Citation Analysis in Health Care Sciences

Abstract

SummaryBackground: Citations of scientific papers in health care have become a subject of interest, as in any scientific sector. However, such a metric, while useful in a simple way, can become subject to too much credibility, and therefore to advanced analyses which are not soundly grounded even if methodologically valid.Objectives: The objective was to contextual-ise citation indices in health care science, juxtaposed with a parallel analytic paper.Methods: The literature was reviewed and set against the objectives of metrics of literature and of researchers.Results: The strengths and weaknesses of citation indices in the health sector were identified, with practical examples of perverse effects, and compared with the core objectives of health care development.Conclusions: Citation indices in health care science have a value, but this is limited to giving a broad overview. Other measures of effectiveness, including impact on education, on health care development, and on stimulation of applied developments, are needed rather than spuriously scientific advanced analyses of citation counts.

A Method to Evaluate Critical Factors for Successful Implementation of Clinical Pathways

“…The way of payment for medical service [20,30] Hospital accreditation system [30] Cognitive level of clinical staff [3,12,16,20,23] Cognitive level of patients [12] Cognitive level of hospital administrators [12,16] Working environment of hospital for the implementation of CP [8,16,20,24] Management capacity of relevant departments [12,16,20] HIT support for CP [1,3,8,20,23,24] Establishment of responsible office for CP implementation [12,16,30] Diseases for CP execution [1] Quality of CP templates [1,16,20] Adherence between computerized CPs and CP templates [1,24] Evidence for diagnosis [1,6,20] Evidence for therapy options [1,6,20] Standard for inclusion and exclusion [13 ,20] Number of complications [3,13]…”

“…• HIT can provide new ways for healthcare providers and their patients to readily access and use health information, and has the potential to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare [24,38]. HIT is important because it enables information sharing and efficient interoperability of medical and health information through information systems in hospital.…”

“…With the development of HIT, paperbased CPs are gradually transformed to computerized CPs, which improves the interoperability efficiency of CPs [31]. Thus, HIT, as usually both the enabler and facilitator of CPs, has been recognized as an indispensable component to CP implementation [24]. Overlooking the role of HIT can result in failure of CP implementation, while appropriate HIT capabilities are particularly effective in realizing the other CSFs by integrating hospital managers, clinical staff, patients, and medical services together.…”

Service research: past, present and future research agenda

“…Scholars have conducted empirical studies of evolution by focusing on specific service sectors, including hospitality (Arici et al , 2021), education (Tight, 2008), health care (Rigby, 2014) and marketing (Sheoran et al , 2018). However, these investigations have not provided a comprehensive view of the evolving patterns of the service literature.…”

“…Third, recent bibliometric studies have merely focused on analyzing a historical evolution of a single journal (Donthu et al , 2020; Tur-Porcar et al , 2018). Moreover, several scholars have considered it a unique sector and a territory (Rigby, 2014). These attempts have of course provided a meaningful contribution to the knowledge, but they fault revealing a complete big picture of service literature because a greater wide bibliometric research could potentially create more generic outcomes.…”