CareSearch

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/2328/27233

CareSearch palliative care knowledge network (or more simply CareSearch) is a suite of palliative care information and resources available at www.caresearch.com.au. The website is designed to support health professionals involved in providing palliative care and those needing palliative care and their families and friends.

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Browsing CareSearch by Author "Hayman, Sarah L"
Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    CareSearch revisited
    (Australian Library and Information Association - Health Libraries Australia, 2013-09) Hayman, Sarah L
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    Discovering the dementia evidence base: Tools to support knowledge to action in dementia care (innovative practice)
    (SAGE Publications, 2015-05-28) Hayman, Sarah L ; Tieman, Jennifer
    Dementia requires expert care and decision making, based on sound evidence. Reliable evidence is difficult for busy dementia care professionals to find quickly. This study developed an experimentally tested search filter as an innovative tool to retrieve literature on dementia. It has a known retrieval performance and can be provided as an open access web link directly to current literature. The Dementia Search Filter was developed using validated methodology. An Expert Advisory Group of dementia care practitioners and researchers ratified a representative set of relevant studies and undertook post hoc relevance assessment, to ensure the usefulness of the search filter. The Dementia Search Filter is published on two websites and combined with expert searches to link to evidence on dementia, at end of life in aged care settings and more generally. Evidence accessed by the Dementia Search Filter will help overcome barriers to finding current relevant research in the field, for practitioners, researchers and decision makers.
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    Finding the best available evidence: how can we know?
    (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, 2015) Hayman, Sarah L ; Tieman, Jennifer
    The importance (in all scientific fields) of finding and using evidence is growing rapidly, with increased recognition that decisions should be based on sound evidence. Key to finding this evidence is effective searching. Alongside this imperative, the searching context is becoming more complex. The number of articles indexed is enormous and increasing. In the medical field, PubMed contains over 24 million citations with over 1 million entered in 2014. Effective searching requires an understanding of database mechanisms and the terminology (including associated thesauri) of each subject. Searchers need an understanding of the requirements of the end user: what is considered relevant and what are the levels of evidence? We suggest that a scientific approach be taken to the searching process, to ensure that the best available evidence is found, and that search methodology is tested and validated. What methods can we employ to indicate what we might have missed in our search? Search results should be tested and results fed back into the search, to improve searching effectiveness and thereby outcomes for the end user. Search filters are validated search strategies, created using known methodology, for a given bibliographic database. The relevant terminology and database mechanisms are built into a strategy that is created from, and tested against, subsets of a gold standard set of references. Results are screened by external reviewers with expert subject knowledge, to minimise bias. The search filter performance is rated for precision and sensitivity, to provide known effectiveness in a standard set that can be extrapolated to open search. Details of the methodology and the filter performance are published for transparency. CareSearch and Flinders Filters have developed a number of subject-based search filters. This paper discusses the importance of evidence-based searching; how these search filters are developed and lessons for general searching in scientific literature.
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    Helping the clinician to help the patient: CareSearch evidence-based information for palliative care
    (Australian Library and Information Association - Health Libraries Australia, 2012-12) Hayman, Sarah L
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    Improve your literature searches with the new smart searching modules
    (Australian Library and Information Association - Health Libraries Australia, 2014-06) Hayman, Sarah L
    Sarah Hayman reports on SMART SEARCHING, a free set of online self-paced modules for librarians and researchers who want to enhance their literature searching skills. The resource was developed by CareSearch Palliative Care Knowledge Network, with support from Flinders Filters and Health Libraries Australia as an outcome of the ALIA HLA/HCN Health Informatics Innovation Award in 2012.
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    Knowing How Good Our Searches Are: An Approach Derived from Search Filter Development Methodology
    (University of Alberta, 2015) Hayman, Sarah L
    Objective – Effective literature searching is of paramount importance in supporting evidence based practice, research, and policy. Missed references can have adverse effects on outcomes. This paper reports on the development and evaluation of an online learning resource, designed for librarians and other interested searchers, presenting an evidence based approach to enhancing and testing literature searches. Methods – We developed and evaluated the set of free online learning modules for librarians called Smart Searching, suggesting the use of techniques derived from search filter development undertaken by the CareSearch Palliative Care Knowledge Network and its associated project Flinders Filters. The searching module content has been informed by the processes and principles used in search filter development. The self-paced modules are intended to help librarians and other interested searchers test the effectiveness of their literature searches, provide evidence of search performance that can be used to improve searches, as well as to evaluate and promote searching expertise. Each module covers one of four techniques, or core principles, employed in search filter development: (1) collaboration with subject experts; (2) use of a reference sample set; (3) term identification through frequency analysis; and (4) iterative testing. Evaluation of the resource comprised ongoing monitoring of web analytics to determine factors such as numbers of users and geographic origin; a user survey conducted online elicited qualitative information about the usefulness of the resource. Results – The resource was launched in May 2014. Web analytics show over 6,000 unique users from 101 countries (at 9 August 2015). Responses to the survey (n=50) indicated that 80% would recommend the resource to a colleague. Conclusions – An evidence based approach to searching, derived from search filter development methodology, has been shown to have value as an online learning resource. More information is needed about the reasons why people are using the resource beyond what could be ascertained by the survey results.
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    Palliative Care Knowledge for All Australians: Librarians’ Work within a Multidisciplinary Team Creating a National Health Knowledge Network
    (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, 2015) Hayman, Sarah L ; Tieman, Jennifer
    This paper introduces Australia’s CareSearch Palliative Care Knowledge network, outlining its information services, underpinning principle of evidence-based information and the contribution of librarians, integral to the multidisciplinary team. CareSearch is a federal government-funded project to provide relevant and trustworthy information to clinicians, patients, carers and families about all aspects of palliative care. This subject touches all Australians at some point. The information provided must be accurate, accessible and tailored to users’ needs. CareSearch emphasises the importance of evidence-based information to support the best possible care for those at the end of life and their loved ones. CareSearch identifies and enables access to evidence and uses evidence-based research approaches in designing and developing the service. This complex project employs a multidisciplinarily skilled team, with a wide range of expertise including medicine, nursing, web technology, education, marketing and informatics. Librarians bring information management expertise into the pool of skills in CareSearch, undertaking identification, classification and organisation of resources. They work with clinicians to ensure relevancy and accuracy, with website technicians for best practice navigation, and with marketing professionals for effective communication. A key innovative aspect of CareSearch’s information service provision is the creation of subject-based search filters to target the best available evidence about palliative care (and related topics) in the published medical literature. The librarians at CareSearch and its associated project Flinders Filters follow established methodology to create and test search strategies using a gold standard set of references, advised by external clinical experts. The search filter embeds technical searching expertise into a search strategy link for clinicians to do a reliable real time search. Search filters are embedded throughout the website in clinical evidence pages, as URLs to take clinicians directly into PubMed in hundreds of searches on topics of relevance to palliative care.