Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have recently become popular research themes. However, there are no published bibliometric reports that have analyzed the corresponding scientific ...literature in relation to the application of these technologies in medicine.
We used a bibliometric approach to identify and analyze the scientific literature on VR and AR research in medicine, revealing the popular research topics, key authors, scientific institutions, countries, and journals. We further aimed to capture and describe the themes and medical conditions most commonly investigated by VR and AR research.
The Web of Science electronic database was searched to identify relevant papers on VR research in medicine. Basic publication and citation data were acquired using the "Analyze" and "Create Citation Report" functions of the database. Complete bibliographic data were exported to VOSviewer and Bibliometrix, dedicated bibliometric software packages, for further analyses. Visualization maps were generated to illustrate the recurring keywords and words mentioned in the titles and abstracts.
The analysis was based on data from 8399 papers. Major research themes were diagnostic and surgical procedures, as well as rehabilitation. Commonly studied medical conditions were pain, stroke, anxiety, depression, fear, cancer, and neurodegenerative disorders. Overall, contributions to the literature were globally distributed with heaviest contributions from the United States and United Kingdom. Studies from more clinically related research areas such as surgery, psychology, neurosciences, and rehabilitation had higher average numbers of citations than studies from computer sciences and engineering.
The conducted bibliometric analysis unequivocally reveals the versatile emerging applications of VR and AR in medicine. With the further maturation of the technology and improved accessibility in countries where VR and AR research is strong, we expect it to have a marked impact on clinical practice and in the life of patients.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Social media has been extensively used for the communication of health-related information and consecutively for the potential spread of medical misinformation. Conventional systematic reviews have ...been published on this topic to identify original articles and to summarize their methodological approaches and themes. A bibliometric study could complement their findings, for instance, by evaluating the geographical distribution of the publications and determining if they were well cited and disseminated in high-impact journals.
The aim of this study was to perform a bibliometric analysis of the current literature to discover the prevalent trends and topics related to medical misinformation on social media.
The Web of Science Core Collection electronic database was accessed to identify relevant papers with the following search string: ALL=(misinformati* OR "wrong informati*" OR disinformati* OR "misleading informati*" OR "fake news*") AND ALL=(medic* OR illness* OR disease* OR health* OR pharma* OR drug* OR therap*) AND ALL=("social media*" OR Facebook* OR Twitter* OR Instagram* OR YouTube* OR Weibo* OR Whatsapp* OR Reddit* OR TikTok* OR WeChat*). Full records were exported to a bibliometric software, VOSviewer, to link bibliographic information with citation data. Term and keyword maps were created to illustrate recurring terms and keywords.
Based on an analysis of 529 papers on medical and health-related misinformation on social media, we found that the most popularly investigated social media platforms were Twitter (n=90), YouTube (n=67), and Facebook (n=57). Articles targeting these 3 platforms had higher citations per paper (>13.7) than articles covering other social media platforms (Instagram, Weibo, WhatsApp, Reddit, and WeChat; citations per paper <8.7). Moreover, social media platform-specific papers accounted for 44.1% (233/529) of all identified publications. Investigations on these platforms had different foci. Twitter-based research explored cyberchondria and hypochondriasis, YouTube-based research explored tobacco smoking, and Facebook-based research studied vaccine hesitancy related to autism. COVID-19 was a common topic investigated across all platforms. Overall, the United States contributed to half of all identified papers, and 80% of the top 10 most productive institutions were based in this country. The identified papers were mostly published in journals of the categories public environmental and occupational health, communication, health care sciences services, medical informatics, and medicine general internal, with the top journal being the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
There is a significant platform-specific topic preference for social media investigations on medical misinformation. With a large population of internet users from China, it may be reasonably expected that Weibo, WeChat, and TikTok (and its Chinese version Douyin) would be more investigated in future studies. Currently, these platforms present research gaps that leave their usage and information dissemination warranting further evaluation. Future studies should also include social platforms targeting non-English users to provide a wider global perspective.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The modern healthcare system is directly related to the development of digital health tools and solutions. Pills with digital sensors represent a highly innovative class of new pharmaceuticals. The ...aim of this work was to analyze the patent landscape and to systematize the main trends in patent protection of digital pills with ingestible sensors worldwide; accordingly, to identify the patenting leaders as well as the main prevailing areas of therapy for patent protection, and the future perspectives in the field. In July 2022, a search was conducted using Internet databases, such as the EPO, USPTO, FDA and the Lens database. The patent landscape analysis shows an increase in the number of patents related to digital pills with ingestible sensors for mobile clinical monitoring, smart drug delivery, and endoscopy diagnostics. The leaders in the number of patents issued are the United States, the European Patent Office, Canada, Australia, and China. The following main areas of patenting digital pills with ingestible sensors were identified: treatment in the field of mental health; HIV/AIDS; pain control; cardiovascular diseases; diabetes; gastroenterology (including hepatitis C); oncology; tuberculosis; and transplantology. The development of scientific and practical approaches towards the implementation of effective and safe digital pills will improve treatment outcomes, increase compliance, reduce hospital stays, provide mobile clinical monitoring, have a positive impact on treatment costs and will contribute to increased patient safety.
