Optimal search strategies for identifying sound clinical prediction studies in EMBASE

BACKGROUND: Clinical prediction guides assist clinicians by pointing to specific elements of the patient's clinical presentation that should be considered when forming a diagnosis, prognosis or judgment regarding treatment outcome. The numbers of validated clinical prediction guides are growing in the medical literature, but their retrieval from large biomedical databases remains problematic and this presents a barrier to their uptake in medical practice. We undertook the systematic development of search strategies ("hedges") for retrieval of empirically tested clinical prediction guides from EMBASE. METHODS: An analytic survey was conducted, testing the retrieval performance of search strategies run in EMBASE against the gold standard of hand searching, using a sample of all 27,769 articles identified in 55 journals for the 2000 publishing year. All articles were categorized as original studies, review articles, general papers, or case reports. The original and review articles were then tagged as 'pass' or 'fail' for methodologic rigor in the areas of clinical prediction guides and other clinical topics. Search terms that depicted clinical prediction guides were selected from a pool of index terms and text words gathered in house and through request to clinicians, librarians and professional searchers. A total of 36,232 search strategies composed of single and multiple term phrases were trialed for retrieval of clinical prediction studies. The sensitivity, specificity, precision, and accuracy of search strategies were calculated to identify which were the best. RESULTS: 163 clinical prediction studies were identified, of which 69 (42.3%) passed criteria for scientific merit. A 3-term strategy optimized sensitivity at 91.3% and specificity at 90.2%. Higher sensitivity (97.1%) was reached with a different 3-term strategy, but with a 16% drop in specificity. The best measure of specificity (98.8%) was found in a 2-term strategy, but with a considerable fall in sensitivity to 60.9%. All single term strategies performed less well than 2- and 3-term strategies. CONCLUSION: The retrieval of sound clinical prediction studies from EMBASE is supported by several search strategies

DiSCmap : digitisation of special collections mapping, assessment, prioritisation. Final project report

Traditionally, digitisation has been led by supply rather than demand. While end users are seen as a priority they are not directly consulted about which collections they would like to have made available digitally or why. This can be seen in a wide range of policy documents throughout the cultural heritage sector, where users are positioned as central but where their preferences are assumed rather than solicited. Post-digitisation consultation with end users isequally rare. How are we to know that digitisation is serving the needs of the Higher Education community and is sustainable in the long-term? The 'Digitisation in Special Collections: mapping, assessment and prioritisation' (DiSCmap) project, funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Research Information Network (RIN), aimed to:- Identify priority collections for potential digitisation housed within UK Higher Education's libraries, archives and museums as well as faculties and departments.- Assess users' needs and demand for Special Collections to be digitised across all disciplines.- Produce a synthesis of available knowledge about users' needs with regard to usability and format of digitised resources.- Provide recommendations for a strategic approach to digitisation within the wider context and activity of leading players both in the public and commercial sector.The project was carried out jointly by the Centre for Digital Library Research (CDLR) and the Centre for Research in Library and Information Management (CERLIM) and has taken a collaborative approach to the creation of a user-driven digitisation prioritisation framework, encouraging participation and collective engagement between communities.Between September 2008 and March 2009 the DiSCmap project team asked over 1,000 users, including intermediaries (vocational users who take care of collections) and end users (university teachers, researchers and students) a variety of questions about which physical and digital Special Collections they make use of and what criteria they feel must be considered when selecting materials for digitisation. This was achieved through workshops, interviews and two online questionnaires. Although the data gathered from these activities has the limitation of reflecting only a partial view on priorities for digitisation - the view expressed by those institutions who volunteered to take part in the study - DiSCmap was able to develop:- a 'long list' of 945 collections nominated for digitisation both by intermediaries andend-users from 70 HE institutions (see p. 21);- a framework of user-driven prioritisation criteria which could be used to inform current and future digitisation priorities; (see p. 45)- a set of 'short lists' of collections which exemplify the application of user-driven criteria from the prioritisation framework to the long list (see Appendix X):o Collections nominated more than once by various groups of users.o Collections related to a specific policy framework, eg HEFCE's strategically important and vulnerable subjects for Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics.o Collections on specific thematic clusters.o Collections with highest number of reasons for digitisation

Users' trust in information resources in the Web environment: a status report

This study has three aims; to provide an overview of the ways in which trust is either assessed or asserted in relation to the use and provision of resources in the Web environment for research and learning; to assess what solutions might be worth further investigation and whether establishing ways to assert trust in academic information resources could assist the development of information literacy; to help increase understanding of how perceptions of trust influence the behaviour of information users

The effectiveness of Atraumatic Restorative Treatment versus conventional restorative treatment for permanent molars and premolars A critical assessment of existing systematic reviews and report of a new systematic review

