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Introduction: Peer review, a cornerstone of academia, promotes rigor and relevance in scientificpublishing. As educators are encouraged to adopt a more scholarly approach to medical education,peer review is becoming increasingly important. Junior educators both receive the reviews of theirpeers, and are also asked to participate as reviewers themselves. As such, it is imperative for juniorclinician educators to be well-versed in the art of peer reviewing their colleagues’ work. In thisarticle, our goal was to identify and summarize key papers that may be helpful for faculty membersinterested in learning more about the peer-review process and how to improve their reviewing skills. Methods: The online discussions of the 2016-17 Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM)Faculty Incubator program included a robust discussion about peer review, which highlighted anumber of papers on that topic. We sought to augment this list with further suggestions by guestexperts and by an open call on Twitter for other important papers. Via this process, we created a listof 24 total papers on the topic of peer review. After gathering these papers, our authorship groupengaged in a consensus-building process incorporating Delphi methods to identify the papers thatbest described peer review, and also highlighted important tips for new reviewers. Results: We found and reviewed 24 papers. In our results section, we present our authorshipgroup’s top five most highly rated papers on the topic of peer review. We also summarize thesepapers with respect to their relevance to junior faculty members and to faculty developers. Conclusion: We present five key papers on peer review that can be used for faculty development fornovice writers and reviewers. These papers represent a mix of foundational and explanatory papersthat may provide some basis from which junior faculty members might build upon as they both undergothe peer-review process and act as reviewers in turn.

Papers describing software are an important part of computational fields of scientific research. These “software papers” are unique in a number of ways, and they require special consideration to improve their impact on the scientific community and their efficacy at conveying important information. Here, we discuss 10 specific rules for writing software papers, covering some of the different scenarios and publication types that might be encountered, and important questions from which all computational researchers would benefit by asking along the way., Author summary Computational researchers have a responsibility to ensure that the software they write stands up to the same scientific scrutiny as traditional research studies. These 10 simple rules make doing so easier by enhancing usability, reproducibility, transparency, and other crucial characteristics that aren’t taught in most computer science or research methods curricula.

The evidence suggests that mentoring is one of useful teaching methods in academic medicine but it is not clear for which outcome mentoring is effective. In this study, the authors investigated the number of original research articles that the participants had published in peer-reviewed English-language journals (as a first or a corresponding author) within one year prior to investigation and what characteristics of the participants who published at least one paper would be like compared to those who did not. In March 2015, the authors recruit early- and mid-career Japanese physicians (238 men and 240 women; mean age 40.6 years old) in a web survey. In total, 23.9% of physicians had published at least one original research article as a first author, 10.0% had published as a corresponding author, and 23.4% had a research mentor. A multivariate logistic regression model adjusting for variables selected at p < 0.15 in univariable models showed that even after adjusting for their motivation levels for clinical research, physicians with a research mentor [odds ratio (OR) 6.68; 95% confidence interval (CI), 3.74-11.93], physicians who obtained DMSc, roughly equivalent to PhD in the West (OR, 2.17; 95% CI, 1.26-3.72), and physicians who worked at teaching hospitals (OR 6.39; 95% CI, 2.54-16.04) were more likely to publish an original paper in a peer-reviewed journal. Having a research mentor or DMSc is associated with an experience of successfully publishing original papers in peer-reviewed journals for young and mid-career physician-researchers.

The efficacy of leveraging telehealth services on clinical outcomes remains scarcely documented. We conducted a rapid review to explore the effectiveness of telehealth interventions for the diagnosis, contact tracing and care of the corona virus disease of 2019 in sub Saharan Africa. Using MEDLINE, Science Direct and Cochrane Library databases, a review was conducted during the month of July 2020 of peer reviewed articles reporting on the use of telehealth interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. All the studies were assessed against the inclusion criteria by two independent reviewers. The 7 studies included in the synthesis were conducted in 2 countries [Nigeria (× 1), Zimbabwe (× 1)], and commentaries covering the entire sub Saharan Africa in general (× 4) and to Uganda (× 1). All the included articles and commentaries were published in 2020. We established that mobile applications are effective in providing information for referrals of potential patients infected by COVID 19 and provides convenient access to routine care without the risk of exposure through close contact. In countries such as Nigeria, mobile positioning data significantly improved decision making, capacity and scope of contact tracing and surveillance of known contacts of confirmed cases. We noted that collaborations between the government, mobile network operators and technology companies were utilised for successful mobile positioning data tracing interventions for COVID patients. Mobile applications such as the Vula platform in South Africa were also noted as effective in providing psychological support to health care workers attending to patients.

Background Patients who suffer from different diseases may use different electronic health (eHealth) resources. Thus, those who plan eHealth interventions should take into account which eHealth resources are used most frequently by patients that suffer from different diseases. Objective The aim of this study was to understand the associations between different groups of chronic diseases and the use of different eHealth resources. Methods Data from the seventh survey of the Tromsø Study (Tromsø 7) were analyzed to determine how different diseases influence the use of different eHealth resources. Specifically, the eHealth resources considered were use of apps, search engines, video services, and social media. The analysis contained data from 21,083 participants in the age group older than 40 years. A total of 15,585 (15,585/21,083; 73.92%) participants reported to have suffered some disease, 10,604 (10,604/21,083; 50.29%) participants reported to have used some kind of eHealth resource in the last year, and 7854 (7854/21,083; 37.25%) participants reported to have used some kind of eHealth resource in the last year and suffered (or had suffered) from some kind of specified disease. Logistic regression was used to determine which diseases significantly predicted the use of each eHealth resource. Results The use of apps was increased among those individuals that (had) suffered from psychological problems (odds ratio [OR] 1.39, 95% CI 1.23-1.56) and cardiovascular diseases (OR 1.12, 95% CI 1.01-1.24) and those part-time workers that (had) suffered from any of the diseases classified as others (OR 2.08, 95% CI 1.35-3.32). The use of search engines for accessing health information increased among individuals who suffered from psychological problems (OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.25-1.55), cancer (OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.11-1.44), or any of the diseases classified as other diseases (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.13-1.42). Regarding video services, their use for accessing health information was more likely when the participant was a man (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.13-1.53), (had) suffered from psychological problems (OR 1.70, 95% CI 1.43-2.01), or (had) suffered from other diseases (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.20-1.71). The factors associated with an increase in the use of social media for accessing health information were as follows: (had) suffered from psychological problems (OR 1.65, 95% CI 1.42-1.91), working part time (OR 1.35, 95% CI 0.62-2.63), receiving disability benefits (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.14-1.76), having received an upper secondary school education (OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.03-1.38), being a man with a high household income (OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.07-2.60), suffering from cardiovascular diseases and having a high household income (OR 3.39, 95% CI 1.62-8.16), and suffering from respiratory diseases while being retired (OR 1.95, 95% CI 1.28-2.97). Conclusions Our findings show that different diseases are currently associated with the use of different eHealth resources. This knowledge is useful for those who plan eHealth interventions as they can take into account which type of eHealth resource may be used for gaining the attention of the different user groups.

Background Parents seek trustworthy information online to promote healthy eating for their toddlers. Such information must be perceived as relevant and easy to implement and use. Objective The objectives of this study were to conduct a process evaluation of the electronic health (eHealth) intervention (Food4toddlers) targeting food environment, parental feeding practices, and toddlers’ diet and to examine possible differences in these areas according to education and family composition. Methods A 2-armed randomized controlled trial, including 298 parent–toddler dyads from Norway, was conducted in 2017. In total, 148 parents in the intervention group received access to an intervention website for 6 months. Data on website usage were retrieved from the learning management platform used (NEO). Participants’ satisfaction with the intervention was asked for in a postintervention questionnaire. Chi-square and t tests were used to examine differences in usage and satisfaction between education and family composition groups. Results Most participants were mothers (144/148, 97.2%), lived in two-adult households (148/148, 100%), and were born in Norway (132/148, 89.1%). Mean parental age was 31.5 years (SD 4.2). More than 87.8% (129/147) had a university education degree and 56.5% (83/147) had over 4 years of university education. Most (128/148, 86.5%) intervention participants entered the website at least once (mean days of access 7.4 [SD 7.1]). Most parents reported the website as appropriate to the child’s age (71/83, 86%) and self-explanatory (79/83, 95%) and appreciated the interface (52/83, 63%) and layout (46/83, 55%). In total, 61% (51/83) stated that they learned something new from the intervention. Parents with over 4 years of university education and in 1-child households used the intervention website more than those with 4 years or less of university education (8.4 vs 5.9 days in total, P=.04) and households with more than 1 child (8.3 vs 5.8 days in total, P=.04), respectively. Conclusions The Food4toddlers intervention website was found to be relevant by most participants in the intervention group, although usage of the website differed according to educational level and family composition. For eHealth interventions to be effective, intervention materials such as websites must be used by the target group. Our results highlight the need to include users from different groups when developing interventions. Trial Registration ISRCTN Registry ISRCTN92980420; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN92980420

Background The internet is being widely used for seeking health information. However, there is no consensus on the association between health information seeking on the internet and the use of health care services. Objective We examined the association between health information seeking via the internet and physician visits. In addition, we investigated the association between online health information seeking and the decisions to visit and not to visit a physician. Methods We used the cross-sectional electronic health (eHealth) data of 18,197 participants from the seventh survey of the Tromsø Study (Tromsø 7). The participants were aged ≥40 years and living in Tromsø, Norway. We used logistic regression models to examine the association between online health information seeking and physician visits, the decision to visit a physician, and the decision not to visit a physician, with adjustment for the demographic status, socioeconomic status, and health status of the participants. Results The use of Web search engines was associated with a physician visit. However, the association was moderated by age, and the OR decreased as age increased. The ORs for the use of Web search engines were 1.99 (95% CI 1.94-2.02) and 1.07 (95% CI 1.03-1.12) at ages 40 and 80 years, respectively. The decision to visit a physician was associated with the use of Web search engines (OR 2.95, 95% CI 2.03-4.46), video search engines (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.21-1.70), and health apps (OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.13-1.42). The association between social media use and the decision to visit a physician was moderated by gender. Women who used social media had 1.42 (95% CI 1.31-1.55) times higher odds of deciding to visit a physician, whereas the decision to visit a physician was not different between men who used social media and those who did not use social media. Conversely, the decision not to visit a physician was associated with the use of Web search engines (OR 2.78, 95% CI 1.92-4.18), video search engines (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.07-1.51), social media (OR 1.28, 95% CI 1.10-1.49), and health apps (OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.07-1.35). Conclusions Health information found on the internet was positively associated with both the decision to visit a physician and the decision not to visit a physician. However, the association of health information seeking with the decision to visit a physician was slightly stronger than the association with the decision not to visit a physician. This could imply that the use of eHealth services is associated with a resultant increase in physician visits. In summary, our findings suggest that the internet serves as a supplement to health care services rather than as a replacement.

