNet (MFN) and Medical BeliefNet (MBN), respectively. The former consists of statements accredited as true on the basis of a rigorous process of validation, the latter of statements which non-experts believe to be true. We summarize the MWN / MFN / MBN project, and describe some of its applications

An Optimization Analysis of the Subject Directory System on the Medlineplus Portal - An Investigation of Mental Health, Children, Teenagers, and Older Adults Related Health Topics

The Internet is a common means for people to search for health information. The subject directory of MedlinePlus offers Internet searchers a browsing environment so that those seekers could start from a broad term and refine their search terms to meet their real information needs, thus resulting in a better information search. For those novice users who are not familiar with relevant domain knowledge, MedlinePlus’s directory can be of great assistance and enable the portal to adopt to a more general population. Such a subject directory system and its involved health topics in the MedlinePlus portal formed a network where a specific research methodology, social network analysis, is applicable. In this study, four health topic groups – mental health, children, teenagers, and older adults - were selected as the focus for the investigation toward the subject directory on the MedlinePlus portal. This study applied social network analysis to explore the health topic directories and connection patterns among the health topics that comprised the subject directory of the MedlinePlus portal, and identified the influential topics (i.e., those health topics which play more important roles than others in connecting different topics) among the topic networks. As a result, different recommendations were made toward mental health, children, teenagers, and older adults related health topics, respectively. New optimized structural networks were suggested to be built for each of the four health topic subcategories according to the similarity values calculated through the cosine similarity measure in terms of the textual information contained in health topics’ Web pages, as well as the key nodes identified in the networks of health topics. Evaluations were later conducted to compare the original and optimized structural networks of the four health topic groups regarding their topics’ new similarity values. Newly identified influential health topics were verified to have improved the overall semantic connections among the whole networks. Last but not least, the recommendation results were evaluated by two health field experts and the evaluation outcomes proved that the recommendations suggested in this study were consistent with the opinions generated by health professionals. The findings of this research will provide suggestions to optimize and enhance the current navigation guidance system in MedlinePlus, improve the information searching effectiveness among the portal users, offer insights to public health portal creators, and support other researchers focusing on subject directory systems

Information Rx: Prescribing Good Consumerism and Responsible Citizenship

Recent medical informatics and sociological literature has painted the image of a new type of patient—one that is reflexive and informed, with highly specified information needs and perceptions, as well as highly developed skills and tactics for acquiring information. Patients have been re-named “reflexive consumers.” At the same time, literature about the questionable reliability of web-based information has suggested the need to create both user tools that have pre-selected information and special guidelines for individuals to use to check the individual characteristics of the information they encounter. In this article, we examine suggestions that individuals must be assisted in developing skills for “reflexive consumerism” and what these particular skills should be. Using two types of data (discursive data from websites and promotional items, and supplementary data from interviews and ethnographic observations carried out with those working to sustain these initiatives), we examine how users are directly addressed and discussed. We argue that these initiatives prescribe skills and practices that extend beyond finding and assessing information on the internet and demonstrate that they include ideals of consumerism and citizenship

Information Systems and Healthcare XXII: Characterizing and Visualizing the Quality of Health Information

We all need ways to assess the quality of the information we look for, but this task is critically important when we are seeking health information. Healthcare consumers increasingly seek and use health information to address their health concerns. However, many health consumers lack the time and expertise required to make solid judgments about the quality of health information they encounter. A full range of quality appraisal methods for health information offer help, yet health consumers use those methods infrequently. Health consumers need better support to overcome barriers to efficiency, scalability, and transparency often associated with this breadth of valuable methods. Furthermore, they need ways to assess the quality of health information they find in the context of their own, individually situated needs. Our goals were to investigate the concept of health information quality and to explore how we can provide health consumers with better support by highlighting, rather than hiding, important aspects of health information quality. First, by reviewing and synthesizing criteria used by a broad range of quality appraisal methods for health information, we identified four focal characteristics of health information quality: content, reference, authorship, and publisher. Together, these four characteristics of intrinsic quality provide an organizing framework for health consumers to assess the quality of health information along multiple dimensions according to their own needs. Next, we used a user-center approach to design a prototype tool that concretely illustrates our framework by allowing the user to highlight multiple dimensions of health information quality. We present a usage case example of this illustrative tool, which visualizes the quality of MEDLINE search results. Our work provides a new perspective on health information quality by acknowledging and supporting consumers\u27 needs for transparency and flexibility as they take a prominent role in health information quality assessment

Building the Science of Healthcare Public Reporting: Integrating Anecdotal Information to Enhance Sensemaking

