Using generative artificial intelligence in bibliometric analysis: 10 years of research trends from the European Resuscitation Congresses

Aims

The aim of this study is to use generative artificial intelligence to perform bibliometric analysis on abstracts published at European Resuscitation Council (ERC) annual scientific congress and define trends in ERC guidelines topics over the last decade.

Methods

In this bibliometric analysis, the WebHarvy software (SysNucleus, India) was used to download data from the Resuscitation journal's website through the technique of web scraping. Next, the Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4 (ChatGPT-4) application programming interface (Open AI, USA) was used to implement the multinomial classification of abstract titles following the ERC 2021 guidelines topics.

Results

From 2012 to 2022 a total of 2491 abstracts have been published at ERC congresses. Published abstracts ranged from 88 (in 2020) to 368 (in 2015). On average, the most common ERC guidelines topics were Adult basic life support (50.1%), followed by Adult advanced life support (41.5%), while Newborn resuscitation and support of transition of infants at birth (2.1%) was the least common topic. The findings also highlight that the Basic Life Support and Adult Advanced Life Support ERC guidelines topics have the strongest co-occurrence to all ERC guidelines topics, where the Newborn resuscitation and support of transition of infants at birth (2.1%; 52/2491) ERC guidelines topic has the weakest co-occurrence.

Conclusion

This study demonstrates the capabilities of generative artificial intelligence in the bibliometric analysis of abstract titles using the example of resuscitation medicine research over the last decade at ERC conferences using large language models.

Politics and health care spending in the United States: A case study from the passage of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act

This paper analyzes the interplay between congressional politics, the actions of the executive branch, and hospitals' regulated Medicare payments. We focus on the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) and analyze a provision in the law - Section 508 - that raised certain hospitals' regulated payments. We show, via our analysis of the Section 508 program, that Medicare payments are malleable and can be influenced by political dynamics. In the cross-section, hospitals represented by members of Congress who voted "yea" on the MMA were more likely to receive Section 508 payment increases. We interviewed the Secretary of Health and Human Services who oversaw the MMA, and he described how these payment increases were designed to win support for the law. The Section 508 payment increases raised hospitals' activity and spending. Members of Congress representing recipient hospitals received increased campaign contributions after the Section 508 payment increases were extended. Ultimately, our analysis highlights how Medicare payment increases can serve as an appealing tool for legislative leaders working to win votes for wider pieces of legislation.

Association of trial characteristics with simultaneous publication and its impact on citations and mentions: a cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES

Randomized trials are often presented at medical conferences and published simultaneously or later. Predictors of simultaneous publication and its consequences are undetermined. Our aim was to characterize the practice of simultaneous publication, identify its predictors, and evaluate its impact.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional study, we included randomized trials presented at late-breaking science sessions of major cardiovascular conferences from 2015 to 2021. The association of trial characteristics with the timing of publication was analyzed. The impact of simultaneous vs nonsimultaneous publication was investigated on the number of 1-year citations and 1-month mentions, and the total citations and mentions at the longest observation follow-up.

RESULTS

Of 478 trials included in the analysis, 48.7% were published simultaneously. Simultaneous publications were more likely to be presented in the main conference room (OR, 6.09; 95%CI, 1.34-36.92; P=.029) and were characterized by a shorter review time (OR, 0.95; 95%CI, 0.91-0.96; P<.001). Simultaneous publications were associated with higher 1-year citations (R2, 43.81; 95%CI, 23.89-63.73; P<.001), 1-month mentions (R2, 132.32; 95%CI, 85.42-179.22; P<.001) and total citations (R2, 222.89; 95%CI, 127.98-317.80; P<.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Randomized trials presented in the main conference room and with shorter review time were more likely to be published simultaneously. Simultaneous publications were associated with more citations and mentions than nonsimultaneous publications.

Computational analysis of 140 years of US political speeches reveals more positive but increasingly polarized framing of immigration

We classify and analyze 200,000 US congressional speeches and 5,000 presidential communications related to immigration from 1880 to the present. Despite the salience of antiimmigration rhetoric today, we find that political speech about immigration is now much more positive on average than in the past, with the shift largely taking place between World War II and the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1965. However, since the late 1970s, political parties have become increasingly polarized in their expressed attitudes toward immigration, such that Republican speeches today are as negative as the average congressional speech was in the 1920s, an era of strict immigration quotas. Using an approach based on contextual embeddings of text, we find that modern Republicans are significantly more likely to use language that is suggestive of metaphors long associated with immigration, such as "animals" and "cargo," and make greater use of frames like "crime" and "legality." The tone of speeches also differs strongly based on which nationalities are mentioned, with a striking similarity between how Mexican immigrants are framed today and how Chinese immigrants were framed during the era of Chinese exclusion in the late 19th century. Overall, despite more favorable attitudes toward immigrants and the formal elimination of race-based restrictions, nationality is still a major factor in how immigrants are spoken of in Congress.

The Audiologist's Role in Advocacy

Healthcare policy decisions that affect the day-to-day work of an audiologist and his/her ability to best serve our patients occur every day. It is imperative that every professional participate in advocacy efforts; however, many audiologists are unfamiliar with current advocacy initiatives, how to participate, or how critical one phone call, email, or meeting could be in the legislative process.

