Informed-evidence decision-making (IEDM) has emerged as the predominant principle of providing guidance for policy-making and practice, however, the best available evidences requisite of performing successfully IEDM. Different forms of evidence and different kinds of review questions call for the development of new approaches that are designed to more effectively and rigorously identify and synthesize the evidence. Fourteen methods of reviewing literature have been recently used to identify and synthesize evidence, of which scoping reviews is increasing popular. This article introduces aspects such as background, purpose and methodological frame work and explains the process of it with an example so that facilitating the dissemination and utilization of scoping review in China.
ObjectiveTo provide a scoping review of the healthcare provider patient-sharing network. MethodsPubMed, EMbase, Scopus, ProQuest, Web of Science Core Collection, ScienceDirect, SAGE, Wiley Online Library, Google Scholar, CNKI and WanFang Data databases were electronically searched to collect studies on patient-sharing network of healthcare providers from inception to July 31, 2021. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and then Arksey and O 'Malley's scoping review method was used to analyze the study. ResultsA total of 110 studies were included. In which, 70.0% were published in 2016 and later, 78.2% were carried out in the United States, 96.4% used secondary data, and 45.5% adopted social network analysis methods such as exponential random graph model. In terms of network characteristics, 43.6% of the studies adopted the theoretical framework of social network theory, and the network node type was mainly 1-mode, accounting for 87.3%. When constructing the physician patient-sharing networks, 64.5% of the studies had a threshold of 1 patient. We also synthesized existing studies on patient-sharing networks of healthcare providers in the light of factors of networks and related outcomes. ConclusionThe studies of healthcare provider patient-sharing network have potentials to improve clinical practice and health policies. Further studies should consider adopting longitudinal design to validate evidence of study, expanding the scope of study subjects except physicians and enriching the evidence of the relationship between network and health-related outcomes.
ObjectiveTo analyze the development and evolution of the theoretical domains framework (TDF), behavior change wheel (BCW), and behavior change technique (BCT). MethodsThe PubMed, EMbase, EBSCO, Web of Science, CNKI, WanFang Data, VIP and CBM databases were electronically searched to collect related studies on the establishment and development of theoretical frameworks for behavior change from the inception to September 4, 2022. Two researchers independently screened the literature, extracted the data, and conducted qualitative analysis and summary. ResultsA total of 11 studies were included, and the establishment and development of TDF, BCW and BCT taxonomy was analyzed, integrated and presented in this article. ConclusionTDF, BCW and BCT taxonomy are the fundamental theoretical framework of behavior change, which can be used independently and can be mapped and integrated with each other, providing theoretical guidance for the analysis of obstacles and promoting factors in the implementation of research and the design of intervention measures, with good promotion value. However, there are few domestic applications, so expanding the application in the local environment is necessary.
Objective To summarize and analyze the characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of the current governance framework for public health emergencies in China. Methods The CNKI, VIP, WanFang Data, CBM and PubMed databases were electronically searched to collect studies on the management of major infectious disease outbreaks in China from inception to April 15, 2023. The basic information and governance elements included in the study were extracted and analyzed. Results A total of 30 studies were included, and the time of issuance was from 2020 to 2022. Most of the studies were on COVID-19, focusing on the governance framework of big data governance, holistic governance, and multi-agent collaborative governance. The governance elements were mainly concentrated in three aspects: governance subject, governance cycle and institutional guarantee. The governance entities were concentrated on multi-agent collaborative governance, with the governance cycle mainly focused on in process governance, and the basic guarantee is a multiple guarantee with information technology big data as the main body. Conclusion The governance body of China's major infectious disease epidemic management framework has transitioned from a single entity to a multi entity collaborative governance. While increasing prewarning governance, attention should also be paid to governance during the post recovery period. In terms of system, comprehensive guarantees such as epidemic public opinion control system guarantees, privacy security guarantees, and psychological counseling guarantees should be added.
ObjectiveTo provide a scoping review of the clinical studies of acupuncture on Alzheimer' s disease (AD). MethodsThe CNKI, WanFang Data, VIP, CBM, Web of Science, PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library databases, and ClinicalTrials.gov, ChiCTR clinical trial registration systems were searched to collect clinical studies on acupuncture treatment of AD from inception to May 14, 2022. Scope review method was used to summarize and analyze the publication year trend, type, degree of disease, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome differentiation, sample size, treatment plan, intervention time, and outcome. ResultsA total of 226 clinical original research were included. This field emerged in 1995 and has been increasing. The main type of clinical research was randomized controlled trials. 56 studies paid attention to the severity of AD. Only 54 studies classified AD according to different criteria of TCM syndrome differentiation. There were only 4 studies with large sample size (>200 cases). Conventional acupuncture was the main intervention method in clinical research, with a total of 129 articles. Electroacupuncture was the main special acupuncture method, a total of 31 articles. More than 70 % of the studies had a course of intervention between 84 and 168 days. Among the 12 types of outcome indicators, cognitive function, clinical efficiency, activity function evaluation, cerebrospinal fluid and blood biomarkers, and adverse reactions were the most concerned outcomes. However, less attention was paid to neuropsychiatric symptoms and quality of life in AD patients. Acupuncture could improve the cognitive function of AD patients, but the current clinical related mechanism research was shallow, and the acupuncture point selection was also more diverse. ConclusionThe clinical research of acupuncture in AD has formed a scale, but the current research type is single. The clinical research design schemes are various but not yet unified, and there is a lack of relevant authoritative TCM standards.