Available for download at: http://mahara.qmul.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=16447Available for download at: http://mahara.qmul.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=16447Available for download at: http://mahara.qmul.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=16447Available for download at: http://mahara.qmul.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=16447Available for download at: http://mahara.qmul.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=16447Available for download at: http://mahara.qmul.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=16447Available for download at: http://mahara.qmul.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=16447Background: Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART) is the removal of caries using hand instruments and restoration of the resulting cavity using an adhesive restorative material. It was designed to restore teeth in communities without access to conventional dental clinics in poorer countries but has come to be used by dentists in the developed world too, as an alternative to conventional restorative treatment. Objectives: 1) to assess the scope and the methodological and reporting quality of existing systematic reviews of the effectiveness of ART compared to conventional restorative treatment; 2) to evaluate the effectiveness of ART compared to conventional treatment in permanent teeth with class I and II cavities. Methods: Searches: 1) for the assessment of existing systematic reviews: Electronic searches were conducted of OVID Medline, OVID Embase, The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR), the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) databases (DARE, NHSEED and HTA), Google Scholar, and the CNKI and CAOD Chinese databases; 2) for the systematic reviews of ART in permanent teeth: the above searches were supplemented by searches of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), LILAC, BBO, IMEAR (WHO Index Medicus for South East Region), WPRIM (WHO Western Pacific Region Index Medicus) and IndMed, Current Controlled Trials, Clinical Trials, OpenSIGLE, IADR conference abstracts and NLM Gateway. Hand searches were conducted of six dental journals known to have reported ART studies. References from retrieved systematic reviews, trials and other related papers were searched for additional reports. Authors were contacted. There were no language restrictions. Selection criteria: 1) for the assessment of existing systematic reviews: systematic reviews that compared ART to conventional treatment for the restoration of dental cavities; 2) for the systematic reviews of ART in permanent teeth: randomised controlled trials that compared ART using any adhesive material to conventional treatment using amalgam or any adhesive material Data collection: 1) for the assessment of existing systematic reviews: Reviews were selected and data was extracted by a single reviewer using a custom made data extraction sheet. Scope was assessed in terms of materials used, teeth and cavity type. Methodological quality was assessed using AMSTAR. Reporting quality was assessed using the PRISMA guidelines; 2) for the systematic reviews of ART in permanent teeth: reports of trials were screened and selected independently by two reviewers and data would have been extracted on a custom made data extraction sheet had there been eligible trials. Results: 1) for the assessment of existing systematic reviews: three systematic reviews were identified. Two of these were restricted to comparing ART with glass-ionomer to conventional treatment with amalgam; two allowed for inclusion of all cavity types in both deciduous and permanent teeth. None was of high methodological quality and reporting quality was good in one of the reviews only; 2) for the systematic reviews of ART in permanent teeth: no eligible trials were identified. Author’s conclusions: 1) existing systematic reviews do not have sufficient scope to allow for the inclusion of potentially eligible trials that would assess ARTs effectiveness and they have been of high to medium risk of bias; 2) it is disappointing that there are no properly conducted randomised controlled trials comparing ART to conventional treatment in class I and II cavities in the permanent dentition

Exploration of the methodological quality and clinical usefulness of a cross-sectional sample of published guidance about exercise training and physical activity for the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease

Background Clinicians are encouraged to use guidelines to assist in providing evidence-based secondary prevention to patients with coronary heart disease. However, the expanding number of publications providing guidance about exercise training may confuse cardiac rehabilitation clinicians. We therefore sought to explore the number, scope, publication characteristics, methodological quality, and clinical usefulness of published exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation guidance. Methods We included publications recommending physical activity, exercise or cardiac rehabilitation for patients with coronary heart disease. These included systematically developed clinical practice guidelines, as well as other publications intended to support clinician decision making, such as position papers or consensus statements. Publications were obtained via electronic searches of preventive cardiology societies, guideline databases and PubMed, to November 2016. Publication characteristics were extracted, and two independent assessors evaluated quality using the 23-item Appraisal of Guidelines Research and Evaluation II (AGREE) tool. Results Fifty-four international publications from 1994 to 2016 were identified. Most were found on preventive cardiology association websites (n = 35; 65%) and were freely accessible (n = 50; 93%). Thirty (56%) publications contained only broad recommendations for physical activity and cardiac rehabilitation referral, while 24 (44%) contained the necessary detailed exercise training recommendations. Many were labelled as “guidelines”, however publications with other titles (e.g. scientific statements) were common (n = 24; 44%). This latter group of publications contained a significantly greater proportion of detailed exercise training recommendations than clinical guidelines (p = 0.017). Wide variation in quality also existed, with ‘applicability’ the worst scoring AGREE II domain for clinical guidelines (mean score 53%) and ‘rigour of development’ rated lowest for other guidance types (mean score 33%). Conclusions While a large number of guidance documents provide recommendations for exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation, most have limitations in either methodological quality or clinical usefulness. The lack of rigorously developed guidelines which also contain necessary detail about exercise training remains a substantial problem for clinicians

Framework for software architecture visualization assessment.