The United States Constitution and The Hypocrisy of the American Oath: January 6th Raid on The Capital

The purpose of this article is to discuss the hypocrisy of American ethics. This hypocrisy allows certain members of our society to breach their ethical duties and responsibilities without concern for the collective or regard for the oaths they pledge. This hypocrisy wields great power that continues to support the systemic discrimination that will be the downfall of this Country. By analyzing the January 6, 2021, raid on the Capital, we will examine how government officials and American citizens disregarded their oaths and committed unethical acts to overthrow the government. They used the American flag, that they pledge their lives in the name of Democracy, as a tool to incite violence and insurrection. Analysis of this incident clearly reflects that this selective application of ethical responsibility allows some government officials and members of society to commit violent acts against the government officials, institutions, and its citizenry, without the same criminal reprisal other Americans endure.

A new measure to understand the role of science in US Congress: lessons learned from the Legislative Use of Research Survey (LURS)

BACKGROUND

There is growing interest in and recognition of the need to use scientific evidence to inform policymaking. However, many of the existing studies on the use of research evidence (URE) have been largely qualitative, and the majority of existing quantitative measures are underdeveloped or were tested in regional or context-dependent settings. We are unaware of any quantitative measures of URE with national policymakers in the US.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

Explore how to measure URE quantitatively by validating a measure of congressional staff's attitudes and behaviors regarding URE, the Legislative Use of Research Survey (LURS), and by discussing the lessons learned through administering the survey.

METHODS

A 68-item survey was administered to 80 congressional staff to measure their reported research use, value of research, interactions with researchers, general information sources, and research information sources. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on each of these five scales. We then trimmed the number of items, based on a combination of poor factor loadings and theoretical rationale, and ran the analyses on the trimmed subscales.

FINDINGS

We substantially improved our model fits for each scale over the original models and all items had acceptable factor loadings with our trimmed 35-item survey. We also describe the unique set of challenges and lessons learned from surveying congressional staff.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

This work contributes to the transdisciplinary field of URE by offering a tool for studying the mechanisms that can bridge research and policy and shedding light into best practices for measuring URE with national policymakers in the US.

[Observational study of links of interest disclosure at the Congress of General Medicine France and links of interest of French physicians attending]

INTRODUCTION

Medical opinion leaders represent a marketing tool whose effectiveness is well documented in France and worldwide. They are less distrusted than pharmaceutical representatives, but this trust declines when they declare their ties. In France, the public database "Transparence-Santé" presents the financial ties of each professional with the health industries since 2012. These ties must be declared at the beginning of any public intervention since 2002 to improve the transparency of healthcare stakeholders.

OBJECTIVES

This study assessed the compliance with the obligation to disclose conflicts of interests at the Congress of General Medicine France 2020. Its secondary objective was to assess the financial ties of French physicians attending the congress using the data listed in "Transparence-Santé" through the Eurosfordocs project.

METHOD

Prospective cross-sectional observational study of all the interventions available on the congress' internet platform. All speakers, making either an oral or a written and commented presentation, who must declare their conflicts of interest, were included. A descriptive analysis of "Transparence-Santé" data was carried out for the doctors attending the congress.

RESULTS

Among 253 interventions, 34% complied with the disclosure requirement. The doctors participating in symposiums links of interests represented 92% of the global amount of congress' links of interests, with an average of 11,2k€/year, significantly higher than the 126€/year of other physicians.

CONCLUSION

The legal obligation to declare one's conflict of interest at congresses is little respected in France. Involvement of the organizers and using pre-established disclosure formats would improve transparency. It is necessary to develop the independence of speakers to improve research and medical expertise.

Lawmakers' use of scientific evidence can be improved

Core to the goal of scientific exploration is the opportunity to guide future decision-making. Yet, elected officials often miss opportunities to use science in their policymaking. This work reports on an experiment with the US Congress-evaluating the effects of a randomized, dual-population (i.e., researchers and congressional offices) outreach model for supporting legislative use of research evidence regarding child and family policy issues. In this experiment, we found that congressional offices randomized to the intervention reported greater value of research for understanding issues than the control group following implementation. More research use was also observed in legislation introduced by the intervention group. Further, we found that researchers randomized to the intervention advanced their own policy knowledge and engagement as well as reported benefits for their research following implementation.

Developing a Web-Based Congress: The 2020 International Web-Based Neurosurgery Congress Method

BACKGROUND

Continuing medical education and continuing professional development have been affected by the ongoing 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Therefore, we developed the 2020 International Web-Based Neurosurgery Congress (2020 IWBNC), which became the first successful virtual neurosurgical congress. The aim of this article was to describe the experience designing and organizing a web congress by the 2020 IWBNC method.

METHODS

The 2020 IWBNC was organized by the Center for Research and Training in Neurosurgery (Centro de Investigación y Entrenamiento en Neurocirugía [CIEN]) in a record time of 4 weeks. Eight committees were created and assigned a specific task. The event followed a strict protocol based on the double-room method, which consisted of 2 virtual rooms (A and B) hosted from 4 different physical locations to avoid lecture overlapping and connection drops. Quality and impact were measured by a videoconferencing platform and social media parameters as well as an audience perception survey.

RESULTS

High quality was achieved in academic standards, worldwide assistance, schedule adherence, and security. The 2020 IWBNC hosted 25 internationally renowned speakers and offered 30 top-of-the-line multidisciplinary conferences. There were 3096 participants from 125 countries, and 22,266 live-stream views were registered. No technical or cybersecurity-related issues occurred.

