Biomedical Library Research Articles

Effect of Animal-Assisted Activities on Symptoms and Emotions of Children with Neoplastic Disease: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND: Animal-assisted activities (AAAs) have long been present in pediatric oncology as a nonpharmacological intervention aimed at helping children cope with symptoms and negative emotions during hospitalization and antineoplastic treatment. Among the systematic reviews in the literature, there is a lack of one with meta-analysis that includes only RCTs centered on the effect of the intervention on symptoms and emotions in children with neoplastic disease. OBJECTIVE: To synthesize the effect of AAAs on symptoms and emotions of children with neoplastic disease. METHODS: Studies were searched from biomedical databases Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, AMED, sciELO, LILACS, CNKI, J-GLOBAL, J-STAGE, main trial registries and major sources of grey literature. Searching for useful documents took place from the inception of each resource until April 18, 2024. The risk of bias of included studies was assessed with RoB 2, and the overall effect size of the intervention was calculated by creating random-effects meta-analyses graphically represented by forest plots. The summary of findings was illustrated with a table in accordance with the GRADE method. RESULTS: Three parallel-group randomized controlled trials with low risk of bias were included (N = 151, mean age: 8.5-11.2 years). AAAs are promising for anxiety reduction (N = 134; SMD = -0.07 [95% CI: -0.40, 0.27], p > 0.05) and quality of life improvement (N = 84; SMD = -0.11 [95% CI: -0.53, 0.31], p > 0.05) in children and for anxiety reduction (N = 154; SMD = -0.50 [95% CI: -1.52, 0.52], p > 0.05) in parents/caregivers. The certainty/quality of evidence is low to very low. CONCLUSIONS: The effect of animal-assisted activities to reduce anxiety and improve the quality of life of children with neoplastic disease and to reduce parent/caregiver anxiety is small to moderate; however, the quality/certainty of evidence is very low to low. Therefore, further studies on the topic that overcome the current limitations need to be conducted in order to collect more robust data in favor of implementing the intervention in pediatric oncology.

A protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis of tuberculosis care around the time of pregnancy.

Tuberculosis is estimated to cause 1.5 million deaths annually and is most common during the reproductive years. Despite that fact, we found that tuberculosis screening, prevention or care recommendations for people around the time of pregnancy were absent from some national policy recommendations and varied in others. To address the apparent gaps and inconsistencies in policy, we aim to design a systematic review and meta-analysis of the original research evidence informing tuberculosis care around the time of pregnancy. With assistance from librarians at the Biomedical library of the University of Gothenburg, Pubmed, CINAHL and Scopus databases will be searched. Search terms will aim to identify studies generating original research evidence informing care for tuberculosis around the time of pregnancy. Evidence may include: the outcome of TB and/or of pregnancy; the cost-effectiveness or acceptability of any intervention; the sensitivity and specificity of any assessment, selection, diagnostic or test criterion. The output from these literature searches will be screened by two independent reviewers to select the eligible studies for inclusion. Discrepancies will be resolved with a third reviewer. Firstly, publications that provide contextual data will be tabulated, summarising their main contributions. Secondly, studies that provide evidence directly guiding patient care will be our focus and will be considered to be key. The key studies will be subject to quality assessment, data extraction and when possible, meta-analysis. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to guide policy, practice and future research priorities concerning tuberculosis care around the time of pregnancy.

PubMed, Clinicaltrials.gov: a critical analysis of new features after three years from the launch of the new release. Results from an interactive training course

Three years after the launch of the new release of the PubMed database and new platform for searching clinical trials "Clinicaltrials.gov", GIDIF Academy organized a course aimed at biomedical documentarians and librarians. These portals, with free access, are known to the scientific community as the reference for bibliographic research of information in scientific literature.
 In the classroom, the high motivation of the participants was further powered by the careful analysis of the modernization innovations proposed by the NLM for the two platforms.
 The speakers, interacting lively with the learners, highlighted the strengths and analysed the fragilities of the two systems with the aim of finding possible solutions to obtain effective and safe queries; finally, the collection of opinions offered ideas and room for improvement in the performance of the platforms themselves.