In order to assess software architecture visualisation strategies, we qualitatively characterize then construct an assessment framework with 7 key areas and 31 features. The framework is used for evaluation and comparison of various strategies from multiple stakeholder perspectives. Six existing software architecture visualisation tools and a seventh research tool were evaluated. All tools exhibited shortcomings when evaluated in the framework

Maximising transparency in a doctoral thesis: The complexities of writing about the use of QSR*NVIVO within a grounded theory study

This paper discusses the challenges of how to provide a transparent account of the use of the software programme QSR*NVIVO (QSR 2000) within a Grounded Theory framework (Glaser and Strauss 1967; Strauss and Corbin 1998). Psychology students are increasingly pursuing qualitative research projects such to the extent that the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) advise that students should have skill in the use of computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) (Economic and Social Research Council 2001). Unlike quantitative studies, rigid formulae do not exist for writing-up qualitative projects for doctoral theses. Most authors, however, agree that transparency is essential when communicating the findings of qualitative research. Sparkes (2001) recommends that evaluative criteria for qualitative research should be commensurable with the aims, objectives, and epistemological assumptions of the research project. Likewise, the use of CAQDAS should vary according to the research methodology followed, and thus researchers should include a discussion of how CAQDAS was used. This paper describes how the evolving process of coding data, writing memos, categorising, and theorising were integrated into the written thesis. The structure of the written document is described including considerations about restructuring and the difficulties of writing about an iterative process within a linear document

Professional appraisal of online information about children’s footwear measurement and fit : readability, usability and quality

Parents increasingly use the internet to seek health information, share information and for purchasing textiles and footwear. This shift in footwear purchasing habits raises concern about how (and if) parents are getting their children's feet measured, and what support strategies are in place to support the fit of footwear. In response to this, some companies and healthcare organisations have developed resources to support home measurement of foot size, and link these measures to footwear selection, measurement and fitting. The aim of this research was to undertake an appraisal of web-based resources about measurement and fit of children's footwear, focussing specifically on readability, usability and quality. Search terms relating to children's foot measurement were compiled and online searching was undertaken. Search results were saved and screened for relevance. Existing resources were categorised based on their source e.g. a footwear company or a health website. The 15 most commonly identified resources were reviewed by a professional panel for readability, content, usability and validity. One researcher also assessed the accessibility and reading ease of the resources. Online resources were predominantly from commercial footwear companies (54%). Health information sources from professional bodies made up 4.2% of the resources identified. The top 15 resources had appropriate reading ease scores for parents (SMOG Index 4.3-8.2). Accessibility scores (the product of the number of times it appeared in search results and its ranking in the results) were highest for commercial footwear companies. The panel scores for readability ranged from 2.7 to 9 out of 10, with a similar range for content, usability and validity. Information for parents seeking to purchase footwear for their children is readily available online but this was largely dominated by commercial footwear companies. The quality and usability of this information is of a moderate standard; notable improvements could be made to the validity of the task the child is asked to undertake and the measures being taken. Improvements in these resources would improve the data input to the selection of footwear and therefore have a beneficial impact on footwear fit in children. [Abstract copyright: © The Author(s). 2020.

Implications of Transitional Care Interventions on Hospital Readmissions in Patients With Destination Therapy Left Ventricular Assist Devices

Background: The rising number of patients with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) require care management to successfully transition home after implantation. These patients and their families need to manage their heart failure, and the complexities of an LVAD and the associated lifestyle modifications. Translating knowledge of transitional care interventions in patients with chronic diseases to those with an LVAD may provide valuable insight. To help inform the furthering of care transitions in the LVAD patient population, an integrative review was conducted. Aim: The aim of this review was to explore the transitions of care interventions of care in patients and its potential for application in the destination therapy LVAD. Methods: This integrative review was guided by the Whittemore and Knafl's methodology. Results: A total of 12 articles from 264 retrieved articles met inclusion criteria and were included in the literature review. Discussion: This review identified that evidence-based transitional care interventions have been shown to decrease avoidable rehospitalization, the associated costs, and improve quality of life when compared to usual care. Implications for Practice: A common feature of transitional care interventions is the inclusion of nurse leadership. Nurses should be prepared to participate in transitional care interventions to optimally improve outcomes for patients with heart failure and potentially those with an LVAD. Additionally, to make transitional care interventions more effective they should be implemented with moderate intensity or greater. Conclusion: This review provided information supporting the trialing of transitional care interventions in patients with an LVAD and suggests pilot research to optimize interventions for this population