CONCLUSIONS

Web-based academic meetings will continue to be a helpful educational tool for continuing medical education and continuing professional development. The 2020 IWBNC double-room method represents an alternative design that may be replicated by the academic community planning web congresses and similar events.

Do bibliometric findings differ between Medline, Google Scholar and Web of Science? Bibliometry of publications after oral presentation to the 2013 and 2014 French Society of Arthroscopy (SFA) Congresses

INTRODUCTION

Bibliometrics consists in quantitative and qualitative analysis of an individual's or group's communication (volume, visibility), and impacts research funding. There are a number of bibliometric data sources, functioning in different ways and liable to give rise to differing statistics. This point has not been investigated in relation to publication following presentation to a French congress. We therefore conducted a study comparing the main bibliometric instruments, aiming to assess: (1) publication rates following oral presentation to the 2013 and 2014 French Society of Arthroscopy (SFA) Congresses according to the database used, and (2) citation rates for these publications according to database.

HYPOTHESIS

Publication and citation rates differ according to database. Material and method All 199 Abstracts of oral presentations to the 2013 and 2014 SFA Congresses were included. Based on author names and key-words, manual search was conducted in the Medline, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases. Publication characteristics (citation rate) were studied using the 3 databases and the French SIGAPS (Système d'Interrogation, de Gestion et d'Analyse des Publications Scientifiques: Scientific Publication Search, Management and Analysis System) website.

RESULTS

Publication rates according to Medline and Google Scholar were the same (48.2%: 96 articles for 199 presentations), but significantly lower on Web of Science (44.7%: 89/199; p=0.002). Citation rates differed significantly (p<0.001) between sources, with Google Scholar listing a mean 1.5-3.4-fold more citations per article than the other 2 databases. Citation rates between the 3 databases correlated strongly (r=0.93).

DISCUSSION

The example presented in this study illustrates the differences in bibliometrics found between different databases. There was a 4% difference (7/199 articles) in publication rates following oral presentation to an SFA Congress, and even greater differences in citation rates per article, with 1.5-3.4-fold more citations according to Google Scholar. Bibliometric studies need to acknowledge the database(s) being used, which should be as many as possible to enhance exhaustiveness.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

IV; descriptive epidemiologic study.

EuGMS 2019 Congress report: evidence-based medicine in geriatrics

Aim

To report on the 2019 EuGMS Congress in Krakow.

Findings

Evidence-based medicine in geriatrics is a previously neglected, now rapidly expanding field. Heterogeneity of our older population brings many questions and challenges for research.

Message

Personalized approaches based on evidence-based practices, standardisation of definitions and meaningful outcomes, in collaboration with older people themselves, and with other specialties, are the new frontiers and challenges for research.

The 2019 EuGMS Congress “Evidence-Based Medicine in Geriatrics” was held in Krakow, Poland, and attended by over 1600 participants from 64 different countries. A summary and reflection on the congress was presented in the Closing Ceremony by European Academy for Medicine of Aging graduates, and summarised in this article. Keynote lectures, ‘state of the art’ sessions and symposia presented the evidence relating to different age-related conditions, their prevention, management and treatments. Hot topic areas included frailty and multimorbidity, and evidence-based attempts to address these conditions at different life stages. The field of geriatrics represents unique challenges for evidence-based medicine practice. There is much research going on. Clear leadership is needed to facilitate consensus agreements on standard definitions, methods and relevant outcomes, in collaboration with older people themselves, to maximise the opportunities and benefits of doing this research, and benefiting our patients and society at large.

Stronger Together in Lab: Multi-Center and Laboratory Spine Studies Are Closer to Publication than Single-Center and Clinical Spine Studies: Snapshot of Annual Meetings of the Spine Society of Europe

Study Design

This is a cross-sectional study of literature databases.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyze the predictive factors for the publication rates of spine studies.

Overview of Literature

Spine research has garnered worldwide interest due to the increased number of spinal disorders in aging population.

Methods

We evaluated the abstracts presented at the annual meetings of the Spine Society of Europe between 2009 and 2012. Additionally, we recorded presentation categories, study designs, research types, random assignments of the subjects, single- or multi-center- based methodologies, and significance of the results.

Results

We evaluated 965 abstracts, 53.5% of which were published in peer-reviewed journals. Publication rates were significantly higher for oral presentations (62.9%) and prospective studies (61.3%) as compared to the poster presentations (46.7%) and retrospective studies (44.2%), respectively (p <0.001). Clinical studies contributed to about 86.1% of the published abstracts. However, publication rates were significantly higher for laboratory studies as compared to clinical studies (70.1% vs. 50.8%, p <0.001). Multi-center studies were closer to publication than single-center studies (67.1% vs. 52.2%, p =0.009). Our study demonstrated that multi-center studies (odds ratio, 1.81; p =0.016) and laboratory studies (odds ratio, 2.60; p <0.001) are more likely to be published.

Conclusions

Multi-center collaborations dedicated to experimental studies in spine research are highly ranked and more likely to be published in peer-reviewed journals.

Oil and gas companies invest in legislators that vote against the environment

Do campaign contributions from oil and gas companies influence legislators to vote against the environment, or do these companies invest in legislators that have a proven antienvironmental voting record? Using 28 y of campaign contribution data, we find that evidence consistently supports the investment hypothesis: The more a given member of Congress votes against environmental policies, the more contributions they receive from oil and gas companies supporting their reelection.

