Background When we began this process, we were doctoral students and a faculty member in a research methods course. As students, we were facing a review of the literature for our dissertations. We encountered several different ways of conducting a review but were unable to locate any resources that synthesized all of the various synthesis methodologies. Our purpose is to present a comprehensive...

OBJECTIVES To summarize current excellent medical informatics research in the field of human factors and organizational issues. METHODS Using PubMed, a total of 3,024 papers were selected from 17 journals. The papers were evaluated on the basis of their title, keywords, and abstract, using several exclusion and inclusion criteria. 15 preselected papers were carefully evaluated by six referees...

Once upon a time, not so long ago, the only way to disseminate patient information beyond the walls of the hospital was through medical journals or presentations. The potential for damage to the patient was minimal and was offset by the learning potential offered by it. Now the scenario has changed drastically. With the advent of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and of course,...

Thomas Suddendorf is Professor of Psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia. He was born and raised in Germany, but has spent most of his adult life in the Antipodes. He studies the development of mental capacities in young children and in nonhuman animals to answer fundamental questions about the nature and evolution of the human mind. He has received honors and distinctions for bo...

BACKGROUND There is increasing recognition that the development of evidence-informed health policy is not only a technical problem of knowledge exchange or translation, but also a political challenge. Yet, while political scientists have long considered the nature of political systems, the role of institutional structures, and the political contestation of policy issues as central to understand...

PURPOSE Medical device users are one of the principal medical device technology stakeholders. The involvement of users in medical device technology development and assessment is central to meet their needs. This study aims to examine this issue. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH A structured review of the literature published from 1980 to 2005 in peer-reviewed journals was carried out from a social...