- Research Article
6
- 10.1016/j.pedhc.2012.04.008
Googling for Health Information
- Jun 21, 2012
- Journal of Pediatric Health Care
- Jennifer P D'Auria
Googling for Health Information
In recent years, manuscript editing has become extremely important for academic journals. Using appropriate software for manuscript editing results in improved work efficiency and increased accuracy; therefore, this article aimed to introduce search engines and software that can be used for manuscript editing. First, a variety of search engines and academic databases can be used to reduce errors and to create accurate references. Google, the world’s leading search engine, provides users with information with the highest probability of accuracy, regardless of the reference language or the search term. If it is not possible to find certain information on Google, one can consult WorldCat, PubMed, Naver Academic, KoreaScience, Research Information Sharing Service, DBpia, Crossref, and Edifix. In particular, Naver Academic provides search results for some materials that cannot be found on Google. Second, PerfectIt facilitates the correction of errors that occur frequently in English-language documents. Finally, Grammarly is a helpful tool for checking and correcting grammar and spelling errors. As the academic publishing environment changes, the role and demands of manuscript editors are also changing. In a fast-paced environment, the software and search engines discussed herein are highly useful tools for manuscript editing.
Googling for Health Information
Googling for Health Information
Estimating the Prominence of AHP in a Selected Internet Search Engine
Internet has become an instant source of informatio n for almost anyone. By viewing the results of sear ch terms displayed by an Internet Search Engine (ISE), a person may decide his next course of action whether to continue using the Internet, abort or to combine it with other sources of information. The results produced by an ISE can be regarded as an in dex of relative availability of references. Given a list of suitable search terms, a user will firstly have to decide on the ISE to be used. Due to huge potent ial references available for given search terms the use r has to create heuristics to choose the entries sh own on the computer screen. As there are varying breadths and depths of information revealed by various Inter net Search Engines (ISE’s), this paper will not attempt to make a comparison among ISE’s, rather will focu s only on a particular search engine and ascertain th e results it produces given a list of search terms. Google is chosen as a proxy, being one of the most popular ISE’s. By confining to only a search engine, the s tudy affords to control variability among ISE’s should m ultiple ISE’s be used. With the search engine place d under control, it is easy to achieve the primary ob jective of the study, i.e., to ascertain availabili ty of relative breadth of sub-themes of Analytic Hierarch y Process (AHP) in Google. It is natural for user, especially researcher to be concerned with number, quantity. If there is seemingly abundant literature , one would be motivated to pursue research along the the me or sub-theme. In this study, the strength of presence of a sub-theme is measured by using two measures: (i) result of a sub-theme of AHP over the sub-theme itself, and (ii) result of the sub-theme over the total results generated for all of the thi rty six sub-themes used in the search. This study controlle d biasness in specifying the sub-themes of AHP by adopting the sub-themes or search terms specified b y the 2013 AHP conference organizers. This decision helps make the study efficient without with it has to distill the sub-themes by surveying the AHP literature. The data for analysis was gathered by s urfing Google on 26 Feb 2013 8.55 p.m. - 9.26 p.m. Peninsular Malaysian time. The search results were computed to generate two types of ratios specified earlier. A composite index was created using the re sulting two types of ratios which are used to class ify the efficiency, hence dominance of the original res ults (hits). Kendall’s correlation produced statist ically significant correlations between the composite inde x and Rank of AHP specific and area results. Using indices greater than 1.000 as the base, 6 AHP specific areas occupy the top positions with ratios ranging from 19.341 to 61.574; 15 AHP specific areas occupy the second top positions with ratios ranging from 1.119 to 9.602, and 14 AHP specific areas occupy the third and last position with indi ces below 1.000 ranging from 0.050 to 0.894. The paper includes dis cussion, implications, limitations, conclusions and suggestions for further research.
