A PROCESS FOR ACHIEVING COMPARABLE DATA FROM HETEROGENEOUS DATABASES

The current state of health and biomedicine includes an enormity of heterogeneous data ‘silos’, collected for different purposes and represented differently, that are presently impossible to share or analyze in toto. The greatest challenge for large-scale and meaningful analyses of health-related data is to achieve a uniform data representation for data extracted from heterogeneous source representations. Based upon an analysis and categorization of heterogeneities, a process for achieving comparable data content by using a uniform terminological representation is developed. This process addresses the types of representational heterogeneities that commonly arise in healthcare data integration problems. Specifically, this process uses a reference terminology, and associated "maps" to transform heterogeneous data to a standard representation for comparability and secondary use. The capture of quality and precision of the “maps” between local terms and reference terminology concepts enhances the meaning of the aggregated data, empowering end users with better-informed queries for subsequent analyses. A data integration case study in the domain of pediatric asthma illustrates the development and use of a reference terminology for creating comparable data from heterogeneous source representations. The contribution of this research is a generalized process for the integration of data from heterogeneous source representations, and this process can be applied and extended to other problems where heterogeneous data needs to be merged.

La Biblioteca Médica Nacional de Cuba tiene la primicia : Curso Cochrane Library, aprendizaje con estrategias para obtener las mejores evidencias en salud

La Biblioteca Médica Nacional de Cuba ha puesto en marcha un programa de alfabetización informacional para adiestrar a sus usuarios y fomentar en ellos las habilidades necesarias para el uso de bases de datos, así como para fomentar el uso de estrategias de búsquedas bien diseñadas y validadas por los bibliotecarios especialistas en información. En el presente trabajo se describen contenidos y habilidades que se fomentan en el curso "Cochrane Library: La Medicina Basada en Evidencias", cuyo objetivo es que el usuario domine esta base de datos y el concepto de medicina basada en evidencias para la toma de mejores decisiones en la atención médica. Durante el curso se introduce además el Modelo Big 6, como guía del pensamiento para resolver problemas de información que facilite la búsqueda y la organización de la información médica basada en evidencias. Igualmente, se capacita al estudiante para que diseñe productos informativos, como boletines electrónicos, que le permitan tanto presentar los resultados de búsquedas de información como promover información para el cuidado de la salud en el futuro

La Biblioteca Médica Nacional de Cuba tiene la primicia : Curso Cochrane Library, aprendizaje con estrategias para obtener las mejores evidencias en salud

La Biblioteca Médica Nacional de Cuba ha puesto en marcha un programa de alfabetización informacional para adiestrar a sus usuarios y fomentar en ellos las habilidades necesarias para el uso de bases de datos, así como para fomentar el uso de estrategias de búsquedas bien diseñadas y validadas por los bibliotecarios especialistas en información. En el presente trabajo se describen contenidos y habilidades que se fomentan en el curso "Cochrane Library: La Medicina Basada en Evidencias", cuyo objetivo es que el usuario domine esta base de datos y el concepto de medicina basada en evidencias para la toma de mejores decisiones en la atención médica. Durante el curso se introduce además el Modelo Big 6, como guía del pensamiento para resolver problemas de información que facilite la búsqueda y la organización de la información médica basada en evidencias. Igualmente, se capacita al estudiante para que diseñe productos informativos, como boletines electrónicos, que le permitan tanto presentar los resultados de búsquedas de información como promover información para el cuidado de la salud en el futuro

La Biblioteca Médica Nacional de Cuba tiene la primicia : Curso Cochrane Library, aprendizaje con estrategias para obtener las mejores evidencias en salud

La Biblioteca Médica Nacional de Cuba ha puesto en marcha un programa de alfabetización informacional para adiestrar a sus usuarios y fomentar en ellos las habilidades necesarias para el uso de bases de datos, así como para fomentar el uso de estrategias de búsquedas bien diseñadas y validadas por los bibliotecarios especialistas en información. En el presente trabajo se describen contenidos y habilidades que se fomentan en el curso "Cochrane Library: La Medicina Basada en Evidencias", cuyo objetivo es que el usuario domine esta base de datos y el concepto de medicina basada en evidencias para la toma de mejores decisiones en la atención médica. Durante el curso se introduce además el Modelo Big 6, como guía del pensamiento para resolver problemas de información que facilite la búsqueda y la organización de la información médica basada en evidencias. Igualmente, se capacita al estudiante para que diseñe productos informativos, como boletines electrónicos, que le permitan tanto presentar los resultados de búsquedas de información como promover información para el cuidado de la salud en el futuro

The SBASE protein domain library, release 8.0: a collection of annotated protein sequence segments

SBASE 8.0 is the eighth release of the SBASE library of protein domain sequences that contains 294 898 annotated structural, functional, ligand-binding and topogenic segments of proteins, cross-referenced to most major sequence databases and sequence pattern collections. The entries are clustered into over 2005 statistically validated domain groups (SBASE-A) and 595 non-validated groups (SBASE-B), provided with several WWW-based search and browsing facilities for online use. A domain-search facility was developed, based on non-parametric pattern recognition methods, including artificial neural networks. SBASE 8.0 is freely available by anonymous ‘ftp’ file transfer from ftp.icgeb.trieste.it. Automated searching of SBASE can be carried out with the WWW servers http://www.icgeb.trieste.it/sbase/ and http://sbase.abc.hu/sbase/.

