ABS: Sun, Benchmarking the clinical orthodontic evidence on Medline

[Gretchen Whitney]

email:
Richard Niederman: richard_niederman at hms.harvard.edu

TITLE           Benchmarking the clinical orthodontic evidence on Medline
AUTHOR  Sun RL, Conway S, Zawaideh S, Niederman R
JOURNAL ANGLE ORTHODONTIST  70: (6) 464-470 DEC 2000

 Document type: Article    Language: English    Cited References: 18
Cited: 0


Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to identify and quantify the availability of
orthodontic literature for evidence-based clinical decision-making (ie,
sound clinical
studies of etiology, diagnosis, treatment, or prognosis meeting basic
methodologic criteria for direct clinical use). This is a first step toward
developing online
decision analysis systems. A search strategy based on Medical Subject
Headings (MeSH) for orthodontics was developed to examine MEDLINE using the
Ovid Web Gateway search engine. Sensitive and specific methodologic search
filters were then employed to identify the 4 categories of information. The
results were then subdivided by year to identify trends and sorted to
identify source of publications, In the period 1990 to 1998, the MEDLINE
searches
identified 6938 English-language articles about orthodontics. The mean
number of articles (+/-SD) per year ranged from 42 +/- 25 for specific
searches to
314 +/- 214 for sensitive searches. The number of articles identified by the
specific or sensitive searches increased 14% to 21% annually. When
subdivided
by clinical category, the mean numbers of articles per year for specific and
sensitive searches were respectively: etiology 19 +/- 15 and 91 +/- 37,
diagnosis
11 +/- 5 and 80 +/- 35, therapy 3 +/- 1 and 50 +/- 23, and prognosis 10 +/-
7 and 93 +/- 33. Five dental journals accounted for nearly half of these
publications. These results provide several key findings: (1) there is a
substantial literature of clinically relevant information in orthodontics
upon which to base
clinical decisions; (2) the information appears to be balanced between
etiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis; (3) approximately 45% of the
articles
reside in 5 journals, whereas the remainder reside in approximately 66 other
journals, making it difficult to stay current; (4) the number of articles is
increasing
significantly each year; (5) to stay current, one would need to read between
1 and 6 articles per week, 52 weeks per year; (6) these trends suggest the
need
fur computer-based clinical knowledge systems; and (7) the methods used here
can be immediately employed to identify the best and most current clinical
orthodontic evidence. (Angle Orthod 2000;70:000-000.).

Author Keywords:
bibliometrics, orthodontics, etiology, diagnosis, therapeutics, prognosis

KeyWords Plus:
RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS, MEDICINE, HEALTH, SEARCHES, PAPER, CARE, READ

Addresses:
Niederman R, Harvard Univ, Sch Dent Med, Off Evidence Based Dent, 188
Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115 USA.
Harvard Univ, Sch Dent Med, Off Evidence Based Dent, Boston, MA 02115 USA.
Forsyth Inst, Boston, MA USA.
Countway Lib Med, Reference & Educ Serv, Boston, MA USA.
Harvard Univ, Sch Dent Med, Dept Growth & Dev, Boston, MA 02115 USA.

Publisher:
ANGLE ORTHODONTISTS RES EDUC FOUNDATION INC, APPLETON

IDS Number:
385LY

ISSN:
0003-3219
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