The following article, Hansen, A.H., Brož, J., Claudi, T. & Årsand, E. (2018). Relations between the use of electronic health and the use of general practitioner and somatic specialist visits in patients with type 1 diabetes: Cross-sectional study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 20(11), can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.2196/11322. Background: The prevalence of diabetes and the use of electronic health (eHealth) are increasing. People with diabetes need frequent monitoring and follow-up of health parameters, and eHealth services can be of great value. However, little is known about the association between the use of eHealth and provider-based health care services among people with diabetes. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the use of 4 different eHealth platforms (apps, search engines, video services, and social media sites) and associations with the use of provider-based health care visits among people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Methods: We used email survey data collected from 1250 members of the Norwegian Diabetes Association (aged 18 to 89 years) in 2018. Eligible for analyses were the 523 respondents with T1DM. Using descriptive statistics, we estimated the use of eHealth and the use of general practitioners (GPs) and somatic specialist outpatient services. By logistic regressions, we studied the associations between the use of these provider-based health services and the use of eHealth, adjusted for gender, age, education, and self-rated health. Results: Of the sample of 523 people with T1DM, 90.7% (441/486) had visited a GP once or more, and 61.0% (289/474) had visited specialist services during the previous year. Internet search engines (such as Google) were used for health purposes sometimes or often by 84.0% (431/513), apps by 55.4% (285/514), social media (such as Facebook) by 45.2% (232/513), and video services (such as YouTube) by 23.3% (118/506). Participants aged from 18 to 39 years used all forms of eHealth more than people aged 40 years and older, with the exception of social media. The use of search engines was positively associated with the use of somatic specialist services (odds ratio 2.43, 95% CI 1.33-4.45). GP visits were not associated with any kind of eHealth use. Conclusions: eHealth services are now widely used for health support and health information by people with T1DM, primarily in the form of search engines but often in the form of apps and social media as well. We found a positive association between the use of search engines and specialist visits and that people with T1DM are frequent users of eHealth, GPs, and specialist services. We found no evidence that eHealth reduces the use of provider-based health care; these services seem to be additional rather than alternative. Future research should focus on how health care services can meet and adapt to the high prevalence of eHealth use. Our results also indicate that many patients with T1DM do not visit specialist clinics once a year as recommended. This raises questions about collaboration in health care services and needs to be followed up in future research.

Background The electronic health record (EHR) has been fully established in all Norwegian hospitals. Patient-accessible electronic health records (PAEHRs) are available to citizens aged 16 years and older through the national health portal Helsenorge. Objective This study aimed at understanding how patients use PAEHRs. Three research questions were addressed in order to explore (1) characteristics of users, (2) patients’ use of the service, and (3) patient experience with the service. Methods We conducted an online survey of users who had accessed their EHR online at least once through the national health portal. Patients from two of the four health regions in Norway were invited to participate. Quantitative data were supplemented by qualitative information. Results A total of 1037 respondents participated in the survey, most of whom used the PAEHR regularly (305/1037, 29.4%) or when necessary (303/1037, 29.2%). Service utilization was associated with self-reported health, age, gender, education, and health care professional background. Patients found the service useful to look up health information (687/778, 88.3%), keep track of their treatment (684/778, 87.9%), prepare for a hospital appointment (498/778, 64.0%), and share documents with their general practitioner (292/778, 37.5%) or family (194/778, 24.9%). Most users found it easy to access their EHR online (965/1037, 93.1%) and did not encounter technical challenges. The vast majority of respondents (643/755, 85.2%) understood the content, despite over half of them acknowledging some difficulties with medical terms or phrases. The overall satisfaction with the service was very high (700/755, 92.7%). Clinical advantages to the patients included enhanced knowledge of their health condition (565/691, 81.8%), easier control over their health status (685/740, 92.6%), better self-care (571/653, 87.4%), greater empowerment (493/674, 73.1%), easier communication with health care providers (493/618, 79.8%), and increased security (655/730, 89.7%). Patients with complex, long-term or chronic conditions seemed to benefit the most. PAEHRs were described as useful, informative, effective, helpful, easy, practical, and safe. Conclusions PAEHRs in Norway are becoming a mature service and are perceived as useful by patients. Future studies should include experimental designs focused on specific populations or chronic conditions that are more likely to achieve clinically meaningful benefits. Continuous evaluation programs should be conducted to assess implementation and changes of wide-scale routine services over time.

Background: Information from ratings sites are increasingly informing patient decisions related to health care and the selection of physicians. Objective: The current study sought to determine the validity of online patient ratings of physicians through comparison with physician peer review. Methods: We extracted 223,715 reviews of 41,104 physicians from 10 of the largest cities in the United States, including 1142 physicians listed as “America’s Top Doctors” through physician peer review. Differences in mean online patient ratings were tested for physicians who were listed and those who were not. Results: Overall, no differences were found between the online patient ratings based upon physician peer review status. However, statistical differences were found for four specialties (family medicine, allergists, internal medicine, and pediatrics), with online patient ratings significantly higher for those physicians listed as a peer-reviewed “Top Doctor” versus those who were not. Conclusions: The results of this large-scale study indicate that while online patient ratings are consistent with physician peer review for four nonsurgical, primarily in-office specializations, patient ratings were not consistent with physician peer review for specializations like anesthesiology. This result indicates that the validity of patient ratings varies by medical specialization.

Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 30.05.2017. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Background: Adequate self-management is the cornerstone of type 2 diabetes treatment, as people make the majority of daily treatment measures and health decisions. The increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and the complexity of diabetes self-management demonstrate the need for innovative and effective ways to deliver self-management support. eHealth interventions are promoted worldwide and hold a great potential in future health care for people with chronic diseases such as T2DM. However, many eHealth interventions face high dropout rates. This led to our interest in the experiences of participants who dropped out of an eHealth intervention for adults with T2DM, based on the Guided Self-Determination (GSD) counseling method. Objective: In this study, we aimed to explore experiences with an eHealth intervention based on GSD in general practice from the perspective of those who dropped out and to understand their reasons for dropping out. To the best of our knowledge, no previous qualitative study has focused on participants who withdrew from an eHealth self-management support intervention for adults with T2DM. Methods: A qualitative design based on telephone interviews was used to collect data. The sample comprised 12 adults with type 2 diabetes who dropped out of an eHealth intervention. Data were collected in 2016 and subjected to qualitative content analysis. Results: We identified one overall theme: “Losing motivation for intervention participation.” This theme was illustrated by four categories related to the participants’ experiences of the eHealth intervention: (1) frustrating technology, (2) perceiving the content as irrelevant and incomprehensible, (3) choosing other activities and perspectives, and (4) lacking face-to-face encounters. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that the eHealth intervention based on GSD without face-to-face encounters with nurses reduced participants’ motivation for engagement in the intervention. To maintain motivation, our study points to the importance of combining eHealth with regular face-to-face consultations. Our study also shows that the perceived benefit of the GSD eHealth intervention intertwined with choosing to focus on other matters in complex daily lives are critical aspects in motivation for such interventions. This indicates the importance of giving potential participants tailored information about the aim, the content, and the effort needed to remain engaged in complex interventions so that eligible participants are recruited. Finally, motivation for engagement in the eHealth intervention was influenced by the technology used in this study. It seems important to facilitate more user-friendly but high-security eHealth technology. Our findings have implications for improving the eHealth intervention and to inform researchers and health care providers who are organizing eHealth interventions focusing on self-management support in order to reduce dropout rates.

Background: Audio and video podcasts have gained popularity in recent years. Increasingly, podcasts are being used in the field of medicine as a tool to disseminate information. This format has multiple advantages including highly accessible creation tools, low distribution costs, and portability for the user. However, despite its ongoing use in medical education, there are no data describing factors associated with the success or quality of podcasts. Objective: The goal of the study was to assess the landscape of anesthesia podcasts in Canada and develop a methodology for evaluating the quality of the podcast. To achieve our objective, we identified the scope of podcasts in anesthesia specifically, constructed an algorithmic model for measuring success, and identified factors linked to both successful podcasts and a peer-review process. Methods: Independent reviewers performed a systematic search of anesthesia-related podcasts on iTunes Canada. Data and metrics recorded for each podcast included podcast’s authorship, number posted, podcast series duration, target audience, topics, and social media presence. Descriptive statistics summarized mined data, and univariate analysis was used to identify factors associated with podcast success and a peer-review process. Results: Twenty-two podcasts related to anesthesia were included in the final analysis. Less than a third (6/22=27%) were still active. The median longevity of the podcasts’ series was just 13 months (interquartile range: 1-39 months). Anesthesiologists were the target audience for 77% of podcast series with clinical topics being most commonly addressed. We defined a novel algorithm for measuring success: Podcast Success Index. Factors associated with a high Podcast Success Index included podcasts targeting fellows (Spearman R=0.434; P=.04), inclusion of professional topics (Spearman R=0.456-0.603; P=.01-.03), and the use of Twitter as a means of social media (Spearman R=0.453;P=.03). In addition, more than two-thirds (16/22=73%) of podcasts demonstrated evidence of peer review with podcasts targeting anesthesiologists most strongly associated with peer-reviewed podcasts (Spearman R=0.886; P=.004) Conclusions: We present the first report on the scope of anesthesia podcasts in Canada. We have developed a novel tool for assessing the success of an anesthesiology podcast series and identified factors linked to this success measure as well as evidence of a peer-review process for a given podcast. To enable advancement in this area of anesthesia e-resources, podcast creators and users should consider factors associated with success when creating podcasts. The lack of these aspects may be associated with the early demise of a podcast series. [JMIR Med Educ 2016;2(2):e14]

الملخص: عادة ما تكون المقالات ما قبل الطباعة بمثابة مقدمة أولية لأوراق تمت مراجعتها من قِبل النظراء ويتم وضعها على الفور تقريبا، باستثناء بعض الفحص السطحي، في مستودع وصول مفتوح للجمهور للسماح للمعلومات بالوصول إلى القراء بسرعة، والتغلب على الخمول المرتبط عادة بالمعالجة بطريقة المجلات التي تعتمد على مراجعة الأقران. بالنسبة للباحثين في بداية حياتهم المهنية الذين قد يكونون متحمسين للحصول على بعض التقدير لجهودهم، أو الرغبة في الحصول على مدخلات مفتوحة وعلنية حول عملهم، فإن النشر قبل الطباعة هو بالتأكيد خيار نشر مفيد. ومع ذلك، إذا لم يتم فحص البيانات والمعلومات المتعلقة بالصحة بعناية، فقد تشكل خطرا، وقد تعمل أيضا كمصدر لمعلومات مضللة عن الصحة العامة. تشير زيادة النمو والمنافسة بين خوادم ما قبل الطباعة، إلى جانب حجم هائل من المطبوعات المسبقة المتعلقة بـ كوفيد-١٩، وخاصة على خادم ما قبل الطباعة لعلم الأحياء، وخادم ما قبل الطباعة للعلوم الطبية، بالإضافة إلى تحديد الفهرسة التي يتم اختبارها الآن على موقع بوب ميد، إلى أن المطبوعات المسبقة يتم استخدامها بشكل متزايد في العلوم الطبية الحيوية. وهناك حاجة إلى سياسات أخلاقية أقوى وأكثر قوة لفحص المطبوعات المسبقة قبل نشرها للجمهور، وحتى إذا كان هذا يعني تأخيرا طفيفا في النشر، فقد يؤدي ذلك إلى زيادة ثقة الأكاديميين في هذا الشكل من المعلومات العلمية والتواصل. يجب تقديم سياسات أخلاقية واضحة وصارمة بشكل عاجل من قبل مجموعات الأخلاقيات مثل لجنة أخلاقيات النشر، واللجنة الدولية لمحرري المجلات الطبية للمجلات الأعضاء التي تسمح بنشر مقالات ما قبل الطباعة قبل مراجعة النظراء التقليدية. ستفيد الإرشادات الأخلاقية الصارمة التي تتعامل مع سوء السلوك على قدم المساواة في مقالات ما قبل الطباعة والأبحاث التي راجعها النظراء، ستفيد نزاهة النشر الأكاديمي. Abstract: Preprints are typically crude precursors of peer-reviewed papers that are placed almost immediately, save for some superficial screening, on an open-access repository to allow the information to reach readers quickly, circumventing the long-drawn process typically associated with processing in peer-reviewed journals. For early-career researchers who might be enthusiastic about obtaining some recognition for their efforts, or wanting open and public input about their work, preprints are certainly a useful publication choice. However, if health-related data and information have not been carefully scrutinised, they may pose a risk and may even serve as a source of public health misinformation. Surging growth and competition among preprint servers, coupled with a massive volume of COVID-19-related preprints, mainly on bioRxiv and medRxiv, as well as select indexing now being tested on PubMed, suggests that preprints are being increasingly used in the biomedical sciences. Stronger and more robust ethical policies are needed to screen preprints before they are released to the public, and even if this implies a slight delay in publication, it may increase academics' trust in this form of scientific information and communication. Clear and stringent ethical policies need to be urgently introduced by ethics groups such as COPE and the ICMJE, whose many member journals allow preprints to be posted before traditional peer review. Stringent ethical guidelines that treat misconduct equally in preprints and peer-reviewed papers will boost the integrity of academic publishing.

IntroductionPrevious reviews of mobile messaging for individuals with musculoskeletal pain have shown positive effects on pain and disability. However, the configuration of digital content, method of presentation and interaction, dose and frequency needed for optimal results remain unclear. Patient preferences concerning such systems are also unclear. Addressing these knowledge gaps, incorporating evidence from both experimental and observational studies, may be useful to understand the extent of the relevant literature, and to influence the design and outcomes of future messaging systems. We aim to map information that could be influential in the design of future mobile messaging systems for individuals with musculoskeletal pain conditions, and to summarise the findings of efficacy, effectiveness, and economics derived from both experimental and observational studies.Methods and analysisWe will include studies describing the development and/or use of mobile messaging to support adults (≥18 years) with acute or chronic musculoskeletal pain. We will exclude digital health studies that lack a mobile messaging component, or those targeted at other health conditions unrelated to the bones, muscles and connective tissues, or involving surgical or patients with cancer, or studies involving solely healthy individuals. Our sources of information will be online databases and reference lists of relevant papers. We will include papers published in English in the last 10 years. Two pairs of independent reviewers will screen, select and extract the data, with any disagreements mediated by a third reviewer. We will report the results according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews checklist. We will synthesise the findings in a tabular format and provide a descriptive summary.Ethics and disseminationFormal ethical approval is not required. We will disseminate the findings through publication in a peer-reviewed journal, relevant conferences, and relevant consumer forums.Trial registrationOpen Science Framework https://osf.io/8mzya; DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/8MZYA.

Introduction Writing a thesis or dissertation during a postgraduate medical or surgical training is a part of curriculum, which is considered a major component of training during residency. We aimed to analyze and find out the fate of thesis of our residents, their outcome, and impact. We have also evaluated the reasons for not publishing the thesis in a peer-reviewed paper. Methods This study was conducted at a neurosurgical department of a premier training institute. PubMed and Google Scholar were searched for the topics of thesis and names of residents to find out whether any paper was published similar to topic of thesis. The faculties and residents were also personally contacted to evaluate the publication status of their thesis. A questionnaire was sent to the students who did not publish their thesis to find out the reasons for not submitting for publication. Results Total 56 residents submitted 85 thesis. The conversion rate to peer-reviewed publication was 32.5%. There was decreasing trend of conversion to publication over 10 years. The most common reasons for not publishing was a bad design of study, or deemed worthless for publication. Conclusion Conversion rate of thesis to paper is poor. In addition to writing thesis, candidates should be encouraged to have publications in indexed journal as full-length articles. Such publications carry more significance in long-term career of a resident.

Background Productive faculty are key to generating new knowledge and advancing pharmacy practice. The work environments of academic pharmacists are critical to their vitality, commitment, and longevity. Objectives To (1) identify correlates of faculty scholarly productivity and teaching effectiveness, considering personal and environmental characteristics; (2) determine the relationship between a faculty's perception of organizational citizenship behaviors they witness with the organizational culture of their employing college/school of pharmacy; and (3) describe the relationship between organizational climate, job satisfaction, and commitment of academic pharmacists. Methods A self-administered survey was disseminated to a random sample of U.S. academic pharmacists acquired from AACP list-servs. The survey measured perceptions of their organization's culture, the organizational citizenship behaviors they witness at their institution, their job satisfaction, teaching load and productivity, and scholarly productivity based upon peer-reviewed scholarly papers accepted. Both bivariate and multivariate (regression) procedures were employed to identify factors most responsible for explaining academic pharmacist's work environment. Results Responses were received from 177 of 600 survey recipients. Faculty reported having had accepted 10.9 ± 13.6 papers in peer-reviewed journals during the previous 5 years, with most of those in journals with relatively low Impact Factor scores. Faculty productivity was related to type of academic institution employed, teaching effectiveness, job satisfaction, and other factors. Organizational citizenship behaviors and organizational culture was seen similarly by faculty of varied ranks and experience levels. Commitment to remain at the current college/school of pharmacy was highly associated with culture, climate, and job satisfaction conditions. Conclusions The results provided evidence for a strong connection or nexus between teaching and research effectiveness. Organizational culture of academic pharmacy programs is highly important for faculty vitality and commitment. The findings should be helpful for academic leaders in devising programs for mentoring, development, and retention of faculty.

Background: This paper explores telemonitoring/mhealth approaches as a promising real time and contextual strategy in overhauling HIV and TB interventions quality access and uptake, retention,adherence and coverage impact in endemic and prone-epidemic prevention and control in sub-Sahara Africa. Methods: The scoping review method was applied in acknowledged journals indexing platforms including Medline, Embase, Global Health, PubMed, MeSH PsycInfo, Scopus and Google Scholar to identify relevant articles pertaining to telemonitoring as a proxy surrogate method in reinforcing sustainability of HIV/TB prevention/treatment interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. Full papers were assessed and those selected that fosters evidence on telemonitoring/mhealth diagnosis, treatment approaches and strategies in HIV and TB prevention and control were synthesized and analyzed. Results: We found telemonitoring/mhealth approach as a more efficient and sustained proxy in HIV and TB risk reduction strategies for early diagnosis and prompt quality clinical outcomes. It can significantly contribute to decreasing health systems/patients cost, long waiting time in clinics, hospital visits, travels and time off/on from work. Improved integrated HIV and TB telemonitoring systems sustainability hold great promise in health systems strengthening including patient centered early diagnosis and care delivery systems, uptake and retention to medications/services and improving patients’ survival and quality of life. Conclusion: Telemonitoring/mhealth (electronic phone text/video/materials messaging)acceptability, access and uptake are crucial in monitoring and improving uptake, retention,adherence and coverage in both local and national integrated HIV and TB programs and interventions. Moreover, telemonitoring is crucial in patient-providers-health professional partnership, real-time quality care and service delivery, antiretroviral and anti-tuberculous drugs improvement, susceptibility monitoring and prescription choice, reinforcing cost effective HIV and TB integrated therapy model and survival rate.

Peer review of scholarly papers is seen to be a critical step in the publication of high quality outputs in reputable journals. However, it appears that there are few incentives for researchers to agree to conduct suitable reviews in a timely fashion and in some cases unscrupulous practices are occurring as part of the production of academic research output. Innovations in internet-based technologies mean that there are ways in which some of the challenges can be addressed. In particular, this paper proposes a new currency system using the BlockChain as its basis that provides a number of solutions. Potential benefits and problems of using the technology are discussed in the paper and these will need further investigation should the idea develop further. Ultimately, the currency could be used as an alternative publication metric for authors, institutions and journals.

In recent years however, more re-identification attacks have been attempted by researchers elsewhere in the world.Further findings are that most research in this area has been conducted on Global datasets by American researchers. The publication of increasing amounts of anonymised open source data has resulted in a worryingly rising number of successful re-identification attacks. This has a number of privacy and security implications both on an individual and corporate level.This paper uses a systematic literature review to investigate the depth and extent of this problem as reported in peer reviewed literature. Using a detailed protocol,seven research portals were explored, 10,873 database entries were searched, from which a subset of 220 papers were selected for further review. From this total, 55 papers were selected as being within scope and to be included in the final review.The main review findings are that 72.7% of all successful re-identification attacks have taken place since 2009. Most attacks use multiple datasets. The majority of them have taken place on global datasets such as social networking data, and have been conducted by US based researchers. Furthermore, the number of datasets can be used as an attribute.Because privacy breaches have security, policy and legal implications (e.g. data protection, Safe Harbor etc.), the work highlights the need for new and improved anonymisation techniques or indeed, a fresh approach to open source publishing.

After participating in a group peer-review exercise at a workshop presented by Academic Medicine and MedEdPORTAL editors at the 2015 Association of American Medical Colleges Medical Education Meeting, the authors realized that the way their work group reviewed a manuscript was very different from the way by which they each would have reviewed the paper as an individual. Further, the group peer-review process yielded more robust feedback for the manuscript's authors than did the traditional individual peer-review process. This realization motivated the authors to reconvene and collaborate to write this Commentary to share their experience and propose the expanded use of group peer review in medical education scholarship.The authors consider the benefits of a peer-review process for reviewers, including learning how to improve their own manuscripts. They suggest that the benefits of a team review model may be similar to those of teamwork and team-based learning in medicine and medical education. They call for research to investigate this, to provide evidence to support group review, and to determine whether specific paper types would benefit most from team review (e.g., particularly complex manuscripts, those receiving widely disparate initial individual reviews). In addition, the authors propose ways in which a team-based approach to peer review could be expanded by journals and institutions. They believe that exploring the use of group peer review potentially could create a new methodology for skill development in research and scholarly writing and could enhance the quality of medical education scholarship.

Published version. Source at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2016.09.039 The implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) in developing countries is considered a means for improving data quality and high quality care. However, existing research, indicate that EHRs have recorded greater quantity of bad data instead of improving the quality of data. The reasons for this is not exactly clear. Accordingly, this paper takes a broader socio-technical approach to explore the issues in more detail. The paper explores the relationship between EHRs and quality at the Pentecost Hospital Madina-Ghana by using an interpretative research approach. The result of our study indicates that the EHRs introduced at the hospital have so far had limited effect on data quality and that context-related challenges are the major pitfalls identified in the study. Based on a socio- technical approach the paper discusses the need to; consider users and technology as intertwined, how technology changes practice and how it formalizes roles and responsibilities in the process, why it requires collaborative work and why realistic goals as opposed to exaggerated expectation

Summary Background: This accompanying editorial is an introduction to the focus theme of “chronic disease registries - trends and challenges”. Methods: A call for papers was announced on the website of Methods of Information in Medicine in April 2016 with submission deadline in September 2016. A peer review process was established to select the papers for the focus theme, managed by two guest editors. Results: Three papers were selected to be included in the focus theme. Topics range from contributions to patient care through implementation of clinical decision support functionality in clinical registries; analysing similar-purposed acute coronary syndrome registries of two countries and their registry-to- SNOMED CT maps; and data extraction for speciality population registries from electronic health record data rather than manual abstraction. Conclusions: The focus theme gives insight into new developments related to disease registration. This applies to technical challenges such as data linkage and data as well as data structure abstraction, but also the utilisation for clinical decision making.

Background Journal editors have exercised their control over submitted papers having a high similarity index. Despite widespread suspicion of possible plagiarism on a high similarity index, our study focused on the real effect of the similarity index on the value of a scientific paper. Methods This research examined the percent values of the similarity index from 978 submitted (420 published) papers in the Korean Journal of Anesthesiology since 2012. Thus, this study aimed to identify the correlation between the similarity index and the value of a paper. The value of a paper was evaluated in two distinct phases (during a peer-review process vs. after publication), and the value of a published paper was evaluated in two aspects (academic citation vs. social media appearance). Results Yearly mean values of the similarity index ranged from 16% to 19%. There were 254 papers cited at least once and 179 papers appearing at least once in social media. The similarity index affected the acceptance/rejection of a paper in various ways; although the influence was not linear and the cutoff measures were distinctive among the types of papers, both extremes were related to a high rate of rejection. After publication, the similarity index had no effect on academic citation or social media appearance according to the paper. Conclusions The finding suggested that the similarity index no longer had an influence on academic citation or social media appearance according to the paper after publication, while the similarity index affected the acceptance/rejection of a submitted paper. Proofreading and intervention for finalizing the draft by the editors might play a role in achieving uniform quality of the publication.

