111 research outputs found
Knowledge, knowledge management and knowledge networks
Published version made available with the publisher's permission
Filters and hubs: shortening the distance to palliative care evidence
Author version made available in accordance with the publisher's policyPalliative care is an integral part of the care provided by GPs and other primary health care providers, and as Australiaâs population ages and the palliative care needs of patients with end stage organ failure are recognised, this area of care is likely to increase. Using a Knowledge Translation framework, two strategies have been used to develop resources to support those providing palliative care in the community. PubMed Searches on a range of common palliative care topics and incorporating a palliative care filter provide an easy and validated mechanism to retrieve relevant literature. A âGP Hubâ offers knowledge, skills and practical advice for GPs who provide palliative care in the community. Both resources are freely available within the CareSearch website ensuring immediate access to palliative care information and evidence when it is needed
Systematic review of the types of methods and approaches used to assess the effectiveness of healthcare information websites
Author version made available in accordance with the publisher's policyThe objective of this systematic review was to identify types of approaches and methods used to evaluate the effectiveness of healthcare information websites. Simple usage data may not be sufficient to assess if the desired healthcare outcomes were achieved or to determine the relative effectiveness of different web resources on the same health topic. To establish the state of the knowledge base on assessment methods used to determine the effectiveness of healthcare websites, a structured search of the literature was conducted in Ovid Medline resulting in 1,611 articles retrieved, of which 240 met the inclusion criteria for this review. Results of this review found that diverse evaluation methods were used to measure the effectiveness of healthcare websites. These evaluation methods were used during development, prior to release, and after release. Economic assessment was rare and most evaluations looked at content issues such as readability scores. A number of studies did try to assess the usefulness of websites but few studies looked at behaviour change or knowledge transfer following engagement with the designated health website. To assess the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer of healthcare information through the online environment, multiple methods may need to be used to evaluate healthcare websites and may need to be undertaken at all stages of the website development process
Discovering the dementia evidence base: Tools to support knowledge to action in dementia care (innovative practice)
Author version made available in accordance with the publisher's policyDementia requires expert care and decision making, based on sound evidence. Reliable
evidence is difficult for busy dementia care professionals to find quickly. This study
developed an experimentally tested search filter as an innovative tool to retrieve literature on
dementia. It has a known retrieval performance and can be provided as an open access web
link directly to current literature. The Dementia Search Filter was developed using validated
methodology. An Expert Advisory Group of dementia care practitioners and researchers
ratified a representative set of relevant studies and undertook post hoc relevance
assessment, to ensure the usefulness of the search filter. The Dementia Search Filter is
published on two websites and combined with expert searches to link to evidence on
dementia, at end of life in aged care settings and more generally. Evidence accessed by the
Dementia Search Filter will help overcome barriers to finding current relevant research in the
field, for practitioners, researchers and decision makers
Palliative Care Knowledge for All Australians: Librariansâ Work within a Multidisciplinary Team Creating a National Health Knowledge Network
This work is made available under the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This paper introduces Australiaâs CareSearch Palliative Care Knowledge network, outlining its information services, underpinning principle of evidence-based information and the contribution of librarians, integral to the multidisciplinary team.
CareSearch is a federal government-funded project to provide relevant and trustworthy information to clinicians, patients, carers and families about all aspects of palliative care. This subject touches all Australians at some point. The information provided must be accurate, accessible and tailored to usersâ needs.
CareSearch emphasises the importance of evidence-based information to support the best possible care for those at the end of life and their loved ones. CareSearch identifies and enables access to evidence and uses evidence-based research approaches in designing and developing the service.
This complex project employs a multidisciplinarily skilled team, with a wide range of expertise including medicine, nursing, web technology, education, marketing and informatics.
Librarians bring information management expertise into the pool of skills in CareSearch, undertaking identification, classification and organisation of resources. They work with clinicians to ensure relevancy and accuracy, with website technicians for best practice navigation, and with marketing professionals for effective communication.
A key innovative aspect of CareSearchâs information service provision is the creation of subject-based search filters to target the best available evidence about palliative care (and related topics) in the published medical literature. The librarians at CareSearch and its associated project Flinders Filters follow established methodology to create and test search strategies using a gold standard set of references, advised by external clinical experts. The search filter embeds technical searching expertise into a search strategy link for clinicians to do a reliable real time search.
Search filters are embedded throughout the website in clinical evidence pages, as URLs to take clinicians directly into PubMed in hundreds of searches on topics of relevance to palliative care
Finding the best available evidence: how can we know?