Which computable biomedical knowledge objects will be regulated? Results of a UK workshop discussing the regulation of knowledge libraries and software as a medical device.

To understand when knowledge objects in a computable biomedical knowledge library are likely to be subject to regulation as a medical device in the United Kingdom. A briefing paper was circulated to a multi-disciplinary group of 25 including regulators, lawyers and others with insights into device regulation. A 1-day workshop was convened to discuss questions relating to our aim. A discussion paper was drafted by lead authors and circulated to other authors for their comments and contributions. This article reports on those deliberations and describes how UK device regulators are likely to treat the different kinds of knowledge objects that may be stored in computable biomedical knowledge libraries. While our focus is the likely approach of UK regulators, our analogies and analysis will also be relevant to the approaches taken by regulators elsewhere. We include a table examining the implications for each of the four knowledge levels described by Boxwala in 2011 and propose an additional level. If a knowledge object is described as directly executable for a medical purpose to provide decision support, it will generally be in scope of UK regulation as "software as a medical device." However, if the knowledge object consists of an algorithm, a ruleset, pseudocode or some other representation that is not directly executable and whose developers make no claim that it can be used for a medical purpose, it is not likely to be subject to regulation. We expect similar reasoning to be applied by regulators in other countries.

Valproate-induced severe symptomatic hyponatremia in a patient with schizoaffective disorder: a case study and literature review

IntroductionThe syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion (SIADH) is a serious condition associated with persistently high ADH with water retention despite sufficient vascular volume. Sodium valproate (VPA), an antiepileptic indicated to treat bipolar disorder, blocks sodium (Na) and calcium ions. Few studies have examined the association between VPA and SIADH.ObjectivesThis abstract has two interrelated objectives: (1) to describe a VPA-associated SIADH case study we encountered in our clinical setting; and (2) to review literature for other VPA-associated SIADH cases to illuminate associations and possible risk factors.MethodsAfter recording a case from clinical experiences, we completed a literature review of other cases of hyponatremia associated with VPA.We reviewed resulting artticles from searches in PubMed and in the aggregate Dartmouth Biomedical Library indices with no date or language parameters. We then searched those articles’ bibliographies.ResultsMs. A is a 63-year-old woman with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, hospitalized for the resurgence of visual hallucinations (VH) of “monsters” asking her to hurt herself and others. She had been adherent to VPA (500mg twice daily) and non-adherent to prescribed Olanzapine (25mg). On Day 1 (D1), her labs were concerning for serum Na 119mEq/L (n=135-145), serum osmolality (SOsm) 264mEq/L (n=275-295), and inappropriately high urine osmolality 111mOsm/kg (n <100 mosmol/kg in hyponatremia) and urine Na 34mEq/L (n <20 mosmol/kg in hypovolemic hyponatremia). Her VPA level was 73.6 mcg/mL.She was restarted on her home psychiatric medications for VH, and her hyponatremia responded to water restriction, with serum osmolality at 292mEq/L by D4 (see Figure). She was admitted to the inpatient psychiatric unit for concerns of persistent VH. On D13, her SOsm worsened to 267mEq/L and VPA was discontinued at that time. On D19, SOsm improved to 283mEq/L. Her VH responded well to discontinuing VPA and adding Risperidone (titrated to 6mg) and on D22 she was discharged home. Given the chronological sequence of her newly developed VH, the patient’s hallucinations were likely multifactorial, with contribution from hyponatremic encephalopathy-related psychosis.Our literature review found ten articles reporting thirteen other cases of VPA-associated SIADH (see Table). Our patient shared demographics with most previously reported cases: being older in age and having polytherapy and a low baseline Na. None of the previous case reports showed specific drug interactions to be particularly likely causes of hyponatremia.Image:Image 2:ConclusionsAlthough VPA-associated SIADH is a rare phenomenon, caution is warranted when evaluating patients with VPA use presenting acutely with psychosis and hyponatremia. These symptoms could be the manifestation of hyponatremic encephalopathy-related psychosis.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

A protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis of tuberculosis care around the time of pregnancy

Background: Tuberculosis is estimated to cause 1.5 million deaths annually and is most common during the reproductive years. Despite that fact, we found that tuberculosis screening, prevention or care recommendations for people around the time of pregnancy were absent from some national policy recommendations and varied in others. Objectives: To address the apparent gaps and inconsistencies in policy, we aim to design a systematic review and potential meta-analysis of the original research evidence informing tuberculosis care around the time of pregnancy. Methods: With assistance from librarians at the Biomedical library of the University of Gothenburg, Pubmed, CINAHL and Scopus databases will be searched. Search terms will aim to identify studies generating original research evidence informing care for tuberculosis around the time of pregnancy. Two independent reviewers will screen and select for inclusion the eligible studies. Discrepancies will be resolved with a third reviewer. We anticipate triaging the eligible publications. Firstly, publications that provide contextual data will be tabulated, summarising their main contributions. Secondly, studies that provide evidence directly guiding patient care and have recently been systematically reviewed and meta-analysed will be tabulated with the recently published conclusions of the syntheses of their data. Thirdly, studies that provide evidence directly guiding patient care, but have not been the subject of recent systematic review and meta-analysis will be our focus and will be considered to be key. The key studies will be subject to quality assessment, data extraction and when possible, meta-analysis. Conclusions: This systematic review and potential meta-analysis aims to guide policy, practice and future research priorities concerning tuberculosis care around the time of pregnancy.

Expanding the Legacy: The National Library of Medicine Michael E. DeBakey Lecture in the History of Medicine.

In our 2021 article published in this journal, we described the development, historical significance, and impact of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Michael E. DeBakey fellowship in the History of Medicine. This article focuses on a key part of the fellowship, the NLM Michael E. DeBakey Lecture in the History of Medicine, by explaining how this annual program advances historical scholarship and promotes awareness of DeBakey's legacy and his support of the world's largest biomedical library, whose collections are appreciated by researchers worldwide. The annual DeBakey Lecture provides a platform for a selected DeBakey fellow to share and expand on their fellowship research, connecting that research and the fellow's story with a global audience through a videocast, a permanently and freely available archived lecture, a research-based blog post, and an associated blog interview. The lectures have covered topics about DeBakey himself, his influence on the world, and new research that reflects his historical interests. The library's support of this impactful program, like the Michael E. DeBakey fellowship overall, testifies to its commitment to expanding the legacy of DeBakey hand in hand with its commitment to serving scientists and society in the 21st century.

Roles of Library Research Institutions in Disseminating Research Publications: A Bibliometric Study

This study seeks to ascertain the distribution of research publications concerning the roles of libraries and librarians in research institutions listed in the Scopus database. A literature search uncovered 1637 articles on the subject. R-Bibliometrix (Biblioshiny) software was used to evaluate these publications in considerable detail. The findings indicated that Library Philosophy and Practice was the publication that published the most significant number of articles on the relevant themes, with Pandita R. being the most productive author. Scientometrics received the most citations (515), followed by The Journal of Academic Librarianship (410), College Research Libraries (399), and Library Management (317 times). The Journal of Academic Librarianship and Library Philosophy and Practice had the highest h-index scores, 9 and 7, respectively. The United States contributed the most to collaboration; of the 260 papers where 246 documents have collaborated across the country, and 14 papers collaborated with authors from several countries. The widely studied topics include libraries, medical libraries, library science, organization and management, librarian of biomedical research, scientific libraries, qualitative research, meta-analysis, systematic reviews, and Cochrane libraries

MedGraph: A semantic biomedical information retrieval framework using knowledge graph embedding for PubMed.