Malaria is a leading cause of death in Nigeria and remains a public health concern because of the increasing resistance of the disease to antimalarial drugs. Pregnant women and children under five years of age are the most vulnerable. Efforts to eradicate malaria is often frustrated due to some various sociodemographic factors and medical factors. One of the vital therapeutic factors is misdiagnosis. Hence, the paper applied different data mining models to diagnose malaria using fifteen symptoms of patients that attended a hospital in Nigeria. The data were obtained from a peer reviewed data article that comprises 337 subjects at Federal Polytechnic Ilaro Medical Centre, Ogun State. The independent variables are 15 symptoms, age, and sex, while the target or dependent is the outcome. The outcome is the result of the diagnosis, which is positive for negative for malaria. Eight machine learning tools were applied to the data on the Orange Software platform. Weak non-significant correlations were obtained between the 15 symptoms and the outcome, and hence no pattern was observed. However, the application of data mining tools revealed a hidden pattern that correctly predicted the outcome using the subjects' symptoms, age, and sex. 6 out of the 8 machine learning models were adjudged to perform well using different performance metrics. The Adaptive boosting model gave a percent 100% precision in the classification, and logistic regression was the least. Furthermore, a percent performance of Adaboost implies that the model correctly predicted all the 221 true negatives and 116 true positives with a misclassification (misdiagnosis) of zero. Classify using only the 15 symptoms reduced the predictive accuracy of the 6 models. Nevertheless, Adaboost performance was the best with a classification accuracy of 98.2%, precision of 96.6%, and an error rate of just 1.8%. Again, logistic regression performance was the least. The present work has presented a strong relationship between age and sex and the outcome. Adaboost model can be used to design decision support systems or rapid diagnostic tools that utilise the internet or mobile devices as platforms in the diagnosis of malaria. The application of the present work as potentials in reduction of misdiagnosis incidences, reducing the mortality due to malaria and improving the overall public health of people residing in malaria endemic areas.

Accepted manuscript version, licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Final version published in International Journal of Medical Informatics, 129, 253-259, is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2019.06.011. Background: Qualitative studies have provided important insights into how hospital pharmacists’ work changes when electronic medication management (EMM) systems are introduced. Quantitative studies of work practice change are rare. Despite the use of EMM systems internationally, there are no cross-country comparative studies of their impact on health professionals’ work. We aimed to quantify and compare the type and magnitude of changes in hospital pharmacists’ work pre- and post-EMM implementation in two countries. Methods: Parallel, direct observational, time and motion studies of pharmacists in Australia and England pre- and post-EMM implementation. 20 pharmacists were observed: 9 in an Australian 440-bed hospital (155 h); and 11 pharmacists in a 500-bed English hospital (258 h). The Work Observation Method By Activity Timing (WOMBAT) software was used to collect observational data. Proportions of observed time in 11 tasks by study period (pre- versus post-EMM) and site, time spent with others or alone, and using different tools (e.g computers, paper) were calculated. Magnitude of changes between pre- and post-EMM by task and country were determined using z-tests for proportions adjusting for multiple testing. Results: At baseline, Australian and English pharmacists spent the greatest proportion of time in medication review. Post-EMM, time in medication review (Australia 21.6%–27.5%; England 27.1%–33.8%) and history-taking (Australia 7.6%–13.3%; England 19.5%–28.9%) significantly increased. Despite country differences in these tasks at baseline, the magnitude of changes did not significantly differ. English pharmacists increased time engaged in medication discussions with patients post-EMM (from 5.9% to 10.8%; p = 0.01). The Australian rate did not change (18.0%–27.2%; p = 0.09), but was higher at baseline. Post-EMM, Australian pharmacists spent 63.4% of time working alone, compared to 92.0% for English pharmacists. Conclusions: EMM systems impacted the same core areas of work and had a similar magnitude of effect on pharmacists’ work in both countries. Anticipated reductions in medication review and history taking were not observed.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought changes to the way medical care is delivered to keep health workers safe while simultaneously managing available resources. The well-being of patients and healthcare workers is crucial and has become a topic of debate as the world faces adjusts to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, there is need to consider innovative methods of delivering medical care. Telehealth and digital health care which is the provision of medical care via Information Communication Technology (ICT) with highspeed telecommunications systems, has increasingly becoming popular in providing medical care services can be adopted to reduce infections during quarantine and social distancing practices. Specifically, by means of document and literature review this paper discusses the role of telehealth and digital care solutions, types and application of telehealth, and current policies for COVID-19. More importantly, findings from the article present the human, infrastructure, and institutional determinants that influence the adoption of telehealth and digital care solutions during the pandemic. The findings discuss how telehealth and digital care technologies can benefit the society. This study provides implications to informs medical staffs on the potential of digital technologies to provide support during and after the pandemic.

Social determining factors such as the adverse influence of globalization, supermarket growth, fast unplanned urbanization, sedentary lifestyle, economy, and social position slowly develop behavioral risk factors in humans. Behavioral risk factors such as unhealthy habits, improper diet, and physical inactivity lead to physiological risks, and &ldquo, obesity/overweight&rdquo, is one of the consequences. &ldquo, Obesity and overweight&rdquo, are one of the major lifestyle diseases that leads to other health conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cancer, diabetes type II, hypertension, and depression. It is not restricted within the age and socio-economic background of human beings. The &ldquo, World Health Organization&rdquo, (WHO) has anticipated that 30% of global death will be caused by lifestyle diseases by 2030 and it can be prevented with the appropriate identification of associated risk factors and behavioral intervention plans. Health behavior change should be given priority to avoid life-threatening damages. The primary purpose of this study is not to present a risk prediction model but to provide a review of various machine learning (ML) methods and their execution using available sample health data in a public repository related to lifestyle diseases, such as obesity, CVDs, and diabetes type II. In this study, we targeted people, both male and female, in the age group of &gt, 20 and &lt, 60, excluding pregnancy and genetic factors. This paper qualifies as a tutorial article on how to use different ML methods to identify potential risk factors of obesity/overweight. Although institutions such as &ldquo, Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)&rdquo, and &ldquo, National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE)&rdquo, guidelines work to understand the cause and consequences of overweight/obesity, we aimed to utilize the potential of data science to assess the correlated risk factors of obesity/overweight after analyzing the existing datasets available in &ldquo, Kaggle&rdquo, University of California, Irvine (UCI) database&rdquo, and to check how the potential risk factors are changing with the change in body-energy imbalance with data-visualization techniques and regression analysis. Analyzing existing obesity/overweight related data using machine learning algorithms did not produce any brand-new risk factors, but it helped us to understand: (a) how are identified risk factors related to weight change and how do we visualize it? (b) what will be the nature of the data (potential monitorable risk factors) to be collected over time to develop our intended eCoach system for the promotion of a healthy lifestyle targeting &ldquo, obesity and overweight&rdquo, as a study case in the future? (c) why have we used the existing &ldquo, UCI&rdquo, datasets for our preliminary study? (d) which classification and regression models are performing better with a corresponding limited volume of the dataset following performance metrics?