Carbon footprint of the RSNA annual meeting

PURPOSE

To determine the airplane travel-related carbon footprint of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting, the associated health burden, and the costs to offset these greenhouse gas emissions (i.e. compensation of emissions by funding an equivalent CO₂ saving elsewhere).

METHODS

The RSNA's website was used to determine the reported country of origin of attendees to the 2017 meeting that took place in Chicago from November 26 to December 1. It was assumed that attendees had traveled from the airport nearest to the largest city in their country or state to Chicago's O'Hare international airport. The total amount of air travel-related CO₂-equivalent emission (based on round-trip economy class travel), the imposed health burden in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in the global population, the total CO₂ offsets costs, and the CO₂ offsets costs per DALY were calculated.

RESULTS

The calculated airplane travel-related CO₂-equivalent emissions of 11,223 attendees from the United States and 10,684 attendees from other countries were 7,067,618 kg and 32,438,420 kg, totaling 39,506,038 kg. This caused an estimated 51.4-79.0 DALYs. The calculated amount of Total CO₂ offset costs were calculated to be $474,072, which corresponds to $6,001-9,223 per DALY averted.

CONCLUSIONS

The airplane travel-related carbon footprint of the RSNA annual meeting and the associated disease burden are relevant, and potential attendees and organizers should take measures to overcome this undesired side effect. Offsetting this carbon footprint is cost-effective and this initiative should be taken by the radiological community.

The 2019 Schizophrenia International Research Society Conference, 10-14 April, Orlando, Florida: A summary of topics and trends

The Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS) recently held its first North American congress, which took place in Orlando, Florida from 10-14 April 2019. The overall theme of this year's congress was United in Progress - with the aim of cultivating a collaborative effort towards advancing the field of schizophrenia research. Student travel awardees provided reports of the oral sessions and concurrent symposia that took place during the congress. A collection of these reports is summarized and presented below and highlights the main themes and topics that emerged during the congress. In summary, the congress covered a broad range of topics relevant to the field of psychiatry today.

Highlights of the 14th International Congress of the European Geriatric Medicine Society

PURPOSE

To report the most important messages of the 2018 EuGMS Congress in Berlin.

METHODS

Review based on an on-site attendance in the sessions by the European Academy for Medicine of Aging graduates.

RESULTS

The 14th Congress of the European Geriatric Medicine Society which took place in Berlin, Germany, from 10 to 12 October 2018, addressed the issue of challenges and opportunities associated with a fast changing modern world. Covering among other topics social issues, new technologies and the much-awaited new European definition of sarcopenia, the meeting streamed with important information.

CONCLUSIONS

Attended by more than 1800 participants from Europe and from across the world, it was one of the most successful geriatric events in 2018. In the following text, in preparation to the next, 15th Congress in Kraków, Poland, we briefly describe the highlights of the Berlin Congress.

Congress Report from Highly Scientific Nephrology Congresses in the Balkans, 15th Bantao and 6th MSNDTAO Congress

In the period from 26th until 29th of September 2019, the 15th BANTAO Congress (Balkan Cities Association of Nephrology, Dialysis, Transplantation and Artificial Organs) in conjunction with the 6th Congress of the Macedonian Society of Nephrology, Dialysis, Transplantation and Artificial Organs (MSNDTAO) was held in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia, hosted by the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MASA). MSNDTAO was created in 1992 and the First Congress of the MSNDTAO was held on 9th October 1993 in Ohrid when, also, the Balkan Association of Nephrology, Dialysis, Transplantation and Artificial Organs (BANTAO) was established, as the only professional association of this kind in the Balkans and Southern Europe. Since then, MSNDTAO has been very active in education and collaboration with BANTAO, the European Renal Association (ERA-EDTA) and the International Society of Nephrology (ISN). The 15th BANTAO and the 6th MSNDTAO Congress were highly professional events in honor of the 80th anniversary of Academician Momir Polenakovic from the Republic of North Macedonia, one of the founders of BANTAO and MSNDTAO, who was unselfishly dedicated to the education and guidance for many generations of young doctors in this region. This year's Congress was endorsed by the ERA-EDTA, and supported by the ISN. On the first day of the Congress, a European Renal Best Practice (ERBP) session was held, in which the Chair of the ERBP Working Group, Prof. Dr. Jonathan Fox gave a comprehensive insight of the purpose and aims of ERBP, the methods used for their achievement, and an overview of the recently produced and guidelines in development. The second day was organized in four sessions: Clinical nephrology and renal registries; CKD Diagnosis, comorbidities and treatment; Kidney transplantation and Acute and chronic renal failure management. On the third congress day, the ISN CME Course with ERA-EDTA endorsement was held. The course was entitled "Possibility of diagnosis and treatment of the CKD progression and complications/Possibility of diagnosis and treatment of the CKD progression - current perspective" and was chaired by Prof. Dr. Caskey Fergus and Prof. Dr. Serhan Tuglular. On the last Congress day, before the official closure and the best wishes from the President of the Congress, Prof. Dr. Goce Spasovski, a session about CKD and the renal replacement therapy complications was held. This event was of an exceptional importance for the region, considering the charred international achievements and the most up-to-date methods used in the Nephrology field, bringing out continuous quality improvement in the treatment of patients with renal diseases.