Anecdotal information about a healthcare consumers\u27 interaction with care providers and hospital facilities is becoming increasingly available to the public in the form of YouTube videos and as discussion posts on peer-support groups. This form of information can potentially jeopardize the utility of reports generated by Federal entities as it potentially diverts consumer attention from more reliable measures of quality. This dissertation investigates how a health consumer\u27s choice of care is influenced by anecdotal information on the care process available on YouTube. This research then investigates the effect of information presentation methods such as narratives and active engagement with quality metrics to support the consumer\u27s ability to comprehend public report information. An initial study investigated the characteristics of information healthcare consumers are searching for on a peer-support group. By analyzing the discussions available on the support community of a major ovarian cancer support group, the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance (OCNA), this study investigated the type of information that newly diagnosed ovarian cancer patients and their supporters seek. Using content analysis, 206 publicly available discussions exchanged on OCNA were analyzed by two researchers. Each discussion point was classified into one of the three broad themes that emerged: ovarian cancer-specific, treatment-related, or coping information. The discussion points were further analyzed using a multinomial logit model to predict the type of the desired information based on the role of the person looking for the information, the disease phase in which the information was sought, the emotional status of the information seeker, and the stage of the cancer. Treatment-related material was the most sought-after information by patients, while coping information was most sought by supporters. When forum posts were negative in tone, the information seekers were more likely to be looking for ovarian cancer-specific information than either treatment-related information or coping information. The second study investigated the effect of the role of the sequence in which such public report statistics and anecdotal information are viewed by health consumers during the sensemaking process. The study used the scenario of a patient looking for health facility-related information and employed a 2 (anecdotal information presented as videos supporting and contradicting public report information) * 2 (phase of introduction of anecdotal information: early, late) between-subjects experimental design. The results found that when the phase of introduction of anecdotal information changed from early to late, and when the anecdotal information contradicted the public reports, the probability of choosing the correct facility changed from 0.41 to 0.69. The probability of choosing the correct facility was reduced by more than half, changing from 0.85 to 0.41, when contradicting, rather than supporting, anecdotal information was presented before the public reports. Participants placed significant emphasis on this initial information and found it difficult to change their initial perceptions when presented with the more reliable public reports. The third study investigated ways to enhance consumer understanding by integrating standardized quality metrics with anecdotal information using user experience design methodologies. Two-hundred individuals participated in this study. This study employed a 2 (public report information presented in the standard way, presented within an anecdote) * 2 (engagement with each quality metric: none, active) between-subjects experimental design. The results of the study found that the probability of choosing the correct facility changes from 0.71 to 0.88 when information was presented within a narrative rather than with the standard public report format. A final study evaluated whether the influential nature of inaccurate anecdotal videos could be attenuated by presenting public report information within a narrative with active engagement. The study used the scenario of a patient looking for dialysis facility-related information and employed between-subjects experimental design - inaccurate anecdotal information was presented either early or late in the sensemaking process. Ninety-eight individuals participated in the study. The results found no significant differences in the choice of the dialysis facility and level of confidence in the choice. Given that narratives have the power to impact choice and comprehension, there exists a need to conduct further investigation to develop comprehensive guidelines for the presentation of narratives that support the use of public report information

Bibliometric Perspectives on Medical Innovation using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of PubMed

Multiple perspectives on the nonlinear processes of medical innovations can be distinguished and combined using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of the Medline database. Focusing on three main branches-"diseases," "drugs and chemicals," and "techniques and equipment"-we use base maps and overlay techniques to investigate the translations and interactions and thus to gain a bibliometric perspective on the dynamics of medical innovations. To this end, we first analyze the Medline database, the MeSH index tree, and the various options for a static mapping from different perspectives and at different levels of aggregation. Following a specific innovation (RNA interference) over time, the notion of a trajectory which leaves a signature in the database is elaborated. Can the detailed index terms describing the dynamics of research be used to predict the diffusion dynamics of research results? Possibilities are specified for further integration between the Medline database, on the one hand, and the Science Citation Index and Scopus (containing citation information), on the other.Comment: forthcoming in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technolog

Lamar Soutter Library Annual Report FY2005

Annual report of the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, covering fiscal year July 1, 2004-June 30, 2005.https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/library_annual_reports/1006/thumbnail.jp

Sexual enhancement products for sale online : raising awareness of the psychoactive effects of Yohimbine, Maca, Horny Goat Weed and Ginkgo Biloba

Copyright © 2014 Ornella Corazza et al.This is an open access article distributed under theCreativeCommonsAttribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedIntroduction. The use of unlicensed food and herbal supplements to enhance sexual functions is drastically increasing. This phenomenon, combined with the availability of these products over the Internet, represents a challenge from a clinical and a public health perspective. Methods. A comprehensive multilingual assessment of websites, drug fora, and other online resources was carried out between February and July 2013 with exploratory qualitative searches including 203 websites. Additional searches were conducted using the Global Public Health Intelligence Network (GPHIN). Once the active constitutes of the products were identified, a comprehensive literature search was carried out using PsycInfo and PubMed. Results. The most common sexual enhancement products available on the Internet were identified. Their active ingredients included yohimbine, maca, horny goat weed and Ginkgo biloba. These four substances were reported with the occurrence of adverse events and the induction of psychological symptoms, such as mood changes, anxiety, and hallucinations as well as addictive behaviours. Conclusions. Uncontrolled availability of sexual enhancement products that contain potentially harmful substances is a major public healthconcern.Thepossible impact on population health, particularly among subjects with psychiatric disorders, usually at risk for sexual dysfunction, may be significant. This new trend needs to be extensively studied and monitoredPeer reviewedFinal Published versio

Health Disclaimers and Website Credibility Markers: Guidance for Consumer Health Reference in the Affordable Care Act Era

This article reports on the current state of health disclaimers, online health resources, and credibility markers provided on public library websites (N = 105) for those seeking health information. In light of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), these findings have implications for consumer health reference services in public libraries. Approximately half of the public library websites in the study sample (n = 52, 49.5%) referred users to the ACA Health Insurance Marketplace website (HealthCare.gov). When referring to online consumer health resources, a small number of public library websites identified the authors of online health content (n = 16, 15.2%) or clearly stated the date of publication (n = 8, 7.6%). Further, only 2.8 percent of public library websites (n = 3) provided important health disclaimers. As a result, more website credibility markers, such as the content sponsorship and currency of health information, are needed on public library websites to better guide users to reliable online health information. Overall, this study offers practical guidance for library and information professionals for enhancing consumer health reference services and connecting users to health information in the Affordable Care Act landscape