Search

Background: Integrated care is an increasingly important principle for organising healthcare. Integrated care models show promise in reducing resource wastage and service fragmentation whilst improving the accessibility, patient-centredness and quality of care for patients. Those needing reliable access to the growing research evidence base for integrated care can be frustrated by search challenges reflective of the topic's complexity. The aim of this study is to report the empirical development and validation of two search filters for rapid and effective retrieval of integrated care evidence in PubMed. One filter is optimised for recall and the other for precision.Methods: An Expert Advisory Group comprising international integrated care experts guided the study. A gold standard test set of citations was formed from screening Handbook Integrated Care chapter references for relevance. This set was divided into a Term Identification Set (20%) for determining candidate terms using frequency analysis; a Filter Development Set (40%) for testing performance of term combinations; and a Filter Validation Set (40%) reserved for confirming final filter performance. In developing the high recall filter, recall was steadily increased while maintaining precision at ≥50%. Similarly, the high precision filter sought to maximise precision while keeping recall ≥50%. For each term combination tested, an approximation of precision was obtained by reviewing the first 100 citations retrieved in Medline for relevance.Results: The gold standard set comprised 534 citations. The search filter optimised for recall ('Broad Integrated Care Search') achieved 86.0-88.3% recall with corresponding low precision (47-53%). The search filter optimised for precise searching ('Narrow Integrated Care Search') demonstrated precision of 73-95% with recall reduced to between 55.9 and 59.8%. These filters are now available as one-click URL hyperlinks in the website of International Foundation for Integrated Care.Conclusions: The Broad and Narrow Integrated Care Search filters provide potential users, such as policy makers and researchers, seamless, reliable and ongoing access to integrated care evidence for decision making. These filters were developed according to a rigorous and transparent methodology designed to circumvent the challenges of information retrieval posed by this complex, multifaceted topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Integrated care IC is a multifaceted concept, with a vast range of overlapping terminologies. Bibliometric analyses have demonstrated the evidence base for IC is diffuse. Peer-reviewed research is published in a range of journals which are indexed in bibliographic databases with subject coverage extending beyond health. A significant amount of relevant IC literature is found outside conventional publishing channels in the grey literature. Thus, practitioners and researchers face significant challenges to finding relevant IC literature. To address the issues associated with retrieving integrated care literature, an IC search filter, badged as Integrated Care Search ICS, was developed. A search filter is an evidence-based search strategy with a known level of retrieval effectiveness. Various "value adding" products were also developed to enhance the effectiveness and usability of the search filter. Methods: Following a well-established experimental methodology [1], and informed by bibliometric analyses and consultation with an established Expert Advisory Group EAG, ICS was developed and validated for use in PubMed. Additionally, a research librarian translated the validated search filter for use in other databases, and developed a guide for searching the grey literature for content relevant to IC. Finally, input from the EAG was solicited via survey to guide the development of relevant topic searches to be combined with the search filter to further refine results. Results: Given the challenges associated with IC literature retrieval, two versions of the validated search filter were developed. ICS Narrow enables more precise searching, whereas ICS Broad enables more sensitive searching. Supplementary topic searches covering care settings, populations, geographic regions and facets of IC are provided, to enable more focused searching by end-users. Both search filters were translated for use in other databases including: Medline Ovid, Embase Ovid, PsycINFO Ovid, CINAHL EBSCOhost, Cochrane Library Wiley, Scopus, Web of Science, and ProQuest. Finally, step-by-step instructions for searching for relevant IC grey literature were developed. These products are available on an interim site https://www.caresearch.com.au/caresearch/tabid/4757/Default.aspx, and it is planned that they will be moved to the IFIC website in time for launch at ICIC18. Discussion: ICS and its associated value-adding products provide end users with the ability to locate difficult-to-retrieve published and unpublished IC literature. Conclusions: A flexible approach to database searching using a combination of keyword and subject headings is required for optimal retrieval of the published IC literature across a range of databases. Lessons learned: The polymophous nature of IC necessitated the development of not one but two validated search filters, and an additional suite of products, including guidance for IC grey literature retrieval. Limitations: The envisioned functionality of the search filters has not been fully achieved, as they are currently hosted on an interim site. Suggestions for future research: Further research studies could include an evaluation of the impact of Integrated Care Search on end-user satisfaction with retrievals and search confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Evidence from quality research is vital for demonstrating the