Retrieval of overviews of systematic reviews in MEDLINE was improved by the development of an objectively derived and validated search strategy

2016 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 107-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole Lunny ◽  
Joanne E. McKenzie ◽  
Steve McDonald
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Hang Wu ◽  
Ching Ju Chiu ◽  
Yen Ju Liou ◽  
Chun Ying Lee ◽  
Susan C. Hu

BACKGROUND There is still no consensus on research terms for smart healthcare worldwide. The study conducted by Lewis 10 years ago showed extending geographic access was the major health purpose of health-related information communication technology (ICT), but today's situation may be different because of the rapid development of smart healthcare. Objective: The main aim of this study is to classify recent smart healthcare interventions. Therefore, this scoping review was conducted as a feasible tool for exploring this domain and summarizing related research findings. OBJECTIVE The main aim of this study is to classify recent smart healthcare interventions. Therefore, this scoping review was conducted as a feasible tool for exploring this domain and summarizing related research findings. METHODS The scoping review relies on the analysis of previous reviews of smart healthcare interventions assessed for their effectiveness in the framework of a systematic review and/or meta-analysis. The search strategy was based on the identification of smart healthcare interventions reported as the proposed keywords. In the analysis, the reviews published from January 2015 to December 2019 were included. RESULTS The number of publications for smart healthcare's systematic reviews has continued to grow in the past five years. The search strategy yielded 210 systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses addressed to target groups of interest. 68.5% of these publications used mobile health as a keyword. According to the classification by Lewis, 37.62% of the literature was applied to extend geographic access. According to the classification by the Joint Commission of Taiwan (JCT), 48.84% of smart healthcare was applied in clinical areas, and 60% of it was applied in outpatient medical services. CONCLUSIONS Smart healthcare interventions are being widely used in clinical settings and for disease management. The research of mobile health has received the most attention among smart healthcare interventions. The main purpose of mobile health was used to extend geographic access to increase medical accessibility in clinical areas. CLINICALTRIAL none


2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Zhang ◽  
Margaret Sampson ◽  
Jessie McGowan

Introduction - This study applied the principles of evidence based information practice to clarify the role of information specialists and librarians in the preparation of Cochrane systematic reviews and to determine whether information specialists impact the quality of searching in Cochrane systematic reviews. Objectives - This research project sought to determine how the contribution of the person responsible for searching in the preparation of Cochrane systematic reviews was reported; whether the contribution was recognized through authorship or acknowledgement; the qualifications of the searcher; and the association between the type of contributorship and characteristics of the search strategy, assessability, and the presence of certain types of errors. Methods - Data sources: The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, The Cochrane Library 3 (2002). Inclusion criteria: The study included systematic reviews that met the following criteria: one or more sections of the Cochrane Highly Sensitive Search Strategy were utilised, primary studies were either randomised controlled trials (RCTs) or quasi-RCTs, and included and excluded studies were clearly identified. Data extraction: Two librarians assessed the searches for errors, establishing consensus on discordant ratings. Results - Of the 169 reviews screened for this project, 105 met all eligibility criteria. Authors fulfilled the searching role in 41.9% of reviews studied, acknowledged persons or groups in 13.3%, a combination in 9.5%, and the role was not reported in 35.2% of reviews. For the 78 reviews in which meta-analyses were performed, the positions of those responsible for statistical decisions were examined for comparative purposes. The statistical role was performed by an author in 47.4% of cases and unreported in the same number of cases. Insufficient analyzable data was obtained regarding professional qualifications (3/105 for searching, 2/78 for statistical decisions). Search quality was assessed for 66 searches across 74 reviews. In general, it was more possible to assess the search quality when the searcher role was reported. An association was found between the reporting of searcher role and the presence of a consequential error. There was no association between the number of consequential errors and how the contribution of the searcher was reported. Conclusions - Qualifications of the persons responsible for searching and statistical decision-making were poorly reported in Cochrane reviews, but more complete role reporting is associated with greater assessability of searches and fewer substantive errors in search strategies.


10.2196/16929 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. e16929
Author(s):  
Michelle Helena Van Velthoven ◽  
Madison Milne-Ives ◽  
Caroline de Cock ◽  
Mary Mooney ◽  
Edward Meinert

Background The decline in the uptake of routine childhood vaccinations has resulted in outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Vaccination apps can be used as a tool to promote immunization through the provision of reminders, dissemination of information, peer support, and feedback. Objective The aim of this review is to systematically review the evidence on the use of apps to support childhood vaccination uptake, information storage, and record sharing. Methods We will identify relevant papers by searching the following electronic databases: PubMed, Embase by Ovid, Web of Science, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), ClinicalTrials.gov, and Education Resources Information Center (ERIC). We will review the reference lists of those studies that we include to identify relevant additional papers not initially identified using our search strategy. In addition to the use of electronic databases, we will search for grey literature on the topic. The search strategy will include only terms relating to or describing the intervention, which is app use. As almost all titles and abstracts are in English, 100% of these will be reviewed, but retrieval will be confined to papers written in the English language. We will record the search outcome on a specifically designed record sheet. Two reviewers will select observational and intervention studies, appraise the quality of the studies, and extract the relevant data. All studies will involve the use of apps relating to child vaccinations. The primary outcome is the uptake of vaccinations. Secondary outcomes are as follows: (1) use of app for sharing of information and providing vaccination reminders and (2) use of app for storage of vaccination information; knowledge and decision making by parents regarding vaccination (ie, risks and benefits of vaccination); costs and cost-effectiveness of vaccination apps; use of the app and measures of usability (eg, usefulness, acceptability, and experiences of different users: parents and health care professionals); use of technical standards for development of the app; and adverse events (eg, data leaks and misinformation). We will exclude studies that do not study an app. We anticipate a limited scope for meta-analysis and will provide a narrative overview of findings and tabular summaries of extracted data. Results This project was funded by the Sir David Cooksey Fellowship in Healthcare Translation at the University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom. We will submit the full systematic review for publication in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. Conclusions This review will follow, where possible, the Cochrane Collaboration and the Centre for Review and Dissemination methodologies for conducting systematic reviews. We will report our findings based on guidelines from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. The review results will be used to inform the development of a vaccination app. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) PRR1-10.2196/16929


