Researchers' And Medical Student' Experience in Reference Management Software in a Low-Income Country.

INTRODUCTION: Although the use of Reference Management Software (RMS) is increasing in developed countries, they seem to be unknown and less used in low-income countries. AIM: To discover the major trends in the use of RMS among researchers and Ph.D. students in Tunisia, as a low-income country. METHODS: A hardcopy survey was filled out by researchers and Ph.D. students during an educational seminar at the faculty of medicine of Sfax in 2016 with the aim to collect qualitative data to determine the participants' knowledge and use of RMS. RESULTS: The survey collected 121 participants, among them, 53.7% know RMS. Mendeley proved to be the best-known software (41.5%), followed by Zotero (35.3%) and Endnote (23%). Training sessions in RMS were taken by 5% of participants. Among the 121 participants, 26.5%of them use RMS., Mendeley was the most used (46.9%), followed by EndNote (28.1%) and Zotero (25%). The most commonly popular feature in RMS is inserting citations (66.9%). Therefore, the analysis, of the reasons behind the choice of RMS proves that the software was used because it is convenient (38.4%),  most known (38.4%),  easy (30.7%), or suggested by colleagues (30.7%). The free and open-source software was preferred by 81% of the participants. g. However, 50.4% ignore the fact that Zotero is free. Several types and sources of captured citations were unknown by 53.8% and 59% of the rest of the participants. CONCLUSION: The results clearly show that the lack of awareness about RMS in Tunisia is due to the absence of a formal training. As a result, the need for such training is highly important for researchers to be able to benefit from the different advantages of RMS while conducting their academic medical education.

Social media creates significant risks for nursing.

As nurses' use of social media becomes prevalent, nurse leaders continue to struggle with how best to embrace this communications platform while protecting the confidentiality of patient data. Nursing leadership must move decisively to balance its social media policies and practices against the need for information to move quickly and efficiently across the continuum of care.

Career transition and dental school faculty development program.

Academic dentistry, as a career track, is not attracting sufficient numbers of new recruits to maintain a corps of skilled dental educators. The Faculty Development Program (FDP) at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Dental School received federal funds to institute a 7-component program to enhance faculty recruitment and retention and provide training in skills associated with success in academics including:(1) a Teaching Excellence and Academic Skills (TExAS)Fellowship, (2) training in research methodology,evidence-based practice research, and information management, (3) an annual dental hygiene faculty development workshop for dental hygiene faculty, (4) a Teaching Honors Program and Academic Dental Careers Fellowship to cultivate students' interest in educational careers, (5) an Interprofessional Primary Care Rotation,(6) advanced education support toward a master's degree in public health, and (7) a key focus of the entire FDP, an annual Career Transition Workshop to facilitate movement from the practice arena to the educational arm of the profession.The Career Transition Workshop is a cap stone for the FDP; its goal is to build a bridge from practice to academic environment. It will provide guidance for private practice, public health, and military dentists and hygienists considering a career transition into academic dentistry. Topics will be addressed including: academic culture, preparation for the academic environment,academic responsibilities, terms of employment,compensation and benefits, career planning, and job search / interviewing. Instructors for the workshop will include dental school faculty who have transitioned from the practice, military, and public health sectors into dental education.Objectives of the Overall Faculty Development Program:• Provide training in teaching and research skills,career planning, and leadership in order to address faculty shortages in dental schools and under representation of minority faculty.• Provide resident and faculty training in cultural and linguistic competency.• Develop and conduct a collaborative inter professional education project with a Pediatric Medicine department, a nursing school, and other health professions' education programs.• Provide faculty and residents with financial support to pursue a master's degree in public health; and • Provide support and assistance for dental practitioners desiring to explore a transition into the educational environment.

Online trust, trustworthiness, or assurance?