Social media in cardiology: Reasons to learn how to use it

Social media has changed the way we learn, educate, and interact with our peers. The dynamic nature of social media and their immediate availability through our portable devices (smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc.) is quickly transforming the way we participate in society. The scope of these digital tools is broad as they deal with many different aspects: Teaching and learning, case discussion, congresses coverage, peer to peer interaction, research are examples worth mentioning. The scientific societies considered more innovative, are promoting these tools between their members. These new concepts need to be known by the cardiologists to stay updated, as countless information is moving rapidly through these channels. We summarize the main reasons why learning how to use these tools to be part of the conversation is essential for the cardiologist in training or fully stablished.

Publication rate of abstracts presented at the Congress of the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT)

BACKGROUND

The publication rate of presented abstracts is an important parameter to assess the scientific quality of medical congresses. It has been investigated for many congresses in orthopaedics and traumatology, but until now, it has not been studied for the congress of the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT). The aims of this study were to determine: (1) the publication rate of the EFORT congress, (2) factors that favour publication of abstracts presented at the EFORT congress, (3) the consistency between the congress abstract and publication in relation to authorship.

HYPOTHESIS

There are factors that favour publication of abstracts presented at the EFORT congress and there is a high consistency between the congress abstract and publication in relation to authorship.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

All 1624 abstracts presented at the EFORT congress in 2011 were included in this study, to allow a 5-year period for publication after the congress. The characteristics of the abstracts presented were studied and the publication rate in peer-reviewed journals was determined using a Medline search.

RESULTS

The publication rate for studies presented at the 2011 EFORT congress was 42% (677/1624 abstracts), with a mean of 16 months (-56 to 60 months) between congress and publication. The mean impact factor of the publications was 1.8 (0-7.6). A significantly higher publication rate was found for: oral presentations (52%; 322/617) versus posters (35%; 355/1007) (p<0.01), experimental studies (53%; 110/208) versus clinical studies (40%; 507/1254) (p<0.01), and studies with higher levels of evidence of I or II (59%; 144/244) versus studies with lower levels of evidence of III or IV (36%; 362/1005) (p<0.01). A new author was added in 59% (403/677) of the publications.

DISCUSSION

Factors that favour publication of abstracts presented at the EFORT congress are oral presentation, experimental study, and a study with a higher level of evidence of I or II. It is common that a new author is added in the publication. Nevertheless, a high percentage of congress abstracts (58%; 947/1624) remains unpublished.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

IV, retrospective study.

Potential Role of Twitter at an Annual Congress in Japan - Narrative Literature Review of "Tweet the Meeting"

Background: Twitter has become increasingly popular at annual medical congresses as a platform to communicate to attendees. In contrast, Twitter is not as frequently used in Japan as compared with other countries. Herein, we reviewed the literature and discuss the potential role and risks of “tweet the meeting” in Japan.

Methods and Results: We performed a literature review to consider the recent trend of tweeting the meeting, including benefits and how to tweet, as well as potential risks. Upon officially deciding to tweet the meeting, a number of societies and professional organizations developed strategies to enhance the attendees’ experience using multiple modalities and guides. Although there are several risks, we provide a concise guide to tweeting the meeting for the Japanese audience, which could be useful for understanding what should be done before and during a conference.

Conclusions: The use of Twitter at medical congresses has many possibilities, and there are numerous potentials in many areas. We should discuss this in the light of the benefits for congress attendees in Japan.

Publication rates of abstracts presented at the 23rd (2013) and 24th (2014) National Turkish Orthopedics and Traumatology Congresses: We are not improving

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to determine 1) the publication rates of podium and poster presentations from the 23rd (2013) and the 24th (2014) National Turkish Orthopedics and Traumatology Congresses in peer-reviewed journals and (2) compare these rates with publication rates from the 20th congress (2007) published previously. The secondary objective was to determine the time lag to publication and compare this data with the data from the 20th congress.

METHODS

All abstracts from the scientific programs of the 23rd (2013) and the 24th (2014) National Turkish Orthopedics and Traumatology Congresses were identified and computerized PubMed searches were conducted to determine whether an abstract had been followed by publication of a full-text article in peer-reviewed journals. The time lag to publication was also noted.

RESULTS

Of the 993 presentation abstracts (302 podium and 691 poster presentations) from the 23rd congress and of the 940 presentation abstracts (310 podium and 630 poster presentations) from the 24th congress, 278 (28%) and 234 (24.9%) were followed by a full-text article in peer-reviewed journals indexed by PubMed, respectively. The rates of publication of the podium and poster presentations were 39.4% (119/302) and 23% (159/691), respectively from the 23rd and 37.7% (117/310) and 18.6% (117/630), respectively from the 24th congresses. The mean time to publication of the abstracts from the 23rd congress was 12.8 ± 18.8 (median: 13, range: -140 to 47) months and the mean time to publication of the abstracts from the 24th congress was 11.1 ± 14.42 (median: 11, range: -73 to 39) months. Fifty (50/278, 18%) abstracts from the 23rd congress (mean -11, range: [-32]-[-1], median -5 months) and 37 (37/234, 15.8%) abstracts from the 24th congress (mean -10.4, range: [-73]-[-1], median -4 months) were published as full-text articles prior to the presentation at the congress.

CONCLUSION

The vast majority of abstracts presented at 23rd (2013) and the 24th (2014) National Turkish Orthopedics and Traumatology Congresses were not followed by publication of a full-text article in peer-reviewed journals. The publication rates of the abstracts presented at these congresses did not improve when compared with the 20th (2007) congress.

Publication rate of abstracts orally presented at the Turkish Society of Anaesthesiology and Reanimation National Congresses

Objective

The most widely accepted parameter in evaluating the quality of research presented at scientific congresses is the success of publishing that research in a peer-reviewed journal. There are limited data in the literature about the publishing rates of abstracts orally presented at national congresses of the Turkish Society of Anaesthesiology and Reanimation (TARD) in scientific journals. The aim of the present study was to investigate the literary contribution of oral presentations at the TARD Congresses (TARK) and to present proposals for future congresses with detailed evaluation of the literature.

Methods

Overall, 319 orally presented abstracts at the TARK between October 2011 and October 2014 have been reviewed in the PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Abstracts were evaluated with respect to the institution of the principal author, type of research, publication status in scientific journal, type of publication, year of publication, rate of citation, order of authors and changes in title.

Results

The distributions of investigated papers were as follows: 73.1% clinical research, 21.9% experimental research, 2.5% case presentations and 2.5% survey studies. Moreover, 57.7% of the abstracts had authors from universities, 16% from research-training hospitals and 26.3% from mixed institutions. Further, 42.3% of the abstracts were published as articles in a scientific journal, 65.9% of the manuscripts were published in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) indexed, 8.1% in non-SCIE indexed international journals and 25.9% in national journals. There was no statistically significant difference between institution from which publications were sent and the index status of the journal (p=0.068). The average publication time of the abstracts was 15.01±12.26 months.

Conclusion

The publication rate of abstracts orally presented at the TARK between October 2011 and October 2014 is 42.3%, which is in accordance with other international studies. This indicates that the reports in the congresses were assessed by the jury according to international selection criteria and meticulously scored. The majority of the abstracts were published in journals that are listed in SCIE, indicating a quantitative data regarding the scientific quality of research in anaesthesiology.

Innovation and Invention

Being a transplant to the Golden State of California for the past 31 years, I have had the privilege to live in arguably one of the most vibrant and innovative states in our union, with energy and diversity visible in our geography, our almost 40 million residents from multiple ethnicities and belief systems, and the sixth largest economy in the world. Therefore, this April, southern California's invigorating atmosphere will be the perfect climate to spark and nourish ideas that affect our practice when the 44th annual Oncology Nursing Society Congress takes place in Anaheim.

KEEPING SODA IN SNAP: Understanding the Other Iron Triangle

Participants in SNAP have always been allowed to use their taxpayer-funded benefit to purchase Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSBs). Despite an acute public health crisis surrounding the consumption of unhealthy products including SSBs, especially among the low-income citizens who also qualify for SNAP benefits, this policy has yet to be changed. Interviews with policy participants in Washington, D.C., reveal that change is being blocked by a culture of "personal responsibility" in America, plus three specific political forces: corporate lobbying primarily by the beverage and food retail industries; a desire by liberals to defend SNAP as income support for the poor even if nutrition outcomes are sub-optimal; and institutional inertia within the Department of Agriculture and the agricultural committees of Congress. In the 2018 farm bill debate, this "iron triangle" of bipartisan resistance to change was strong enough to block even a pilot study of SSB restrictions in SNAP.

Is publication bias present in gastroenterological research? An analysis of abstracts presented at an annual congress

Background

Publication bias is the tendency of investigators, reviewers, and editors to submit or accept manuscripts for publication based on their direction or strength of findings. In this study, we investigated if publication bias was present in gastroenterological research by evaluating abstracts at Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Congresses from 2011 to 2013.

Methods

We searched Google, Google Scholar, and PubMed to locate the published reports of research described in these abstracts. If a publication was not found, a second investigator searched to verify nonpublication. If abstract publication status remained undetermined, authors were contacted regarding reasons for nonpublication. For articles reaching publication, the P value, study design, time to publication, citation count, and journals in which the published report appeared were recorded.

Results

Our study found that of 569 abstracts presented, 297 (52.2%) reported a P value. Of these, 254 (85.5%) contained P values supporting statistical significance. The abstracts reporting a statistically significant outcome were twice as likely to reach publication than abstracts with no significant findings (OR 2.10, 95% CI [1.06–4.14]). Overall, 243 (42.7%) abstracts reached publication. The mean time to publication was 14 months and a median time of nine months.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we found evidence for publication bias in gastroenterological research. Abstracts with significant P values had a higher probability of reaching publication. More than half of abstracts presented from 2011 to 2013 failed to reach publication. Readers should take these findings into consideration when reviewing medical literature.

How Intense Policy Demanders Shape Postreform Politics: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act

The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been a politically volatile process. The ACA's institutional design and delayed feedback effects created a window of opportunity for its partisan opponents to launch challenges at both the federal and state level. Yet as recent research suggests, postreform politics depends on more than policy feedback alone; rather, it is shaped by the partisan and interest-group environment. We argue that "intense policy demanders" played an important role in defining the policy alternatives that comprised congressional Republicans' efforts to repeal and replace the ACA. To test this argument, we drew on an original data set of bill introductions in the House of Representatives between 2011 and 2016. Our analysis suggests that business contributions and political ideology affected the likelihood that House Republicans would introduce measures repealing significant portions of the ACA. A secondary analysis shows that intense policy demanders also shaped the vote on House Republicans' initial ACA replacement plan. These findings highlight the role intense policy demanders can play in shaping the postreform political agenda.