This work is made available under the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/The importance (in all scientific fields) of finding and using evidence is growing rapidly, with increased recognition that decisions should be based on sound evidence. Key to finding this evidence is effective searching. Alongside this imperative, the searching context is becoming more complex. The number of articles indexed is enormous and increasing. In the medical field, PubMed contains over 24 million citations with over 1 million entered in 2014. Effective searching requires an understanding of database mechanisms and the terminology (including associated thesauri) of each subject. Searchers need an understanding of the requirements of the end user: what is considered relevant and what are the levels of evidence?
We suggest that a scientific approach be taken to the searching process, to ensure that the best available evidence is found, and that search methodology is tested and validated. What methods can we employ to indicate what we might have missed in our search? Search results should be tested and results fed back into the search, to improve searching effectiveness and thereby outcomes for the end user.
Search filters are validated search strategies, created using known methodology, for a given bibliographic database. The relevant terminology and database mechanisms are built into a strategy that is created from, and tested against, subsets of a gold standard set of references. Results are screened by external reviewers with expert subject knowledge, to minimise bias. The search filter performance is rated for precision and sensitivity, to provide known effectiveness in a standard set that can be extrapolated to open search. Details of the methodology and the filter performance are published for transparency.
CareSearch and Flinders Filters have developed a number of subject-based search filters. This paper discusses the importance of evidence-based searching; how these search filters are developed and lessons for general searching in scientific literature
CareSearch Online palliative care information for GPs
General practitioners occupy a unique place
in caring for patients with terminal illnesses
who wish to continue living in the community.
Supporting and encouraging GPs to offer or
continue providing palliative care is not only
important for individual patients and their
families but for the health system and the whole
community. The GP pages in the CareSearch
website are designed to provide immediate
access to relevant content and palliative care
resources to assist GPs in this role.CareSearch has been funded by the Department
of Health and Ageing as part of the National
Palliative Care Program
OvidSP Medline-to-PubMed search filter translation: a methodology for extending search filter range to include PubMed's unique content
Background: PubMed translations of OvidSP Medline search filters offer searchers improved ease of access. They
may also facilitate access to PubMedâs unique content, including citations for the most recently published
biomedical evidence. Retrieving this content requires a search strategy comprising natural language terms
(âtextwordsâ), rather than Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). We describe a reproducible methodology that uses a
validated PubMed search filter translation to create a textword-only strategy to extend retrieval to PubMedâs unique
heart failure literature.
Methods: We translated an OvidSP Medline heart failure search filter for PubMed and established version
equivalence in terms of indexed literature retrieval. The PubMed version was then run within PubMed to identify
citations retrieved by the filterâs MeSH terms (Heart failure, Left ventricular dysfunction, and Cardiomyopathy). It was
then rerun with the same MeSH terms restricted to searching on title and abstract fields (i.e. as âtextwordsâ).
Citations retrieved by the MeSH search but not the textword search were isolated. Frequency analysis of their titles/
abstracts identified natural language alternatives for those MeSH terms that performed less effectively as textwords.
These terms were tested in combination to determine the best performing search string for reclaiming this âlost
setâ. This string, restricted to searching on PubMedâs unique content, was then combined with the validated
PubMed translation to extend the filterâs performance in this database.
Results: The PubMed heart failure filter retrieved 6829 citations. Of these, 834 (12%) failed to be retrieved when
MeSH terms were converted to textwords. Frequency analysis of the 834 citations identified five high frequency
natural language alternatives that could improve retrieval of this set (cardiac failure, cardiac resynchronization, left
ventricular systolic dysfunction, left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, and LV dysfunction). Together these terms
reclaimed 157/834 (18.8%) of lost citations.
Conclusions: MeSH terms facilitate precise searching in PubMedâs indexed subset. They may, however, work less
effectively as search terms prior to subject indexing. A validated PubMed search filter can be used to develop a
supplementary textword-only search strategy to extend retrieval to PubMedâs unique content. A PubMed heart
failure search filter is available on the CareSearch website (www.caresearch.com.au) providing access to both
indexed and non-indexed heart failure evidence.This study was conducted as part of the work of the CareSearch Project.
CareSearch is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health
and Ageing
Find Me the Evidence: Connecting the Practitioner With the Evidence on Bereavement Care
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in DEATH STUDIES on January 15 2015, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/07481187.2014.992498
Author version under embargo for 12 months from publication, in accordance with the publisher's policy.This study reports on the development and application of a Bereavement Search Filter with a known level of retrieval performance to support access to the underlying knowledge base for bereavement care
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