Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2009 Jul;97(3):212-8.
doi: 10.3163/1536-5050.97.3.010.

The selection of high-impact health informatics literature: a comparison of results between the content expert and the expert searcher

Elizabeth C Whipple  1 , Julie J McGowan, Brian E Dixon, Atif Zafar
Affiliations
Comparative Study

The selection of high-impact health informatics literature: a comparison of results between the content expert and the expert searcher

Elizabeth C Whipple et al. J Med Libr Assoc. 2009 Jul.

Abstract

Background: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) National Resource Center for Health Information Technology (NRC) created the Health IT Bibliography that contains peer-reviewed articles in eleven different health informatics categories. To create the bibliography, informatics experts identified what they considered the seminal articles in each category.

Methods: Using the same eleven categories, an expert searcher (librarian) compiled a list of the "best" health informatics articles using information seeking and retrieval tools. The two sets of articles were then compared using high citation counts as a measure of value.

Results: The expert searcher set (8,230) contained more than 3 times the citations to chosen articles compared to the content expert set (2,382). Of 60 articles, 27% of those articles (n = 16) were included in both sets. The frequently cited journals were similar for both sets, and one-third of the same authors were cited in both sets.

Discussion: While citation counts and the timeliness of the articles differed in the two sets, the same authors and same journals were frequently present in both sets.

Conclusion: A best practice for locating high-quality articles may be collaboration between expert searchers and content experts.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Process for content experts choosing articles for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) National Resource Center for Health Information Technology (NRC) Health Information Technology (IT) Bibliography
Figure 2
Figure 2
Process for expert searcher choosing health informatics articles
Figure 3
Figure 3
Number of times articles in each health IT category were cited
Figure 4
Figure 4
Chosen articles published by year
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Hölscher M, Strube G. Web search behavior of Internet experts and newbies. Intl J Comput Telecomm Netw. 2000 Jun;33(1–6):337–46.
    1. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, National Resource Center for Health Information Technology. Health IT bibliography: top resources for key topics [Internet] The Center; [rev. 13 Mar 2008; cited 21 Aug 2008]. < http://www.healthit.ahrq.gov/portal/server.ptopen512objID653PageID12790m...>.
    1. Dixon B.E. The landscape of the AHRQ Health Information Technology Portfolio. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2006:912. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Romano P.S, Geppert J.J, Davies S, Miller M.R, Elixhauser A, McDonald K.M. A national profile of patient safety in U.S. hospitals. Health Aff (Millwood) 2003 Mar–Apr;22(2):154–66. - PubMed
    1. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. AHRQ quality indicators—patient safety indicators: software documentation. Rockville, MD: The Agency; 2002.

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources