A Study of Physicians' Serendipitous Knowledge Discovery: An Evaluation of Spark and the IF-SKD Model in a Clinical Setting

This research study is conducted to test Workman, Fiszman, Rindflesch and Nahl's information flow-serendipitous knowledge discovery (IF-SKD) model of information behavior, in a clinical care context. To date, there have been few attempts to model the serendipitous knowledge discovery of physicians. Due to the growth and complexity of the biomedical literature, as well as the increasingly specialized nature of medicine, there is a need for advanced systems that can quickly present information and assist physicians to discover new knowledge. The National Library of Medicine's (NLM) Lister Hill Center for Biocommunication's Semantic MEDLINE project is focused on identifying and visualizing semantic relationships in the biomedical literature to support knowledge discovery. This project led to the development of a new information discovery system, Spark. The aim of Spark is to promote serendipitous knowledge discovery by assisting users in maximizing the use of their conceptual short-term memory to iteratively search for, engage, clarify and evaluate information presented from the biomedical literature. Using Spark, this study analyzes the IF- SKD model by capturing and analyzing physician feedback. The McCay-Peet, Toms and Kelloway's Perception of Serendipity and Serendipitous Digital Environment (SDE) questionnaires are used. Results are evaluated to determine whether Spark contributes to physicians' serendipitous knowledge discovery and the ability of the IF-SKD ability to capture physicians' information behavior in a clinical setting

Scholarly Research on Serendipitous Retrieval of Information (Information Encountering): A Bibliometric Analysis of Literature Indexed in Scopus

The purpose of this paper was to map literature on accidental discovery (information encountering), and present its quantitative analysis. To achieve the purpose of the study, data from Scopus database was used. Productivity and quality of top authors, institutions and countries was investigated. Additionally, top journals and their selection by top authors was also investigated. Findings of the study indicated that the term, theory, and model of information encountering originated from the USA, and was later spilled across the world. The USA remained the most cited and most impactful country. American scholar Erdelez, who was affiliated with the University of Missouri, remained the most prolific author. Journal of Documentation is the top publication that accommodates studies related to the concept of information encountering. The study has implications for researchers, research organizations, and the countries interested in exploring the field of information encountering

Influences of Serendipity on Consumer Medical Information Personalization

Serendipity is an important concept in the field of information science. It has a potential of enhancing information seeking process by unexpected discovery. Serendipitous recommendation has been incorporated into the design of personalized systems to minimize blind spots in information delivery. Little evidence has been found to identify how serendipity influences personalization of consumer medical information delivery. This dissertation attempts to examine what roles serendipity plays in filtering consumer medical information and to understand how to incorporate serendipity in an effective manner. In addition, the study seeks to clarify user attitudes on unexpected discoveries of medical content in filtering settings as well as users' interest changes during this process. To empirically analyze the influence of serendipity, a medical news filtering system named MedSDFilter was developed. The system can personalize the delivery of news articles based on users' interest profiles. In MedSDFilter, serendipitous recommendation was integrated into personalized filtering through one of three serendipity models (randomness-based, knowledge-based and learning-based). Using Medical News Today site as information source, three different system modalities were compared by conducting user experiments. Thirty staff members were recruited to read and rate medical news delivered by one of three system modalities. The results of user study indicate that serendipity has an important role in medical news content delivery. As for how to incorporate serendipity, it is shown that using physician knowledge effectively enhanced serendipitous recommendation. In addition, the results suggest that the performance of serendipitous recommendation was further improved after learning algorithms were adopted. This study also provide some evidence to show user satisfaction on unexpected discovery and user interest change associated with this type of discovery. Finally, the study demonstrated the individual difference in seeking consumer medical information. The results of this study provide the system designers implications and suggestions to avoid potential drawbacks related to over-personalization in information delivery. This study enhances the understanding of users' behavior regarding the consumption of medical information and generates new guidelines which can be used in developing information systems in medical area.Doctor of Philosoph

Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Abstracts 2004

Proceedings of the Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Regional Conference held at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2004

Conceptions of Potency, Purity, and Synergy-by-Design

Sowa Rigpa institutions and practitioners have growing interest in examining and legitimizing Sowa Rigpa formulas vis-à-vis pharmacological research methods, seeking scientific validation of what they view as ‘potency’ and ‘purity’ for their formulas. Likewise, the pharmacology researchers have demonstrated renewed interest in herbal medical traditions in mining for new drugs to address resistance, toxicity, and optimize what they view as ‘potency’ and ‘purity.’ However, differing conceptualizations emerge when the pharmacological drug discovery process is examined to determine what is being analyzed, how it is doing so, and what assumptions underlie such methods. Whether a formula is ‘active,’ ‘toxic’ or ‘effective’ hinges on assumptions, processes, and methods that typically have low fidelity to how Sowa Rigpa formulations function from the Tibetan tradition’s perspective and are actually administered to patients. This paper argues that standard mainstream biochemical pharmacology screening methods may not be suitable for analyzing Sowa Rigpa formulas, as they are traditionally compounded and understood to function in concert with multiple physiological pathways, rather than one specific target. We examine the pharmaceutical research processes to identify points of adherence and divergence with conceptions of ‘potency’ and ‘purity' in Tibetan medical theory, and believe pharmacological research institutions will be receptive to traditional Sowa Rigpa menjor (sman sbyor), or ‘medicine compounding,’ theory due to benefits it could provide biomedical drug discovery via complementary understandings of compound synergy and distinctly different concepts of toxicity and purity. Accordingly, we suggest that efficacy, activity and safety of Tibetan medicinal formulas will be more accurately assessed by retaining fidelity to its own conceptions of potency and purity

Information behaviour of construction project actors

Construction is one of the largest industry sectors in terms of size and output in the United Kingdom (UK). The sector contributes about 10% directly to the UK’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and drives historical GDP growth. However, Construction projects and Organisations continue to underperform at significant levels which is underpinned by actors' Information Behaviours (IBs). [Continues.

Outlook Magazine, Autumn 2011

https://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/outlook/1184/thumbnail.jp

Routes for breaching and protecting genetic privacy

We are entering the era of ubiquitous genetic information for research, clinical care, and personal curiosity. Sharing these datasets is vital for rapid progress in understanding the genetic basis of human diseases. However, one growing concern is the ability to protect the genetic privacy of the data originators. Here, we technically map threats to genetic privacy and discuss potential mitigation strategies for privacy-preserving dissemination of genetic data.Comment: Draft for comment

Drug Repurposing for Rare Diseases

Currently, there are about 7000 identified rare diseases, together affecting 10% of the population. However, fewer than 6% of all rare diseases have an approved treatment option, highlighting their tremendous unmet needs in drug development. The process of repurposing drugs for new indications, compared with the development of novel orphan drugs, is a time-saving and cost-efficient method resulting in higher success rates, which can therefore drastically reduce the risk of drug development for rare diseases. Although drug repurposing is not novel, new strategies have been developed in recent years to do it in a systematic and rational way. Here, we review applied methodologies, recent accomplished progress, and the challenges associated in drug repurposing for rare diseases

Outlook Magazine, Winter 2017

https://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/outlook/1203/thumbnail.jp