effectiveness of integrated care in reducing health care fragmentation. Locating that evidence should be a crucial precursor to its use in informed policy making and organisational reform. Finding integrated care research may, however, present challenges due to a multiplicity of definitions and frameworks, and relevance across a range of sectors, organisations, and professional groups. Understanding difficulties in finding integrated care evidence could aid in the development of practical measures to make it more visible. This might include customised repositories, search tools, or strategies for improving dissemination. Bibliometric analysis is one method for examining published literature relevant to a field of research or practice. It is particularly useful for mapping complex, fluid and diffuse fields such as integrated care. This study builds on and extends a previous bibliometric analysis by Sun[1] by investigating: the growth of the integrated care literature; the core journals in which it is published; the combination of bibliographic databases required to find the majority of the literature; and the value of the PubMed standardized term Medical Subject Heading for retrieving it. Methods: The broad term 'Integrated care' was searched across the title, abstract, and subject heading fields within PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE Ovid, PsycINFO Ovid, EconLit Ovid and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. The citations retrieved were analysed for frequency by year and country of publication, author, journal name, natural language terms, and subject headings. In addition, the performance of the Medical Subject Heading MeSH term 'Delivery of Health Care, Integrated' was tested by asking an advisory group of integrated care experts n=8 to each screen a set of 100 citations retrieved by this heading and indicating relevance of each. Results: A wide range of terms and journal titles contribute to the integrated care body of evidence and multiple databases provide access to a significant number of unique citations beyond PubMed. Furthermore, Interrater agreement was low on the relevance of citations retrieved by PubMed's main integrated care MeSH term. Discussion: This study confirms the diffuse nature of the integrated care research literature and highlights factors that may make it inherently difficult to find via search mechanisms. This includes a lack of consensus between experts as to the relevance of literature retrieved by its main indexing term in PubMed. Conclusions: Our findings suggest a need for search solutions to enhance the identification and, by extension, utilisation, of the integrated care literature. Limitations: The use of the single broad term 'integrated care' to find citations across databases was a pragmatic approach to finding a core set of literature for analysis. We acknowledge that integrated care is described by a variety of terms and this approach would not find a substantial subset of relevant citations. Suggestions for future research: Following this study, an integrated care search filter was developed for finding the literature in PubMed. Other practical tools for finding integrated care literature are advocated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This workshop is an interactive demonstration of a validated search filter which has been developed to assist clinicians and managers in locating published research on integrated care. The presenters will give a brief overview of the project and the methodology used. They will demonstrate the beta version of the search filter and invite comment and feedback from the audience. Attendees are encouraged to share their experiences in locating the peer-reviewed literature on IC, including specific questions on aspects of IC for which evidence is sought. Integrated care (IC) is a prime driver of healthcare policy and practice reform internationally as governments and healthcare organisations endeavour to enhance efficiencies and patientcentred care. It is, however, a multifaceted concept, with a vast range of overlapping terminologies, and arguably lacks a unifying definition [1]. Search filters represent one innovative solution to this problem, by enabling brokered access to the underlying evidence base for rapid utilisation. Methods: The International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC), Central Coast Local Health District (NSW), The University of Newcastle (NSW), and Flinders Filters, Flinders University (SA)[2] collaborated to create an IC search filter (or "search strategy") with known retrieval effectiveness in the PubMed Database, using a well-established experimental methodology[3]. Results: An IC search filter with a known level of sensitivity has been developed and validated for PubMed. This filter will be combined with a range of topics of interest to the IC community for more focused retrieval. These topics will include patient-centred care; health and social care integration; and chronic disease management. The search filter, badged as Integrated Care Search, will be made available on the IFIC website at https://integratedcarefoundation.org/. Discussions: IC is a polymorphous topic with contextually different meanings. Despite inherent complexities, under the guidance of international experts, it was possible to develop and validate a search filter which is capable of retrieving PubMed indexed IC literature at multiple levels of granularity through simple, one-click links. In tegrated Care Search will improve the ease, speed, and accuracy by which IC evidence is found. End-users can rely on the fact that it comprises a range of core IC concept terms, comprehensively identified and tested in a set of literature deemed of importance by IC experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]