Creating local bibliographic databases: new tools for evidence-based health care*

The Internet has created new opportunities for librarians to present literature search results to clinicians. In order to take full advantage of these opportunities, libraries need to create locally maintained bibliographic databases. A simple method of creating a local bibliographic database and publishing it on the Web is described. The method uses off-the-shelf software and requires minimal programming. A hedge search strategy for outcome studies of clinical process interventions is created, and Ovid is used to search MEDLINE. The search results are saved and imported into EndNote libraries. The citations are modified, exported to a Microsoft Access database, and published on the Web. Clinicians can use a Web browser to search the database. The bibliographic database contains 13,803 MEDLINE citations of outcome studies. Most searches take between four and ten seconds and retrieve between ten and 100 citations. The entire cost of the software is under $900. Locally maintained bibliographic databases can be created easily and inexpensively. They significantly extend the evidence-based health care services that libraries can offer to clinicians.

Reducing task’s redundancy – the strategy of Faculty of Pharmacy Library to centralize all scientific research

Introduction – Based on a previous project of University of Lisbon (UL) – a Bibliometric Benchmarking Analysis of University of Lisbon, for the period of 2000-2009 – a database was created to support research information (ULSR). However this system was not integrated with other existing systems at University, as the UL Libraries Integrated System (SIBUL) and the Repository of University of Lisbon (Repositório.UL). Since libraries were called to be part of the process, the Faculty of Pharmacy Library’ team felt that it was very important to get all systems connected or, at least, to use that data in the library systems. Objectives – The main goals were to centralize all the scientific research produced at Faculty of Pharmacy, made it available to the entire Faculty, involve researchers and library team, capitalize and reinforce team work with the integration of several distinct projects and reducing tasks’ redundancy. Methods – Our basis was the imported data collection from the ISI Web of Science (WoS), for the period of 2000-2009, into ULSR. All the researchers and indexed publications at WoS, were identified. A first validation to identify all the researchers and their affiliation (university, faculty, department and unit) was done. The final validation was done by each researcher. In a second round, concerning the same period, all Pharmacy Faculty researchers identified their published scientific work in other databases/resources (NOT WoS). To our strategy, it was important to get all the references and essential/critical to relate them with the correspondent digital objects. To each researcher previously identified, was requested to register all their references of the ‘NOT WoS’ published works, at ULSR. At the same time, they should submit all PDF files (for both WoS and NOT WoS works) in a personal area of the Web server. This effort enabled us to do a more reliable validation and prepare the data and metadata to be imported to Repository and to Library Catalogue. Results – 558 documents related with 122 researchers, were added into ULSR. 1378 bibliographic records (WoS + NOT WoS) were converted into UNIMARC and Dublin Core formats. All records were integrated in the catalogue and repository. Conclusions – Although different strategies could be adopted, according to each library team, we intend to share this experience and give some tips of what could be done and how Faculty of Pharmacy created and implemented her strategy.

Roadside Safety Library - library information retrieval system (LIRS). Volume 1: user's manual. Final report.

Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, McLean, Va.

Roadside Safety Library - Library Information Retrieval System (LIRS). Volume 2: programmers' and operators' manual. Final report.

Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, McLean, Va.

Differences in sharing knowledge interpersonally and via databases: The role of evaluation apprehension and perceived benefits

Knowledge sharing is an essential component of effective knowledge management. However, evaluation apprehension, or the fear that your work may be critiqued, can inhibit knowledge sharing. Using the general framework of social exchange theory, we examined the effects of evaluation apprehension and perceived benefit of knowledge sharing ( such as enhanced reputation) on employees' knowledge sharing intentions in two contexts: interpersonal (i.e., by direct contact between two employees) and database (i.e., via repositories). Evaluation apprehension was negatively associated with knowledge sharing intentions in both contexts while perceived bene. it was only positively associated with knowledge sharing intentions in the database context. Moreover, compared to the interpersonal context, evaluation apprehension was higher and knowledge sharing lower in the database context. Finally, the negative effects of evaluation apprehension upon knowledge sharing intentions were worse when perceived benefits were low compared to when perceived benefits were high.