Every day, individuals around the world retrieve, share, and exchange information on the Internet. We interact online to share personal information, find answers to questions, make financial transactions, play social games, and maintain professional and personal relationships. Sometimes our online interactions take place between two or more humans. In other cases, we rely on computers to manage information on our behalf. In each scenario, risk and uncertainty are essential for determining possible actions and outcomes. This essay highlights common deficiencies in our understanding of key concepts such as trust, trustworthiness, cooperation, and assurance in online environments. Empirical evidence from experimental work in computer-mediated environments underscores the promises and perils of overreliance on security and assurance structures as replacements for interpersonal trust. These conceptual distinctions are critical because the future shape of the Internet will depend on whether we build assurance structures to limit and control ambiguity or allow trust to emerge in the presence of risk and uncertainty.

Adding a genomic healthcare component to a health information management curriculum.

The inclusion of genomic information will become routine in electronic health records (EHRs). Educating health information management (HIM) students about how to best manage, protect, properly release, and use this information for patient care is of utmost importance. This study examined the usefulness of incorporating genomic modules into an existing course in quality management. Pretest and posttest results showed that students improved in all areas related to genomics in healthcare. Also, students enjoyed the class scenarios and discussion on the ethical use of genomic information. Interspersing genomic information management throughout an existing quality management class is an effective way to add this information to an existing HIM curriculum.

Clinical coder training initiatives in Ireland.

The Hospital In-Patient Enquiry and National Perinatal Reporting System (HIPE & NPRS) Unit of the Economic and Social Research Institute in Ireland requested a review of its coder training programs and data quality initiatives, primarily because of the decision to implement a major change in Ireland's morbidity classification in January 2005. In August 2004, a formative evaluation using qualitative methods was conducted to assess the Unit's programs and initiatives. A number of opportunities for building on the solid frameworks the Unit has implemented were identified. In this paper, we focus on the Unit's coder training programs. The Unit's data quality initiatives will be discussed in a subsequent paper (Bramley & Reid 2005).

Morbidity data quality initiatives in Ireland.

In 2004, the Hospital In-Patient Enquiry and National Perinatal Reporting System (HIPE & NPRS) Unit of the Economic and Social Research Institute in Ireland requested a review of its coder training programs and data quality initiatives, primarily because of the decision to implement a major change in the morbidity classification in January 2005. In August 2004, the authors conducted a formative evaluation using qualitative methods to assess the Unit's programs. A number of opportunities for building on the solid framework the Unit has implemented were identified. The preceding paper focused on the Unit's coder training programs (Bramley & Reid 2005). In this paper, the Unit's data quality initiatives are examined.

Clinical librarianship: a systematic review of the literature.

Clinical librarianship (CL), currently receiving renewed interest world-wide, seeks to provide quality-filtered information to health professionals at the point of need to support clinical decision-making. This review builds upon the work of Cimpl (Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 1985, 73, 21-8) and attempts to establish the evidence base for CL. The objectives were to determine, from the literature, whether CL services are used by clinicians, have an effect on patient care, and/or clinicians' use of literature in practice and/or are cost-effective. The methodology used was a systematic review of the literature, following, where possible, the NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) framework. Modifications to this methodology included the resources searched, and the critical appraisal checklist (CriSTAL) used. Two hundred and eighty-four unique references were retrieved. Seventeen (16 unique) evaluative and a further 33 descriptive studies met the inclusion criteria. The quality of reporting of the literature was generally poor. CL programmes appear to be well-used and received by clinicians. However, there is insufficient evidence available on their effect on patient care, clinicians' use of literature in practice, and their cost-effectiveness, thus highlighting the need for further high-quality research.

Conference summary, Strategic Science symposium. Her-2/neu testing of breast cancer patients in clinical practice.

CONTEXT: Practicing pathologists often encounter controversial clinical issues and nonstandardized laboratory approaches to the evolving science of predictive/prognostic tumor marker assays. This dilemma becomes especially acute when the assay is the sole determinant for selection of a specific therapy. OBJECTIVES: To summarize the areas of practical agreement and identify opportunities for improvement in Her-2/neu testing of breast cancer. DESIGN: The College of American Pathologists created a new comprehensive education model, called Strategic Science, with expert speakers integrating new and evolving basic, clinical, and scientific issues of Her-2/neu testing with aspects of laboratory management. SETTING: Symposium held May 4 and 5, 2002, in Rosemont, Ill. PARTICIPANTS: Ten speakers and more than 100 attendees. RESULTS: Components addressed were new technology assessment, practice guidelines, quality assurance, regulatory compliance, risk and liability, billing and coding, cost analysis, consultation, information management, and results reporting. CONCLUSIONS: This Strategic Science symposium derived areas of practical agreement, defined the current state-of-the-art, and identified areas for improvement in Her-2/neu testing.