Read moreVariability of patient spine education by Internet search engine
Variability of patient spine education by Internet search engine
Quertle: The Conceptual Relationships Alternative Search Engine for PubMed
Quertle: The Conceptual Relationships Alternative Search Engine for PubMed
Internet Search Term Affects the Quality and Accuracy of Online Information About Developmental Hip Dysplasia
The recent emphasis on shared decision-making has increased the role of the Internet as a readily accessible medical reference source for patients and families. However, the lack of professional review creates concern over the quality, accuracy, and readability of medical information available to patients on the Internet. Three Internet search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing) were evaluated prospectively using 3 difference search terms of varying sophistication ("congenital hip dislocation," "developmental dysplasia of the hip," and "hip dysplasia in children"). Sixty-three unique Web sites were evaluated by each of 3 surgeons (2 fellowship-trained pediatric orthopaedic attendings and 1 orthopaedic chief resident) for quality and accuracy using a set of scoring criteria based on the AAOS/POSNA patient education Web site. The readability (literacy grade level) of each Web site was assessed using the Fleisch-Kincaid score. There were significant differences noted in quality, accuracy, and readability of information depending on the search term used. The search term "developmental dysplasia of the hip" provided higher quality and accuracy compared with the search term "congenital hip dislocation." Of the 63 total Web sites, 1 (1.6%) was below the sixth grade reading level recommended by the NIH for health education materials and 8 (12.7%) Web sites were below the average American reading level (eighth grade). The quality and accuracy of information available on the Internet regarding developmental hip dysplasia significantly varied with the search term used. Patients seeking information about DDH on the Internet may not understand the materials found because nearly all of the Web sites are written at a level above that recommended for publically distributed health information. Physicians should advise their patients to search for information using the term "developmental dysplasia of the hip" or, better yet, should refer patients to Web sites that they have personally reviewed for content and clarity. Orthopaedic surgeons, professional societies, and search engines should undertake efforts to ensure that patients have access to information about DDH that is both accurate and easily understandable.
Read moreA Comparative Study of Internet Search Engines by Applying “Cost Effective Treatment for Myocardial Infarction” as a Search Topic
The Internet has become one of the necessities in the medical sciences and has created a global information village. It is essential to know various features of the Internet and to utilize it efficiently in each field of science. A comparative study of Internet search engines was conducted for a specific search topic, “cost effective treatment for myocardial infarction.” The data sources were published conference reports, journal articles, personal communications, and Internet resources. Data on features of the Internet search engines were obtained by browsing each of the 20 search engines selected and by communicating with individuals in charge of each search engine when needed. Actual searches on the topic were conducted by using the 20 search engines. Search term variety for cost effectiveness ranges from pharmacoeconomics to medical economics, providing a total number of more than 10. Search term variety for myocardial infarction ranged from heart failure to coronary heart disease, and at least five major terms exist. Basic search features differ from one search engine to another and a user should be familiar with those differences. The number of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and contents of each search engine are also different. The number of records retrieved ranged from 0–22,000 among different search engines. Lycos and Magellan gave a fairly good hit percentage or relevance factor. The system design of the Internet search engines is based on open search architecture (key word indexes) or it allows the creator of the program to index his/her own page (subject directories). These different approaches resulted in the existence of varying degrees of function of the Internet search engines. Aims and scopes of this paper include not only to retrieve scientific papers and articles but also to locate information on scientific meetings, scientific presentations, and other scientific resources. Some commercial search engines enable users to access those information sites.
Read moreValidity of Instrument Development Research in Korean Nursing Research
This integrative review study was done to analyze methods used for validation studies in Korean nursing research. In this study, the literature on instrument development in nursing research from Research Information Sharing Service (RISS) and major nursing journal databases in Korea were examined. The MeSH search terms included 'nursing', 'instrument', 'instrument development', 'validation' and 189 articles were included in the review. The most frequently reported validity type was content validity, followed by construct validity, and criterion validity. One third reported a single type of validity, and 15% of the studies demonstrated three kinds of validity at the same time. In about 40% of the studies, both content and construct validity were examined. The results of the study indicate that it is necessary to provide a wider variety of evidence to establish whether instruments are valid enough to use in nursing research.