Objective To summarize the current studies of the core outcome set of traditional Chinese medicine (COS-TCM) and analyze their possible problems. Methods The CNKI, WanFang Data, VIP, PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases were electronically searched to collect studies from inception to April 18, 2023. The relevant characteristics of the included studies were extracted, and the development steps, stakeholders, and outcomes of COS-TCM were analyzed. Results A total of 28 COS-TCM studies were included. Two studies, only published systematic reviews without providing more information, were excluded from the analysis. Among the 26 studies for analysis, 25 studies (96.15%) used a mixture of methods to develop COS-TCM. Clinicians (n=25) were the most common participants, followed by methodologists and patients. Fifteen studies (57.69%) reported measures to help patients better participate. Twelve consensus definitions were found in the included studies, of which 14 studies' consensus definitions were divided into three levels:"consensus in", "consensus out", and "no consensus". Among the 14 studies that reported the final COS-TCM results, only 4 studies recommended Chinese medicine characteristic outcomes. For the measurement of outcomes, 14 studies (53.85%) made plans for the selection of tools. Conclusion The current COS-TCM research has made some progress, and the common developing methods are roughly the same as those nationally used. However, there are still some problems, such as inadequate and low-transparency reports, lack of TCM characteristic outcomes, and so on. We suggest that future COS-TCM studies should refer to COS-STAP, COS-STAR, COS-STAD, and other international standards as well as emphasize the advantages of TCM during development and reporting so that it can improve the transparency of developing methods, research quality, and the proportion of TCM characteristics of the final COS.
ObjectiveTo conduct a scoping review of studies on the application of knowledge mapping in the field of rare diseases at home and abroad, in order to clarify the content and status of application and provide references for future research in this field. MethodsRelevant studies in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, MEDLINE, CNKI, WanFang Data, VIP, and CBM databases were searched, using the Joanna Briggs Institute Scoping Review Guidelines in Australia as the methodological framework, and the search time frame was from the establishment of the database to June 1, 2023. ResultsTwenty-five papers were included, and the main applications of knowledge graphs in the field of rare diseases were knowledge management, assisted diagnosis, drug repositioning and decision support, involving techniques such as knowledge representation, knowledge extraction, knowledge reasoning, knowledge fusion and knowledge storage.ConclusionKnowledge graphs have shown positive results in fusing and exploiting multi-source information, aiding disease prediction and diagnosis and drug development, but further technical improvements are needed.
Objective To review main obstacles to health care professionals' adherence to clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) by employing the scoping review method and a determinants framework, and to explore the effect of implementation strategies in intervention researches on guideline adherence. Methods The articles published from January 1, 2011 to June 10, 2023 were retrieved from the PubMed, CINAHL, MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane Library, SinoMed, CNKI, WanFang Data and VIP databases. The original literature on the CPGs implementation obstacles and strategies was included, and the primary and secondary screening of the literature were completed by four researchers according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The basic characteristics of the literature, the factors affecting the implementation of the CPGs, and the strategies used were extracted. The results were analyzed and summarized using qualitative and quantitative methods. Results A total of 61 articles were included in the scoping review. The factors affecting the implementation of CPGs could be divided into five categories: guidelines themselves, external factors, internal factors, individual factors, and implementation process. The most common implementation obstacles were insufficient knowledge or skills of professionals regarding guidelines (n=21, 34.4%), insufficient necessity of using guidelines according to doctors (n=17, 27.9%), and unreasonable factors within hospital (n=16, 26.2%). The factors that promoted the implementation of CPGs included guidelines based on high-quality evidence (n=5, 8.2%), good department or hospital culture (n=4, 6.6%), convenient accessibility of guideline knowledge and information (n=4, 6.6%), and doctors’ excellent professional ability (n=4, 6.6%). The overall effectiveness of the guideline implementation strategy was 50%. Clinical decision support system (CDSS) could improve the adherence of CPGs. Guideline education or training was one of the most commonly used methods, but the effect of improving guideline compliance was unstable. Conclusion The primary challenges in implementing guidelines include inadequate professional capacity and demand, suboptimal hospital infrastructure and limited resources. However, the obstacles are not absolute. It is recommended to use implementation strategies to improve the absorption and implementation of guidelines, among which CDSS is an effective measure for promoting guideline adherence.
Scoping reviews are intended to help researchers in complex and extensive fields can better address exploratory research questions, comprehensive and systematic understanding of the current development of a field. However, the current scoping review needs to be unified in the implementation process, and the emergence of the JBI scoping review execution process can solve this problem well, which combines and improves the framework of the previous execution process, and regulates the whole process of scoping review production in depth and comprehensively from the aspects of the research purpose and questions, inclusion criteria, search, screening, data extraction, and analysis of the results, etc., and it has a strong authority and professionalism. Therefore, in order to help researchers better carry out and implement the scoping reviews, this paper focuses on the JBI scoping review execution process, and through detailed interpretation of the JBI scoping review execution process and demonstration of examples, it provides references for researchers to correctly apply the JBI scoping review execution process, in order to enhance the transparency and reliability of the research results, and to promote the scientific application of scoping reviews in China.
Compared with classic systematic review types, the scoping review, mapping review and evidence gap maps (EGMs) address broader research questions. Therefore, they are classified into the "big picture review" family. These three types of evidence synthesis have developed rapidly in recent years, but the related concepts are easy to be confused. This article introduces the methodological development process of the three types of evidence synthesis, summarizes the similarities and differences in terms of research purposes and methodology based on the methodological guidelines of the three types of evidence synthesis in the "big picture review" family. The author hopes that this article can help domestic researchers distinguish and identify the three types of evidence synthesis, avoid conceptual confusion, and correctly choose the type of evidence synthesis in the "big picture review" family according to the research purpose.