Here we study the semantic search and retrieval problem in biomedical digital libraries. First, we introduce MedGraph, a knowledge graph embedding-based method that provides semantic relevance retrieval and ranking for the biomedical literature indexed in PubMed. Second, we evaluate our approach using PubMed's Best Match algorithm. Moreover, we compare our method MedGraph to a traditional TF-IDF-based algorithm. Third, we use a dataset extracted from PubMed, including 30 million articles' metadata such as abstracts, author information, citation information, and extracted biological entity mentions. We pull a subset of the dataset to evaluate MedGraph using predefined queries with ground truth ranked results. To our knowledge, this technique has not been explored before in biomedical information retrieval. In addition, our results provide some evidence that semantic approaches to search and relevance in biomedical digital libraries that rely on knowledge graph modeling offer better search relevance results when compared with traditional methods in terms of objective metrics.

Evaluation of Domain-Specific Word Vectors for Biomedical Word Sense Disambiguation.

Among medical applications of natural language processing (NLP), word sense disambiguation (WSD) estimates alternative meanings from text around homonyms. Recently developed NLP methods include word vectors that combine easy computability with nuanced semantic representations. Here we explore the utility of simple linear WSD classifiers based on aggregating word vectors from a modern biomedical NLP library in homonym contexts. We evaluated eight WSD tasks that consider literature abstracts as textual contexts. Discriminative performance was measured in held-out annotations as the median area under sensitivity-specificity curves (AUC) across tasks and 200 bootstrap repetitions. We find that classifiers trained on domain-specific vectors outperformed those from a general language model by 4.0 percentage points, and that a preprocessing step of filtering stopwords and punctuation marks enhanced discrimination by another 0.7 points. The best models achieved a median AUC of 0.992 (interquartile range 0.975 - 0.998). These improvements suggest that more advanced WSD methods might also benefit from leveraging domain-specific vectors derived from large biomedical corpora.

Burch Procedure: A Historical Perspective.

The Burch procedure (1961) was considered the gold standard treatment for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) before the midurethral slings (MUSs) were introduced, in 2001. This historical perspective of the Burch's timeline can encourage urogynecological surgeons to master the Burch technique as one of the options for surgical treatment of SUI. A bibliographic search was performed in the PubMed and National Library of Medicine (NIH) databases with the terms Burch colposuspension AND history AND stress urinary incontinence in the last 20 years. The original article by Burch (1961) was included. The references were read by three authors. The exclusion criterion was studies in non-English languages. Biomedical Library Special Collections were included as historical relevant search. Some modifications of the technique have been made since the Burch procedure was first described. The interest in this technique has been increasing due to the negative publicity associated with vaginal synthetic mesh products. Twenty-nine relevant articles were included in the present review article, and numerous trials have compared Burch colposuspension with MUS. This historical perspective enables the scientific community to review a standardized technique for SUI. Burch colposuspension should be considered an appropriate surgical treatment for women with SUI, and an option in urogynecological training programs worldwide.

L’ISTITUTO DI FARMACOLOGIA DELL’UNIVERSITà DI MILANO DAL 1946 al 1980

The global pandemic of Covid-19 has caused enormous damage to scientific research by dramatically reducing the functionality of the institutions responsible for it and at the same time polarizing many lines of research toward solving the pandemic problems. This situation has similarities with what happened during the Second World War. In that case, the post-war recovery was intense, also bringing many changes in the methodology and motivations of scientific research. In this paper I analyzed, as a model of post-war rebirth, that of the Institute of Pharmacology of the University of Milan that became from a small laboratory a research and teaching institution based on human and scientific concepts that were innovative at the time. Its birth started in the years 1946-47, was favored by the collaboration between private and public institutions (the De Marchi Foundation, the University of Milan and the Municipality of Milan), was build by the scientists as a high-level, broad-based international study center, and formed the basis of a possible example of a university campus. The methodological and conceptual development of a new pharmacology and its growth in researchers and scientific purposes are outlined. The birth from this Institute of the Mario Negri Research Institute, of the School of Pharmacy of the University of Milan, of the Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology Center of the CNR and of the Lombardy Biomedical Library System is briefly described. The different reactions to a global damage brought to science and research in the post-war and post-pandemic periods are discussed.