Open innovation in medical and pharmaceutical research has grown steadily over the last decade. However, the performance of the published literature in terms of the scientific impact and gaining ...social media attention remains largely unexplored. The scientific literature of open innovation was examined by means of bibliometric analyses to identify the most prolific authors, organizations, countries, journals, research areas, and recurring terms. By accessing the Web of Science Core Collection and Altmetric electronic databases, citation-related and Altmetric data were evaluated. Public-private partnerships and a selection of newly introduced potential novel drugs in the analyzed publications were identified. North America and Europe were the major literature contributors. Research outputs were mainly published in journals focused on business and economics, pharmacology and pharmacy, and engineering. Many pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies contributed to the analyzed publications, with higher mean citation counts and social media attention (Altmetric score) than nonindustry articles. Public-private partnerships fostered financial support, sharing of expertise and intellectual property, and research collaborations. In summary, open innovation might serve as a powerful strategy to both benefit the involved industry entities and accelerate the development of solutions and products for the betterment of human health.
BackgroundPatient and public involvement (PPI) in research is well-established in the UK. However, it can be challenging to introduce PPI to research communities where there is limited prior ...knowledge, experience or appreciation of PPI. We aimed to explore current PPI practices, experiences and ethical and operational challenges with PPI within our own research community in Austria, to inform strategies for supporting PPI in Austria going forward.MethodsWe surveyed scientists at 21 research institutes of the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft (LBG) and representatives of 32 medical and university research ethics committees in Austria using online questionnaires. We analysed quantitative data using descriptive statistics, and we collated textual responses to open questions. We combined survey data with anecdotal evidence from our personal experience to summarise current challenges around implementing PPI in Austria.ResultsNineteen scientists from nine research institutes indicated generally positive attitudes towards PPI. However, the majority reported they rarely or never involved patients and members of the public in roles of consultation, collaboration or control in research. Six of eight ethics committees were unfamiliar with PPI. We discern five current challenges to implementing PPI in Austria: lack of knowledge and skills for PPI among scientists, scepticism about the usefulness of PPI, conflation of PPI with qualitative research, uncertainty about ethical requirements for PPI and uncertainty about publishing PPI activities.DiscussionWe suggest that the provision of guidance about ethical requirements of PPI is a strategic priority. To address this, and following on from a recently introduced PPI training and grant scheme by the LBG, our surveys have initiated a dialogue with ethics committees and have informed the development of a checklist for ethical aspects of PPI.ConclusionOur experiences may provide useful examples to others who seek to introduce or strengthen PPI practices within their own research communities.
Digital pills are new technologies that aim to improve healthcare by increasing medication adherence. The aim of the work was a bibliometric analysis of clinical studies of digital pills and an ...assessment of the level of evidence of their effectiveness, safety, and prospects for the future.
The studies were conducted using online databases such as ClinicalTrials.gov, Dimensions, and Web of Science for the period January 2012 to July 2022. The VOSviewer tool for building and visualizing bibliometric networks was used.
Bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature revealed that over the past 10 years, the number of publications about digital pills has noticeably increased, which indicates the increasing importance of this field of knowledge. The leading positions in this area are occupied by scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom, and India. Sources of financial support for authors of publications in the field of digital pills are funds from leading developer companies, budget allocations, and funds from non-commercial organizations. Public-private partnerships are an important path to develop and implement digital pills. The four main clusters of digital pill studies were highlighted and visualized: efficacy and safety analysis for serious mental disorders; treatment and costs of tuberculosis therapy; features of the treatment of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and AIDS; and usage monitoring. Available publications demonstrate the efficacy potential and safety of digital pills. Nevertheless, the effects of digital pills have not yet been fully studied.
Priority areas for future research are further randomized controlled clinical trials and meta-analyses, which are necessary for a high level (I level) of evidence for therapeutic applications of digital pills, as well as pharmacoeconomic studies.
Aim
Centring on nursing homes, we analysed the implementation process of a tablet‐ and videoconferencing‐based telemedicine application from the perspectives of management, nursing staff and ...physicians.
Design
We used a qualitative design based on interviews to explore diverse perspectives on the implementation of telemedicine.