Protistology Conferences: The Beginnings. The First International Protozoology Conference (Prague 1961) and the Tribute to Otto Jírovec, its Spiritual Father

Two events have helped to shape protozoology/protistology as a specific scientific discipline. The first such event was the creation of the Society of Protozoologists in the U.S. in 1947 (and of its Journal of Protozoology, first published in 1954), the second event was the First International Conference on Protozoology, held in 1961 in Prague. The history of the Society of Protozoologists was comprehensively treated by Corliss (1998); the history of the Prague Conference is presented here as reminiscences and personal interpretation of events of the author, who was one of the conference organizers and a member of the organization committee. Special attention is given to the personality and scientific accomplishments of Otto Jírovec, the 1961 conference spiritual father and president. It is concluded that the Prague Conference, while establishing the tradition of protistology meetings, helped protistology to attain its present status as a fundamental science discipline, which discovers and interprets the web of life at one of its, basic, "microbial" levels. Protists literally permeate the earth biosphere and in a way represent the "dark matter" of the living world, still awaiting many discoveries.

Publication rates of the abstracts presented at the annual meeting of International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery

INTRODUCTION

Publication of a study is the end point of the process to contribute to the literature and confirm the scientific value of the study. Publication rates of the abstracts presented at the annual meetings of neurosurgery have been studied, previously. However, publication rates of the abstracts presented at the annual meetings of pediatric neurosurgery have not been reported, yet. We evaluated abstracts presented at the 38th annual meeting of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (ISPN) held in South Korea, 2010.

METHODS

We conducted this cross-sectional study by reviewing the abstracts presented at the annual meeting of the ISPN, 2010. Titles and authors of the abstracts were surveyed using Google Scholar and PubMed/MEDLINE. Time to publication, origin of the study, journal name in which the study has been accepted and published, and type of study has been analyzed for each abstract.

RESULTS

The abstract booklet included 235 abstracts, consisted of 128 oral presentations (54%) and 107 electronic posters (46%). Fifty-nine (46%) of the oral presentations were published in a peer-reviewed journal. Laboratory studies were more likely to be published when compared to the clinical studies (72 vs. 39%). Thirty-two (30%) of the electronic posters were published in peer-reviewed journals. Most of the published abstracts were from Asia and Europe. Most of the abstracts were published in Child's Nervous System and Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.

CONCLUSION

Publication rates of the abstracts presented at annual meeting of the ISPN were comparable to the other similar congresses. Oral presentations were more likely to be published. High publication rates of the abstracts presented at the annual meeting of the ISPN suggested that the meeting had a high scientific value.

Do we publish what we preach? Analysis of Spanish Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Society publication rates

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this study is to analyse the publication rate of studies presented as podium presentations in the Spanish Society of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery (SECHC) congresses.

METHODS

One hundred and twenty-two abstracts presented at the SECHC congresses held in 2007, 2009 and 2011 were included for the purpose of the study. The oral communications were categorized by study type, sample included and follow-up. In June 2017, possible publications of these studies were searched in PubMed. Type of study, delay in publication, journal and impact factor obtained were recorded. The concordance between the information presented at the congress and their subsequent full-text publications was analysed.

RESULTS

The publication rate was 17.21% (21 of the 122 abstracts studied) after 6 years, with a mean time spent for publications of 36.71 months, and a mean impact factor of 1.51. There were no differences between results initially presented at the congresses and those subsequently published (P>0.05).

DISCUSSION

The majority of papers presented at SECHC congresses do not end up with a publication. The papers that are published do not usually contain significant differences compared to the content delivered at the congress.

Expanding Medicaid, Expanding the Electorate: The Affordable Care Act's Short-Term Impact on Political Participation

The Affordable Care Act is a landmark piece of social legislation with the potential to reshape health care in the United States. Its potential to reshape politics is also considerable, but existing scholarship suggests conflicting expectations about the law's policy feedbacks, especially given uneven state-level implementation. In this article I focus on the policy feedbacks of the law's Medicaid expansion on political participation, using district-level elections data for 2012 and 2014 US House races and cross-sectional survey data from 2014. I find that the increases in Medicaid enrollment associated with the expansion are related to considerably higher voter turnout and that this effect was likely due to both an increase in turnout for new beneficiaries and a backlash effect among conservative voters opposed to the law and its implementation. These results have important implications for our understanding of the ACA and of the impact of welfare state expansions on political participation, particularly in federalized systems.

Impact of tobacco industry and other corporations in the defeat of the 1994 Clinton health care plan

BACKGROUND

The primary reason cited by many scholars for the defeat of the Clinton Administration's 1994 health care reform bill has long been identified as Health Insurance Association of America and National Federation of Independent Businesses opposition to the bill. Given this predominant consensus combined with sizeable proposed funding for the bill by a large tobacco product tax, this manuscript examined what the tobacco industry's role was in whole or part in defeating the Clinton health care bill.

METHODS

This research occurred through crosschecking internal tobacco industry documents and Clinton White House documents.

RESULTS

Prior to the passage of the bill, the tobacco industry accepted a compromise of 45 cents per pack increase phased in over five years. Due to this compromise, the industry or third party allies had no role in the ultimate defeat in the bill.