2021 ◽  
Vol 109 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
José Antonio Salvador-Oliván ◽  
Gonzalo Marco-Cuenca ◽  
Rosario Arquero-Avilés

Objective: Locating systematic reviews is essential for clinicians and researchers when creating or updating reviews and for decision-making in health care. This study aimed to develop a search filter for retrieving systematic reviews that improves upon the performance of the PubMed systematic review search filter.Methods: Search terms were identified from abstracts of reviews published in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and the titles of articles indexed as systematic reviews in PubMed. Both the precision of the candidate terms and the number of systematic reviews retrieved from PubMed were evaluated after excluding the subset of articles retrieved by the PubMed systematic review filter. Terms that achieved a precision greater than 70% and relevant publication types indexed with MeSH terms were included in the filter search strategy.Results: The search strategy used in our filter added specific terms not included in PubMed’s systematic review filter and achieved a 61.3% increase in the number of retrieved articles that are potential systematic reviews. Moreover, it achieved an average precision that is likely greater than 80%.Conclusions: The developed search filter will enable users to identify more systematic reviews from PubMed than the PubMed systematic review filter with high precision.


Author(s):  
Claudia Pieper ◽  
Sarah Schröer ◽  
Anna-Lisa Eilerts

Work environment factors are highly correlated with employees’ health and well-being. Our aim was to sum up current evidence of health promotion interventions in the workplace, focusing on interventions for the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders, psychological and behavioral disorders as well as interventions for older employees and economic evaluations. We conducted a comprehensive literature search including systematic reviews published from April 2012 to October 2017 in electronic databases and search engines, websites of relevant organizations and institutions. It consisted of simple and specific terms and word combinations related to workplace health promotion based on the search strategy of a previous review. After full-text screening, 74 references met the eligibility criteria. Using the same search strategy, there was a higher proportion of relevant high-quality studies as compared with the earlier review. The heterogeneity of health promotion interventions regarding intervention components, settings and study populations still limits the comparability of studies. Future studies should also address the societal and insurer perspective, including costs to the worker such as lost income and lost time at work of family members due to caregiving activities. To this end, more high-quality evidence is needed.


Author(s):  
Wichor M. Bramer ◽  
Gerdien B. De Jonge ◽  
Melissa L. Rethlefsen ◽  
Frans Mast ◽  
Jos Kleijnen

Creating search strategies for systematic reviews, finding the best balance between sensitivity and specificity, and translating search strategies between databases is challenging. Several methods describe standards for systematic search strategies, but a consistent approach for creating an exhaustive search strategy has not yet been fully described in enough detail to be fully replicable. The authors have established a method that describes step by step the process of developing a systematic search strategy as needed in the systematic review. This method describes how single-line search strategies can be prepared in a text document by typing search syntax (such as field codes, parentheses, and Boolean operators) before copying and pasting search terms (keywords and free-text synonyms) that are found in the thesaurus. To help ensure term completeness, we developed a novel optimization technique that is mainly based on comparing the results retrieved by thesaurus terms with those retrieved by the free-text search words to identify potentially relevant candidate search terms. Macros in Microsoft Word have been developed to convert syntaxes between databases and interfaces almost automatically. This method helps information specialists in developing librarian-mediated searches for systematic reviews as well as medical and health care practitioners who are searching for evidence to answer clinical questions. The described method can be used to create complex and comprehensive search strategies for different databases and interfaces, such as those that are needed when searching for relevant references for systematic reviews, and will assist both information specialists and practitioners when they are searching the biomedical literature.


Author(s):  
Marissa T. Ayasse ◽  
Adnan Ahmed ◽  
Maria L. Espinosa ◽  
Christina J. Walker ◽  
Muhammad Yousaf ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 537-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Luhnen ◽  
Barbara Prediger ◽  
Edmund A.M. Neugebauer ◽  
Tim Mathes

Objectives:When making decisions in health care, it is essential to consider economic evidence about an intervention. The objective of this study was to analyze the methods applied for systematic reviews of health economic evaluations (SR-HEs) in HTA and to identify common challenges.Methods:We manually searched the Web pages of HTA organizations and included HTA-reports published since 2015. Prerequisites for inclusion were the conduct of an SR-HE in at least one electronic database and the use of the English, German, French, or Spanish language. Methodological features were extracted in standardized tables. We prepared descriptive statistical (e.g., median, range) measures to describe the applied methods. Data were synthesized in a structured narrative way.Results:Eighty-three reports were included in the analysis. We identified inexplicable heterogeneity, particularly concerning literature search strategy, data extraction, assessment of quality, and applicability. Furthermore, process steps were often missing or reported in a nontransparent way. The use of a standardized data extraction form was indicated in one-third of reports (32 percent). Fifty-four percent of authors systematically appraised included studies. In 10 percent of reports, the applicability of included studies was assessed. Involvement of two reviewers was rarely reported for the study selection (43 percent), data extraction (28 percent), and quality assessment (39 percent).Conclusions:The methods applied for SR-HEs in HTA and their reporting quality are very heterogeneous. Efforts toward a detailed, standardized guidance for the preparation of SR-HEs definitely seem necessary. A general harmonization and improvement of the applied methodology would increase the value of SR-HE for decision makers.


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