[Excerpt] By March 2020, while the entire planet Earth was entering a dark time of pandemia, we communicated in this editorial the trends of J Optom in different bibliometric indices including Impact Factor, SCImago Journal Rank ing, H-index, CiteScore and Source Normalized Impact per Paper. (1) More recently the CiteScore has been reviewed by Else vier to mitigate some short-term trends and J Optom raised even further in its score from 1.65 to 2.3.2 Accord ing to Scoups, this new calculation enforces credibility of the score by only considering peer-review publications, considering a longer window of 4 years instead of 3 and considering the more recent citations in the year of calculation.3 This is only an aspect of the impact of the journal that has increased steadily as it continues to con solidate through different milestones achieved over the last years (4). [...], (undefined)

The purpose of this study is to identify factors associated with effective peer-assisted learning (PAL) for nursing students. This review examined studies on PAL in nursing education. The literature was searched using terms including ‘nursing & peer assisted learning,’ ‘nursing & peer learning,’ and ‘nursing & peer teaching.’ Potentially relevant research on PAL was identified, and 12 studies were determined to meet the inclusion criteria. This review includes five qualitative, three mixed-methods, and three experimental studies published on the topic. In the studies reviewed, practicum classes were found to use PAL the most. Students of the same age were most commonly the subjects of PAL, as indicated in six papers. PAL has been suggested to affect participants’ knowledge, self-efficacy, confidence, and anxiety. The findings indicate that interactions between peers promote learning and lead to mutually positive responses, which provide opportunities for self-development. Finally, students’ learning outcomes improve and their confidence in their knowledge and skills increases as they experience the role of student nurse. These findings indicate that PAL can be utilized as an efficient learning method in nursing education programs. However, effective strategies for using PAL to achieve learning objectives and maximize learning outcomes are needed.

Health care information systems play an important role for communication across the organizational borders of health care services. The electronic health record represents the main entity in the management, exchange and storage of medical information. Health care organizations must adopt strategies for security and privacy risks associated with access to health care information systems, but on the other hand, the information needs to be accessible and readable for authorized health care professionals carrying out patient treatment. This paper presents a literature review on security management in health care information systems. The aim was to analyze descriptions and definitions of information security policy, access control management and the usability of security solutions.

Health care services are facing challenges with a growing ageing population prone to chronic conditions and multi-morbidities. Telemedicine applications have the potential to enhance patient’s safety at home by monitoring of chronic diseases, promoting coping and independence. The research project Patients and Professionals in Productive Teams aims to study patient-centered teamwork across organizational borders, supported by technology. This paper describes the research agenda for a study on how telemedicine follow-up impacts on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients’ quality of life and possible effects on patient empowerment, in the health region of Southern Norway. The outcome is expected to describe how telemedicine can be carried out and implemented in daily routines together with a patient-centred health care team with the aim to increase patient safety.

The Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) has gained popularity as a new technology for e-Health, and is considered as one of the key research areas in computer science and healthcare applications. WBAN collects patients’ data, monitors constantly their physiological parameters, using small implantable or wearable sensors, and communicates these data using wireless communication techniques in short range. WBAN is playing a huge role in improving the quality of healthcare. Still, due to sensitive and concurrent nature of e-Heath systems, current research has showed that designers must take into considerations the security and privacy protection of the data collected by a WBAN to safeguard patients from different exploits or malicious attacks, since e-Health technologies are increasingly connected to the Internet via wireless communications. In this paper we outline the most important security requirements for WBANs. Furthermore, we discuss key security threats to avoid. Finally, we conclude with a summary of security mechanisms to follow that address security and privacy concerns of WBANs, and need to be explored in an increasingly connected healthcare world. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Publication and Journals at UBT Knowledge Center.

Peer-reviewed publications focusing on climate change are growing exponentially with the consequence that the uptake and influence of individual papers varies greatly. Here, we derive metrics of narrativity from psychology and literary theory, and use these metrics to test the hypothesis that more narrative climate change writing is more likely to be influential, using citation frequency as a proxy for influence. From a sample of 732 scientific abstracts drawn from the climate change literature, we find that articles with more narrative abstracts are cited more often. This effect is closely associated with journal identity: higher-impact journals tend to feature more narrative articles, and these articles tend to be cited more often. These results suggest that writing in a more narrative style increases the uptake and influence of articles in climate literature, and perhaps in scientific literature more broadly.

Silvia Allikmets,1 Jasper P Vink2 1King’s College London School of Medicine, 2Imperial College London School of Medicine, London, UKIn their article, Fujiwara et al1 discussed the effect of peer-led training of basic life support in the education of medical students. As the training of medical students is a continuously dynamic and developing field, such statistically significant information is useful to consider when improving medical teaching programs. While we agree with the conclusions drawn by Fujiwara et al,1 we suggest that peer-led teaching is superior to conventional (eg, professor-led) learning methods in medical education, providing benefits for students, tutors, and their faculties.View original paper by Fujiwara and colleagues.&nbsp