L’ISTITUTO DI FARMACOLOGIA DELL’UNIVERSITA’ DI MILANO DAL 1946 AL 1980.

The global pandemic of Covid-19 has caused enormous damage to scientific research by dramatically reducing the functionality of the institutions responsible for it and at the same time polarizing many lines of research toward solving the pandemic problems. This situation has similarities with what happened during the Second World War. In that case, the post-war recovery was intense, also bringing many changes in the methodology and motivations of scientific research. In this paper I analyzed, as a model of post-war rebirth, that of the Institute of Pharmacology of the University of Milan that became from a small laboratory a research and teaching institution based on human and scientific concepts that were innovative at the time. Its birth started in the years 1946-47, was favored by the collaboration between private and public institutions (the De Marchi Foundation, the University of Milan and the Municipality of Milan), was build by the scientists as a high-level, broad-based international study center, and formed the basis of a possible example of a university campus. The methodological and conceptual development of a new pharmacology and its growth in researchers and scientific purposes are outlined. The birth from this Institute of the Mario Negri Research Institute, of the School of Pharmacy of the University of Milan, of the Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology Center of the CNR and of the Lombardy Biomedical Library System is briefly described. The different reactions to a global damage brought to science and research in the post-war and post-pandemic periods are discussed.

History with Heart-and Impact: The National Library of Medicine Michael E. DeBakey Fellowship in the History of Medicine.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) Michael E. DeBakey Fellowship in the History of Medicine is a unique program in a unique institution: the world’s largest biomedical library, which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The fellowship is rooted in strong connections between its namesake and the NLM and is an expression of Dr. Michael E. DeBakey’s longstanding appreciation of the library and the role of the humanities in medical education and practice. This article explains Dr. DeBakey’s connections to the NLM and describes the origins, development, and structure of the NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellowship in the History of Medicine. It also highlights research achievements of selected NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellows, demonstrating that the fellowship is successfully carrying forward Dr. DeBakey’s principles and practices of weaving science, technology, and the humanities to form holistic understanding of the human condition, inspiring well-rounded careers built on both scientific and humanistic knowledge.

Gloria Werner, 1940–2021

Gloria Werner, successor to Louise M. Darling at the UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, university librarian emerita, and eighteenth editor of the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, died on March 5, 2021, in Los Angeles. Before assuming responsibility in 1990 for one of the largest academic research libraries in the US, she began her library career as a health sciences librarian and spent twenty years at the UCLA Biomedical Library, first as an intern in the NIH/NLM-funded Graduate Training Program in Medical Librarianship in 1962–1963, followed by successive posts in public services and administration, eventually succeeding Darling as biomedical librarian and associate university librarian from 1979 to 1983. Werner's forty-year career at UCLA, honored with the UCLA University Service Award in 2013, also included appointments as associate university librarian for Technical Services. She was president of the Association of Research Libraries in 1997, served on the boards of many organizations including the Association of Academic Health Sciences Library Directors, and consulted extensively. She retired as university librarian in 2002.

The Never-Ending Evolutionary Saga of Assessing and Demonstrating the Value of Information Services in a Biomedical Library

Demonstrating added value can be very challenging, yet it is becoming important in academic libraries. The current literature primarily discusses citation analysis and usage reports to demonstrate return on investment for collections or impact on scholarly activity. However, value is not only in our collections but also in the library staff who support the institutional mission. Vanderbilt University’s Annette and Irwin Eskind Family Biomedical Library and Learning Center has been experimenting with several methods to supplement the collections data with services performed by the staff. This article discusses the project’s four phases as part of the goal to strategically demonstrate the biomedical library’s added value to the university and medical center.

