scholarly journals Naming Specific Adverse Effects Improves Relative Recall for Search Filters Identifying Literature on Surgical Interventions in MEDLINE and Embase

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-67
Author(s):  
Ann Glusker
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Mesh Term ◽  
Search Strategies ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Discussion Section ◽  
Surgical Interventions ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
Search Filters ◽  
Specific Search

A Review of: Golder, S., Wright, K., & Loke, Y.K. (2018). The development of search filters for adverse effects of surgical interventions in MEDLINE and Embase. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 35(2), 121-129. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12213 Abstract Objective – “To develop and validate search filters for MEDLINE and Embase for the adverse effects of surgical interventions” (p.121). Design – From a universe of systematic reviews, the authors created “an unselected cohort…where relevant articles are not chosen because of the presence of adverse effects terms” (p.123). The studies referenced in the cohort reviews were extracted to create an overall citation set. From this, three equal-sized sets of studies were created by random selection, and used for: development of a filter (identifying search terms); evaluation of the filter (testing how well it worked); and validation of the filter (assessing how well it retrieved relevant studies). Setting – Systematic reviews of adverse effects from the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE), published in 2014. Subjects – 358 studies derived from the references of 19 systematic reviews (352 available in MEDLINE, 348 available in Embase). Methods – Word and phrase frequency analysis was performed on the development set of articles to identify a list of terms, starting with the term creating the highest recall from titles and abstracts of articles, and continuing until adding new search terms produced no more new records recalled. The search strategy thus developed was then tested on the evaluation set of articles. In this case, using the strategy recalled all of the articles which could be obtained using generic search terms; however, adding specific search terms (such as the MeSH term “surgical site infection”) improved recall. Finally, the strategy incorporating both generic and specific search terms for adverse effects was used on the validation set of articles. Search strategies used are included in the article, as is a list in the discussion section of MeSH and Embase indexing terms specific to or suggesting adverse effects. Main Results – “In each case the addition of specific adverse effects terms could have improved the recall of the searches” (p. 127). This was true for all six cases (development, evaluation and validation study sets, for each of MEDLINE and Embase) in which specific terms were added to searches using generic terms, and recall percentages compared. Conclusion – While no filter can deliver 100% of items in a given standard set of studies on adverse effects (since title and abstract fields may not contain any indication of relevance to the topic), adding specific adverse effects terms to generic ones while developing filters is shown to improve recall for surgery-related adverse effects (similarly to drug-related adverse effects). The use of filters requires user engagement and critical analysis; at the same time, deploying well-constructed filters can have many benefits, including: helping users, especially clinicians, get a search started; managing a large and unwieldy set of citations retrieved; and to suggest new search strategies.

scholarly journals A systematic approach to searching: an efficient and complete method to develop literature searches

2018 ◽  
Vol 106 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wichor M. Bramer ◽  
Gerdien B. De Jonge ◽  
Melissa L. Rethlefsen ◽  
Frans Mast ◽  
Jos Kleijnen
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Search Strategy ◽  
Optimization Technique ◽  
Search Strategies ◽  
Biomedical Literature ◽  
Systematic Search ◽  
Free Text ◽  
Text Document ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
Free Text Search

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.

scholarly journals Searching for Adverse Effects in MEDLINE and EMBASE Requires a Combined Approach for Efficient Retrieval

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Marcy L. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Drug Effects ◽  
Search Strategies ◽  
Controlled Vocabulary ◽  
Medline Search ◽  
Drug Names ◽  
Final Approach ◽  
Search Filters ◽  
The Uk