Methods
We conducted fourteen face‐to‐face or online interviews with a purposeful sample of five managers, six nurses and three general practitioners treating residents in Austrian nursing homes during the COVID‐19 pandemic. We condensed data using thematic analysis.
Results
Nursing home management implemented telemedicine rapidly, using a top‐down approach met with ambivalence by staff. On the part of nurses, their professional understanding of person‐centred care was challenged. Telemedicine also impacted cooperation between nurses and physicians, influencing their respective understanding of their roles. Working experience with digital nursing documentation had a positive effect on users' acceptance of the telemedicine solution.
Digital teaching in medical education has grown in popularity in the recent years. However, to the best of our knowledge, no bibliometric report to date has been published that analyzes this ...important literature set to reveal prevailing topics and trends and their impacts reflected in citation counts.
We used a bibliometric approach to unveil and evaluate the scientific literature on digital teaching research in medical education, demonstrating recurring research topics, productive authors, research organizations, countries, and journals. We further aimed to discuss some of the topics and findings reported by specific highly cited works.
The Web of Science electronic database was searched to identify relevant papers on digital teaching research in medical education. Basic bibliographic data were obtained by the "Analyze" and "Create Citation Report" functions of the database. Complete bibliographic data were exported to VOSviewer for further analyses. Visualization maps were generated to display the recurring author keywords and terms mentioned in the titles and abstracts of the publications.
The analysis was based on data from 3978 papers that were identified. The literature received worldwide contributions with the most productive countries being the United States and United Kingdom. Reviews were significantly more cited, but the citations between open access vs non-open access papers did not significantly differ. Some themes were cited more often, reflected by terms such as virtual reality, innovation, trial, effectiveness, and anatomy. Different aspects in medical education were experimented for digital teaching, such as gross anatomy education, histology, complementary medicine, medicinal chemistry, and basic life support. Some studies have shown that digital teaching could increase learning satisfaction, knowledge gain, and even cost-effectiveness. More studies were conducted on trainees than on undergraduate students.
Digital teaching in medical education is expected to flourish in the future, especially during this era of COVID-19 pandemic.
Objectives Telemedical applications are solutions to challenges in the healthcare system. However, it is unclear what intensive care unit healthcare professionals expect from such solutions. This ...study investigated the expectations and concerns of nurses and physicians when implementing telemedicine tools in intensive care units (tele-ICU). Methods The study was conducted in intensive care units in 2020 during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. It used a mixed-methods approach targeted at physicians and nurses and involved 14 qualitative interviews and 63 quantitative questionnaires. Results The qualitative and quantitative data showed that both nurses and physicians were willing to use tele-ICU. Nurses recognised the advantages of real-time access to expertise offered by tele-ICU, but feared this would reduce physicians’ on-site patient time. Physicians, in turn, were concerned that they would be expected to be continuously on call. The majority in both groups agreed that any tele-ICU solution must be simple to use and integrate easily into existing organisational structures, networks, and work routines. Additionally, COVID-19 significantly influenced expectations: those who reported having more personal health concerns during the pandemic were more predisposed to favour the use of tele-ICU. Conclusions Overall, tele-ICU supports better care, but a successful implementation depends on its ease of use and context-sensitive approaches. Effectively integrating tele-ICU solutions into daily clinical routines requires input from nurses and physicians and their involvement in the implementation process from the outset, as well as consideration of existing organisational structures. Such measures will vastly increase the chance of acceptance and successful adoption of telemedical solutions in clinical practice.
Medical errors represent a leading cause of patient morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to quantitatively analyze the existing scientific literature on medical errors in order to gain ...new insights in this important medical research area.
Web of Science database was used to identify relevant publications, and bibliometric analysis was performed to quantitatively analyze the identified articles for prevailing research themes, contributing journals, institutions, countries, authors, and citation performance.
In total, 12,415 publications concerning medical errors were identified and quantitatively analyzed. The overall ratio of original research articles to reviews was 8.1:1, and temporal subset analysis revealed that the share of original research articles has been increasing over time. The United States contributed to nearly half (46.4%) of the total publications, and 8 of the top 10 most productive institutions were from the United States, with the remaining 2 located in Canada and the United Kingdom. Prevailing (frequently mentioned) and highly impactful (frequently cited) themes were errors related to drugs/medications, applications related to medicinal information technology, errors related to critical/intensive care units, to children, and mental conditions associated with medical errors (burnout, depression).
The high prevalence of medical errors revealed from the existing literature indicates the high importance of future work invested in preventive approaches. Digital health technology applications are perceived to be of great promise to counteract medical errors, and further effort should be focused to study their optimal implementation in all medical areas, with special emphasis on critical areas such as intensive care and pediatric units.
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