The assessment of Global Minimum Essential Requirements in medical education.

Using an international network of experts in medical education, the Institute for International Medical Education (IIME) developed the Global Minimum Essential Requirements (GMER) as a set of competence-based outcomes for graduating students. To establish a set of tools to evaluate these competences, the IIME then convened a Task Force of international experts on assessment that reviewed the GMER. After screening 75 potential assessment tools, they identified three that could be used most effectively. Of the 60 competences envisaged in the GMER, 36 can be assessed using a 150-item multiple-choice question (MCQ) examination, 15 by using a 15-station objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), and 17 by using a 15-item faculty observation form. In cooperation with eight leading medical schools in China, the MCQ, OSCE and Faculty Observation Form were developed to be used in an assessment program that is scheduled to be given to all seven-year students in October 2003.

Rejection of an innovation: health information management training materials in east Africa.

A shift towards decentralization in many low-income countries has meant more skills are demanded of primary health care managers, including data and information handling at all levels of the health care system. Ministries of Health are changing their central reporting health information systems to health management information systems with emphasis on managers utilizing information at the point of collection. This paper reports on a research study to investigate the introduction of new information management strategies intended to promote an informational approach to management at the operational health service level in low-income countries. It aims to understand the process taking place when externally developed training materials (PHC MAP), which are intended to strengthen health management information systems, are introduced to potential users in an east African country. A case study has been undertaken and this research has demonstrated that the dynamic equilibrium approach to organizational change is applicable to the introduction of new information management strategies and management approaches in low-income countries. Although PHC MAP developers envisaged a technical innovation needing implementation, potential users saw the situation as one of organizational change. Contributions to theory have been made and many implications for introducing new information systems or the informational approach to management are identified. This theoretical framework could also facilitate the introduction of future information management innovations and would allow practitioners to perceive the introduction of information management innovations as one of organizational change that needs to be managed. Consequently, issues that may facilitate or inhibit adoption could be identified in advance.

A real-time case approach to teaching information systems in health services administration: hardwiring research to teaching.

The pace of change in the health policy and health administration environments supports the need for linking teaching and research. This article describes a successful effort to tap real-time synergies between faculty research on health care information systems development and teaching in health services administration. It describes the real-time case approach (RTCA), a highly interactive case method employed in teaching a graduate health management information systems course. The approach offers another alternative to the "teach-the-text-and-lecture" model and adds important dimensions to the standard "case discussion" model. The article discusses the mechanics of implementing the RTCA, the instructor's role, and five cases used in the course. Among the benefits of the RTCA is that students place great reliance upon cases in interpreting other reading material, lectures, and discussion points in the course. Students are more likely to make theory connections to elements in one or more of the cases. Potential weaknesses include students' inhibitions to criticize and question key decision makers who they have met, as opposed to those who might appear in a fictional case. Also, some possible concession of comprehensiveness and time-ordered treatment of information systems issues, as might be found in a written case study, is made in favor of the dynamics of information gathering, distillation, and integration by students in the real-time case environment.

Teaching resource and information management using an innovative case-based conference.

Physicians play a critical role in controlling resource use in medicine. This paper describes an innovative, interdisciplinary conference that teaches housestaff and medical students about resource and information management in the hospital setting. The objectives are to help foster communication between physicians and other members of the health care team, to improve the understanding of hospital reimbursement, and to influence attitudes toward practicing cost effectiveness. The conference structure includes the following components: case presentation by the treating physician and follow-up information provided by the primary care physician, a review of the itemized hospital bill, discussion of coding issues, discussion of hospital reimbursement comparing case data to institutional and state averages, and a summary of key take-home points and lessons.