With the launch of ResearchKit, Apple has turned the iPhone into a medical research tool. ResearchKit makes it possible to generate large, wide-ranging datasets about the day-to-day of disease. Additionally, it allows researchers to recruit participants for large-scale studies. Bloomberg Business reported that 11,000 people had signed up for a cardiovascular study at Stanford University 24 hours after ResearchKit was introduced. Researchers at UCLA have already developed an app with ResearchKit for breast cancer, called Share the Journey: Mind, Body and Wellness after Breast Cancer – this app builds on the work of applied mathematician and TED Fellow Max Little. If you’re interested in finding out more about how Max Little’s work influenced the development of ResearchKit, you can watch his TED talk from 2012: A test for Parkinson’s with a phone call.
Monthly Archives: March 2015
Discover Drug Class and Hierarchies with RxClass
The RxClass browser is a web application for exploring and navigating through the class hierarchies to find the RxNorm drug members associated with each class. RxClass links drug classes of several drug sources to their RxNorm drug members (ingredients, precise ingredients and multiple ingredients).
RxClass allows users to search by class name or identifier to find the RxNorm drug members or, conversely, search by RxNorm drug name or identifier to find the classes that the RxNorm drug is a member of. Continue reading
Characteristics of a Successful Systematic Review
Completing high quality systematic reviews depends upon a number of factors; the most important is the team that is assembled to support this endeavor. Important areas of expertise to cover include:
- Content Experts: One or more individuals to act as active consultants and investigator-level reviewers. These team members provide expertise in the subject area covered by the review and represent a variety of perspectives that will add to the quality of the process and resulting publication.
- Systematic Review Methods Experts: One or more individuals with expertise in the methods of conducting systematic reviews. A librarian or information specialist can contribute in this role, especially if they bring to the table past experience. This role can also be filled by a content expert.
- Statistician: This team player is critical especially if meta-analysis is being considered.
- Medical Librarian/Information Specialist: Knowledge about the various bibliographic databases and controlled vocabularies supports the development of a search strategy that will generate relevant and focused results. In addition, the librarian searcher can document and write the methods section of the manuscript as well as support the team in leveraging citation management tools.
- Reference Coordinator: Someone from the team needs to be the point person for maintaining and managing the database of references. Most systematic reviews involve thousands of abstracts/papers and it is vital to manage these references and keep track of what has been reviewed, and which ones will be included or excluded. Continue reading