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: This paper reports experiments on search engine optimization (SEO) for a business site. Several search terms have been optimized for three web search engines. From the business site, 300 pages have been selected for optimization. In three phases several onand off-page modifications have been carried out and the results have been monitored. The results show that search engines do react to modifications and that the target pages are ranked higher on average. The variance of the improvements is extremely large which means that there is no guarantee that SEO activities are beneficial for one single page. We suggest a new evaluation measure for the success of SEO which takes typical Web user behavior into account.
Read moreA review of the reporting of web searching to identify studies for Cochrane systematic reviews
The literature searches that are used to identify studies for inclusion in a systematic review should be comprehensively reported. This ensures that the literature searches are transparent and reproducible, which is important for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of a systematic review and re-running the literature searches when conducting an update review. Web searching using search engines and the websites of topically relevant organisations is sometimes used as a supplementary literature search method. Previous research has shown that the reporting of web searching in systematic reviews often lacks important details and is thus not transparent or reproducible. Useful details to report about web searching include the name of the search engine or website, the URL, the date searched, the search strategy, and the number of results. This study reviews the reporting of web searching to identify studies for Cochrane systematic reviews published in the 6-month period August 2016 to January 2017 (n=423). Of these reviews, 61 reviews reported using web searching using a search engine or website as a literature search method. In the majority of reviews, the reporting of web searching was found to lack essential detail for ensuring transparency and reproducibility, such as the search terms. Recommendations are made on how to improve the reporting of web searching in Cochrane systematic reviews.
Read moreMinimally Invasive Spine Surgery
This is a cross-sectional study. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the content of information available on the Internet regarding minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS). Patients look to the Internet for quick and accessible information on orthopedic procedures to help guide their personal decision making process regarding the care they receive. However, the quality of internet-based orthopedic education material varies significantly with respect to accuracy and readability. The top 50 results were generated from each of 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo!, and Bing) using the search term "minimally invasive spine surgery." Results were categorized by authorship type and evaluated for their description of key factors such as procedural benefits, risks, and techniques. Comparisons between search engines and between authorship types were done using the Freeman-Halton extension for the Fisher exact test. The content of websites certified by Health on the Net Foundation (HONcode) was compared with those not HONcode certified. Of the 150 websites and videos, only 26% were authored by a hospital or university, whereas 50% were by a private physician or clinic. Most resources presented some benefits of MISS (84%, 126/150), but only 17% presented risks of the procedure (26/150). Almost half of all resources described the technique of MISS, but only 27% had thorough descriptions that included visual representations while 26% failed to describe the procedure. Only 12 results were HONcode certified, and 10 (83%) of these were authored by a medical industry company. Internet-based resources on MISS provide inconsistent content and tend to emphasize benefits of MISS over risks.
Read morePriority claims for surgical techniques
Priority claims for surgical techniques
Competitive intelligence as an enabler for firm competitiveness: An overview
The purpose of this article is to provide an overview, from literature, about how competitive intelligence can be an enabler towards a firm’s competitiveness. This overview is done under the background of intense global competition that firms are currently experiencing. This paper used a qualitative content analysis as a data collection methodology on all identified journal articles on competitive intelligence and firm competitiveness. To identify relevant literature, academic databases and search engines were used. Moreover, a review of references in related studies led to more relevant sources, the references of which were further reviewed and analysed. To ensure reliability and trustworthiness, peer-reviewed journal articles and triangulation were used. The paper found that competitive intelligence is an important enabler of firm competitiveness. The findings from this paper will assist business managers to understand and improve their outlook of competitive intelligence as an enabler of firm competitiveness and will be of great academic value.
Read moreOne in Three Chance of Finding A Plastic Surgeon on Major Hospital Websites
Background:There is an increasing trend of nonplastic surgeons performing breast surgery. Within, we evaluate the representation of plastic surgeons listed for breast reconstruction on major hospital system websites within the United States.Methods:The website search engines for the top 20 US medical centers according to the US News and World Report’s Hospital Rankings from 2020 to 2021 were queried for search terms pertaining to breast reconstruction. Information collected for search results included gender, if they were a physician, medical specialty, medical school and residency attended, and each individual’s position within the search results.Results:Across 80 distinct search attempts, 27 searches (34%) produced no results. The search term “breast reconstruction” yielded the most plastic surgeon search results, with plastic surgeons composing 39% of all search results. The search term “mastectomy” generated the least number of plastic surgeon results, with a 16% representation of plastic surgeons. Nearly two-thirds of physicians identified were nonplastic surgeons (67%). Other surgeons represented 47% of search results and obstetricians/gynecologists, 2%. Nonsurgeons represented 18% of queries. On average, plastic surgeons appeared higher on search lists than nonplastic surgeons, 13th to 39th, respectively (P < 0.001).Conclusions:Plastic surgeons composed only a third of physicians identified, and a third of searches produced no results. Patients interested in breast reconstruction may encounter difficulty finding an appropriate plastic surgeon. Inadequate search engines on hospital websites introduce inefficiencies for the entire health care systems and may negatively impact hospital and physician bottom line.
Read moreEfficient automatic search query formulation using phrase‐level analysis
Over the past decade, the volume of information available digitally over the Internet has grown enormously. Technical developments in the area of search, such as Google's Page Rank algorithm, have proved so good at serving relevant results that Internet search has become integrated into daily human activity. One can endlessly explore topics of interest simply by querying and reading through the resulting links. Yet, although search engines are well known for providing relevant results based on users' queries, users do not always receive the results they are looking for. Google's Director of Research describes clickstream evidence of frustrated users repeatedly reformulating queries and searching through page after page of results. Given the general quality of search engine results, one must consider the possibility that the frustrated user's query is not effective; that is, it does not describe the essence of the user's interest. Indeed, extensive research into human search behavior has found that humans are not very effective at formulating good search queries that describe what they are interested in. Ideally, the user should simply point to a portion of text that sparked the user's interest, and a system should automatically formulate a search query that captures the essence of the text. In this paper, we describe an implemented system that provides this capability. We first describe how our work differs from existing work in automatic query formulation, and propose a new method for improved quantification of the relevance of candidate search terms drawn from input text using phrase‐level analysis. We then propose an implementable method designed to provide relevant queries based on a user's text input. We demonstrate the quality of our results and performance of our system through experimental studies. Our results demonstrate that our system produces relevant search terms with roughly two‐thirds precision and recall compared to search terms selected by experts, and that typical users find significantly more relevant results (31% more relevant) more quickly (64% faster) using our system than self‐formulated search queries. Further, we show that our implementation can scale to request loads of up to 10 requests per second within current online responsiveness expectations (<2‐second response times at the highest loads tested).
Read moreWeb-based text analysis of tourism image perception of Shaoxing Mirror Lake National Urban Wetland Park
The research aimed at making use of the new research methods to conduct more convenient and in-depth study of tourists' tourism image perception of the wetland park tourism destinations and provide a useful reference for the sustainable development of national urban wetland park tourism. It used the web-based text analysis method and collected relevant reviews and travelogues from search engines and tourism websites including Baidu, Dianping, and Ctrip as samples, and used ROST Content Mining software to analyze tourists' tourism image perception of Mirror Lake National Urban Wetland Park from the following five perspectives, namely, the scenic environment, activities, tourist attractions, service facilities and cultural background. The results indicated that visitors to the Mirror Lake National Urban Wetland Park had overall good emotional attitudes towards the park; they had comparatively high evaluation of the overall impression of the scenic area and scenic environment; they were rather satisfied with the leisure and entertainment activities in the scenic area. However, they lacked deep understanding of wetland park background culture and held certain negative attitudes towards the scenic infrastructure and services. Based on the research findings, the paper pointed out that the profound tourism development of urban wetland parks should be focused on maintaining the feature advantages, improving facilities and services, and strengthening cultural publicity.
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