A review of: Golder, Su, Heather M. McIntosh, Steve Duffy, and Julie Glanville. “Developing Efficient Search Strategies to Identify Reports of Adverse Effects in MEDLINE and EMBASE.” Health Information & Libraries Journal 23.1 (Mar. 2006): 3-12. Objective – To assess the sensitivity and precision of various search strategies for retrieving adverse effects studies from the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases. Design – Analytical survey. Subjects – A case study using a recently published systematic review of the effectiveness and adverse effects of seven new anti-epileptic drugs. Setting – MEDLINE and EMBASE searches performed by researchers at the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination and the UK Cochrane Centre Search Filters Design Group at the University of York, UK. Methods – Five key approaches to searching were defined. The first approach used either text words or controlled vocabulary to search for specific adverse effects. The second used subheadings or qualifiers either attached to drug names found in the controlled vocabulary (approach 2a) or ‘floating’ without drug names (approach 2b). The third approach used text words as synonyms for the phrase ‘adverse effects.’ The fourth used controlled indexing terms for adverse effects. The fifth and final approach used two published search strategies incorporating study design (Badgett et al., Loke et al.). These five approaches were used to search for studies of the adverse effects of seven new anti-epileptic drugs. 5,011 unique papers were retrieved. Of these, 236 were judged potentially relevant and 225 full text articles were obtained. The inclusion criteria from a previously published systematic review (Wilby et al.) were applied to the papers, and 79 met the criteria. Five papers were added to the set after being identified from reference lists, clinical experts, and other sources. This new set of 84 studies was used as a quasi gold standard (QGS) against which more than 300 combinations of the five approaches could be tested. To create the set of possible approaches, the researchers combined search strategies one through four in all possible ways, and used all available subheading combinations from 2a and 2b. The Badgett and Loke searches were tested separately. Main Results – Sensitivity and precision were determined for each combination. Formulas used to calculate sensitivity and precision were provided. In MEDLINE, search strategies using floating subheadings achieved the highest sensitivity. The most useful single subheading in both MEDLINE and EMBASE was “adverse effects,” with 79.1% and 79.5% sensitivity respectively. Of the more than 300 combinations tested, the most sensitive combination in MEDLINE included specified adverse effects in combination with the floating subheadings “adverse effects,” “complications,” and “drug effects,” together with text words for adverse effects. This strategy had 97.0% sensitivity, but low precision at 2.8%. The highest precision was achieved by using subheadings attached to drug indexing terms. In EMBASE, the strategy of Loke et al. provided the highest sensitivity at 86.3% and precision of 2.0%. Since researchers are not likely to know in advance all of the reported adverse effects of a particular drug therapy, the most sensitive strategies without specific adverse events were also identified. The search with the highest sensitivity in MEDLINE had 95.5% sensitivity, and 97.3% sensitivity in EMBASE. Conclusion – Searching for adverse effects requires a combination of approaches in both MEDLINE and EMBASE. In MEDLINE, the most sensitive combination yielded 97.0% sensitivity. Regardless of the approach used, precision remains low. An effective generic search filter for adverse effects searches may not yet be feasible. More research is needed on search strategies, as well as more consistent methods of reporting and indexing adverse effects.

OP128 Improving Literature Searching For Evidence On Health Apps: The National Institute For Health And Care Excellence (NICE) MEDLINE And Embase (Ovid) Health Apps Search Filters

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (S1) ◽  
pp. 2-2
Author(s):  
Lynda Ayiku ◽  
Sarah Glover
Keyword(s):  
Gold Standard ◽  
Search Strategies ◽  
Bibliographic Databases ◽  
Literature Searching ◽  
Health Apps ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
Search Filters ◽  
Standard Set ◽  
Validation Set

IntroductionLiterature searching for evidence on apps in bibliographic databases is challenging because they are often described with inconsistent terminology. Information Specialists from the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have developed validated search filters for retrieving evidence about apps from MEDLINE and Embase (Ovid) reliably.MethodsMedical informatics journals were hand-searched to create a ‘gold standard’ set of app references. The gold standard set was divided into two sets. The development set provided the search terms for the filters. The filters were validated by calculating their recall against the validation set. Target recall was >90%.A case study was then conducted to compare the number-needed-to-read (NNR) of the filters with previous non-validated MEDLINE and Embase app search strategies used for the ‘MIB214 myCOPD app’ NICE topic. NNR is the number of references screened to find each relevant reference.ResultsThe MEDLINE and Embase filters achieved 98.6 percent and 98.5 percent recall against the validation set, respectively. In the case study they achieved 100 percent recall, reducing NNR from 348 to 147 in MEDLINE and from 456 to 271 in Embase.ConclusionsThe novel NICE health apps search filters retrieve evidence on apps from MEDLINE and Embase effectively and more efficiently than previous non-validated search strategies used at NICE.

scholarly journals Errors in search strategies used in systematic reviews and their effects on information retrieval

2019 ◽  
Vol 107 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
José Antonio Salvador-Oliván ◽  
Gonzalo Marco-Cuenca ◽  
Rosario Arquero-Avilés
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Search Strategies ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Free Text ◽  
Medical Subject Headings ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
Pubmed Search ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Mesh Database ◽  
Controlled Language

Objectives: Errors in search strategies negatively affect the quality and validity of systematic reviews. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate searches performed in MEDLINE/PubMed to identify errors and determine their effects on information retrieval.Methods: A PubMed search was conducted using the systematic review filter to identify articles that were published in January of 2018. Systematic reviews or meta-analyses were selected from a systematic search for literature containing reproducible and explicit search strategies in MEDLINE/PubMed. Data were extracted from these studies related to ten types of errors and to the terms and phrases search modes.Results: The study included 137 systematic reviews in which the number of search strategies containing some type of error was very high (92.7%). Errors that affected recall were the most frequent (78.1%), and the most common search errors involved missing terms in both natural language and controlled language and those related to Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) search terms and the non-retrieval of their more specific terms.Conclusions: To improve the quality of searches and avoid errors, it is essential to plan the search strategy carefully, which includes consulting the MeSH database to identify the concepts and choose all appropriate terms, both descriptors and synonyms, and combining search techniques in the free-text and controlled-language fields, truncating the terms appropriately to retrieve all their variants.

scholarly journals Portrayal of smoking in Nigerian online videos: a medium for tobacco advertising and promotion?