Regional Innovation Systems of Medical Technology

We investigated the role of external funding in cardiovascular device innovation across 31 countries in Europe. We rely on the knowledge production function (KPF) framework that establishes the knowledge output of a region as a function of innovatory effort and other characteristics of that region. In a cross-sectional analysis, we investigated regional variation in knowledge production by the number of publications in cardiovascular device research obtained from the bibliometric data of the world’s largest biomedical library, the US National Library of Medicine, 2014‒2017. We mapped these publications to product categories of medical devices approved for cardiovascular diseases by the US Food and Drug Administration. Considering spatial correlation across regions of Europe in our estimates of the KPF, we investigated the impact of two types of funding mechanisms: grants reported in the publications and the volume of European Union Horizon 2020 funding received by the innovating regions. We obtained 123,487 cardiovascular device-related publications distributed across 1,051 (75% of total) regions (NUTS-3 level). Receiving external funding strongly contributes to a region’s knowledge output. The estimated elasticities of innovatory effort range between 0.51 and 0.64. These estimates were consistently larger than the elasticities of other characteristics in the region measured by gross domestic product (0.14‒0.56). We also documented spillover effects from neighboring regions when the funding was measured by the grants reported in the publications, concluding that innovatory efforts in the form of external research investments are effective for promoting innovation in the medical device industry at the regional level.

Creating community, learning together: Designing and delivering a program for staff professional development

Library staff development was a popular topic in the literature of the early 2000s, particularly as the professional duties of library staff shifted into the digital realm, but it seems to have been superseded in its popularity by other topics more recently (the most recent ALA data available on staff development funding is from 2001). My anecdotal experience and observation include many libraries in which professional development for librarians has been supported, funded, and encouraged, but where opportunities for nonlibrarian staff have been fewer and rarely required or expected. The subject of this article is a staff development program that was developed at the Dartmouth College Biomedical Libraries to encourage professional development for all staff and to respond to a period of intense change by bringing staff together within a supportive learning community.

The library's role in countering infodemics.

Internet and communication technologies enable the creation of tremendous amounts of textual, graphic, and pictorial information. User-generated content published through personal web pages, blogs, and social media platforms has not only increased the amount of information available, but also expanded its reach. However, this ubiquity of information and empowerment of its creators leads to potentially controversial, futile, and inaccurate content circulating throughout the world. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, this can create false hope, fear, anxiety, harm, and confusion amongst information stakeholders. The World Health Organization recently applied the term “infodemic” to the COVID-19 pandemic. This commentary briefly discusses the current infodemic, its potential consequences, and the role of libraries—specifically health sciences, biomedical, and medical libraries—to help counter the COVID-19 infodemic. The discussion also has relevance for infodemics relating to other health and non-health affairs.

Acting hot or not? Testing the citing to show-off hypothesis

PurposeCitation analysis as a method for studying scientific communication is frequently criticized for being based on biased citation practices. Questionable motives for the reference selection have been suggested including the claim that authors tend to cite hot papers in order to show-off. In this study, the authors investigate the claim that authors tend to cite the recent literature in order to show-off.Design/methodology/approachFollowing Moed and Garfield (2004), the authors investigate the claim by analyzing the proportion of recent references as a function of the length of the reference lists of citing papers. The authors analyze reference lists of citing papers in the fields of biomedical engineering, economics, medicine, psychology and library and information science between 2010 and 2019. From each of these fields, a number of journals are included in the analysis to represent the field. In total, 42 journals are included in the analyses comprising a selection of almost 65,000 journal articles. The proportion of recent references is calculated using two citation windows. The proportion of recent references as a function of the length of the reference lists is calculated through simple linear regressions to predict the share of recent references based on the number of references.FindingsThe results of the linear regressions indicate that in most cases, there are a statistically significant relationship between the share of recent references and the number of references. This study’s results show that when authors display selective referencing behavior, references to the recent literature tend to be only marginally increased, and some results even display the opposite tendency (marginally overciting the older literature).Originality/valueThis study of the claim that authors tend to cite the recent literature in order to show-off does not confirm the hypothesis.