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adegoke Oloruntoba Adelufosi ◽  
Olukayode Abayomi
Keyword(s):  
Tobacco Use ◽  
English Language ◽  
Home Video ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
Home Videos ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
Cigarette Brand ◽  
Online Videos ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Specific Search

The Nigerian home video industry, popularly known as <em>Nollywood</em> is a booming industry, with increasing numbers of easily accessible online videos. The aim of this study was to analyse the contents of popular Nigerian online videos to determine the prevalence of smoking imageries and their public health implications. Using specific search terms, popular English language and indigenous Yoruba language, Nigerian home videos uploaded on <em>YouTube</em> in 2013 were identified and sorted based on their view counts. Data on smoking related scenes such as smoking incidents, context of tobacco use, depiction of cigarette brand, gender of smokers and film rating were collected. Of the 60 online videos whose contents were assessed in this study, 26 (43.3%) had scenes with cigarrete smoking imageries. The mean (SD) smoking incident was 2.7 (1.6), giving an average of one smoking incident for every 26 to 27 min of film. More than half (53.8%) of the films with tobacco use had high smoking imageries. An average of 2 characters per film smoked, mostly in association with acts of criminality or prostitution (57.7%) and alcohol use (57.7%). There were scenes of the main protagonists smoking in 73.1% of the films with scenes of female protagonists smoking (78.9%) more than the male protagonists (21.1%). Smoking imageries are common in popular Nigerian online movies. Given the wide reach of online videos, their potential to be viewed by people from different cultures and to negatively influence youngsters, it is important that smoking portrayals in online movies are controlled.

955 An Audit for Reviewing the Soft Food Bolus Obstruction - Optimum Intervention and Referral Direction

2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (Supplement_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
N Nargheese ◽  
T Peedika
Keyword(s):  
Patient Satisfaction ◽  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Clinical Governance ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Food Bolus ◽  
Suprasternal Notch ◽  
Surgical Interventions ◽  
Upper Gi ◽  
Complex Patient

Abstract Introduction Absolute dysphagia secondary to impacted soft food bolus in oesophagus can occur due to various reasons. Existing pathway was ENT if patient points above the suprasternal notch and GI if below or at the level of notch. Objectives To assess management in patients with soft food bolus dysphagia and reviewing old pathway. Method Data was collected via clinical governance, case notes on track and analysed overall pathway of patients and discussed with the consultants; Paid attention to patients requiring surgical interventions, compared the complications 0f OGD and rigidscopy. Also, effectiveness of Buscopan weighing its adverse effects. Results Total of 147 cases were included, 2 patients from upper GI being secondarily referred to ENT, 18 of ENT with GI, 3.8 of 19% complications has risk of perforations with Rigid scope. 2.6% had risk with OGD with no perforations. 2% needed OGD after rigid. 85% underwent intervention after Buscopan. Conclusions There is no compelling evidence for Buscopan - to be used only for patient satisfaction. Combining Multiple transfers & complex patient journeys causing delay for treatments with less complications of OGD, soft food bolus should be managed by local gastro/gen surgery teams who can provide timely appropriate intervention, ENT involvement only if airway or pharyngeal concern.

scholarly journals Examination of the Clinical Queries and Systematic Review “hedges” in EMBASE and MEDLINE

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan M. Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Major Error ◽  
National Library ◽  
Search Queries ◽  
Search Results ◽  
Quality Control Testing ◽  
Search Filters ◽  
The One ◽  
Clinical Queries

Introduction – This investigation sought to determine whether the methodological search filters in place as Clinical Queries limits in OvidSP EMBASE and OvidSP MEDLINE had been modified from those written by Haynes et al. and whether the translations of these in PubMed and EBSCO MEDLINE were reliable. The translated National Library of Medicine (NLM) Systematic Reviews hedges in place in OvidSP MEDLINE and EBSCO MEDLINE were also examined. Methods – Search queries were run using the Clinical Queries and Systematic Reviews hedges incorporated into OvidSP EMBASE, OvidSP MEDLINE, PubMed, and EBSCO MEDLINE to determine the reliability of these limits in comparison with the published hedge search strings. Results – Five of the OvidSP EMBASE Clinical Queries hedges produced results that were different from the published search strings. Three of the EBSCO MEDLINE and five of the PubMed translated Clinical Queries hedges yielded markedly different results (>10% difference) than those obtained using the OvidSP MEDLINE hedge counterparts. The OvidSP MEDLINE Systematic Reviews subject subset hedge was found to have a major error, which has been corrected. Discussion – Translations of hedges to appropriate syntax for other database platforms may result in significantly different search results. The platform searched should ideally be the one for which the hedges were written and tested. Regardless, the hedges in place may not be the same as the published hedge search strings. Quality control testing is needed to ensure that the hedges in place as limits are the same as those that have been published.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document