CONCLUSIONS

The primary reason for the bill's ultimate defeat was general business (but not tobacco industry and third party ally) opposition, the bill running out of time, and conflicting bills. Secondary reasons for the bill's defeat included issues with: employer mandates, high taxes on insurance plans, impacts on medical research and education, Congressional attention to other issues, election year politics, and possible future excise tax possibilities.

Bankruptcy reform and congressional action: The role of organized interests in shaping policy

This paper tests the degree to which PAC contributions can influence voting outcomes on legislation that disproportionately influences the poor. Using passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 in the House of Representatives, the results show an association between PAC campaign contributions from the financial industry and support for final passage of bankruptcy reform. The findings suggest that one source of underrepresentation of the poor may be donations made by interest groups during campaigns.

Influence of social networks on congresses of urological societies and associations: Results of the 81th National Congress of the Spanish Urological Association

OBJECTIVE

To measure social network activity during the 81th National Congress of the Spanish Urological Association (AEU) and to compare it with the activity during other congresses of national and international urological associations.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We designed and registered the official hashtag #AEU16 for the 81^th National Congress of the AEU on the Symplur website. The following measurements were recorded: number of participants, number of tweets, tweets by participant, tweets per hour and views.

RESULTS

The number of participants in the social network activity during the congress was 207. The measurements of activity in Twitter consisted of a total of 1866 tweets, a mean rate of 16 tweets/h, 9 tweets per participant and 1,511,142 views. The activity during the international congresses is as follows: 2016 American Urological Association annual congress (views: 28,052,558), 2016 European Association of Urology annual congress (views: 13,915,994), 2016 Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand (views: 4,757,453), 2015 Société Internationale d'Urologie annual congress (views: 1,023,038). The activity during the national congresses was recorded as follows: 2016 Annual Conference of The British Association of Urological Surgeons (views: 2,518,880), 81th National Congress of the AEU (views: 1,511,142), 109th Congress of l'Association Française d'Urologie (views: 662,828), 67th German Congress of Urology (views: 167,347). We found 10 posts in Facebook and 2 communications via Periscope TV related to #AEU16.

CONCLUSIONS

The social network activity during the 81^th National Congress of the AEU was notable given the results of this study. The use of social networks has expanded among urological associations, congresses and meetings, giving them a global character.

American Geriatrics Society Policy Priorities for New Administration and 115th Congress

This paper is a statement of the American Geriatrics Society's (AGS) core policy priorities and the Society's positions on federal programs and policies that support older Americans as articulated to the new administration. Among the AGS priorities discussed in this paper are health reform, Medicare, and Medicaid. The AGS is committed to leveraging its expertise to inform regulatory and legislative policy proposals.

Addressing adolescent pregnancy with legislation

Adolescent pregnancy is a concern among many women's health practitioners. While it is practical and appropriate to work to prevent adolescent pregnancy by educating adolescents in health care clinics, schools and adolescent-friendly community-based organizations, suggesting and supporting legislative efforts to reduce adolescent pregnancy can help address the issue on an even larger scale. This article aims to help nurses better understand current legislation that addresses adolescent pregnancy, and to encourage support of future adolescent pregnancy prevention legislation.

[The fate of the oral communications presented at the SIFUD congress (2006-2012)]

INTRODUCTION

The subjects presented at scientific congresses often remain confidential because of the non-indexation of the communications. A subsequent publication is necessary for the dissemination of knowledge. The value of a congress is somehow rated by the level of its publications.

OBJECTIVES

To analyze, quantitatively and qualitatively, the fate of the communications presented orally at the annual meeting of the SIFUD-PP between 2006 and 2012.

METHOD

From the authors' names and the title of the communications presented orally at congresses between 2006 and 2012, we investigated if those communications had resulted as an indexed publication PubMed/Medline until April 2015. We studied anonymously the correlation between the data presented in the communication provided at the SIFUD-PP congress and the data published in the final article. We evaluated the "value" of the publication according to the language of publication (French/English), the ranking of the magazine (A or B versus others), and the number of citations of the article in Google-Scholar.

RESULTS

A total of 270 oral communications were presented at the SIFUD congress between 2006 and 2012, so an average of 38.5 (±15) per year. Globally, 110 articles (40%) have been published in an indexed journal PubMed/MedLine to date (April 2015). Note that 10 articles of the oral communications (8%) were published before the congress. The average time of publication was 22 months±15 months. In terms of the language of publication, 79 articles (71%) were published in English magazines. They were published in 31 different journals (49 articles [44%] in urology, 14 articles [12%] in gynecology, 12 articles [10%] in urogynecology, 11 articles [10%] in coloproctology, 16 articles [14%] in neuro-urology and physical medicine and rehabilitation, 3 articles [2%] in sexology). Sixty-three articles (57%) were published in journals with an impact factor (IF) higher than 2 and 39 articles (35%) were published in journals of rank A or B.

DISCUSSION

The rate of publications of oral communications varies according to specialties and the type of the congress. For example, the rate of the published communications at the ICS Congress (International Continence Society) in 2003 was 61% and of the AFU (French Association of Urology) in 2000, was 34.5%. The rate of publication of the oral abstracts presented at the SIFUD (40% over the period 2006-2012) is comparable to other national congresses but slightly inferior to those of international congresses. Several hypotheses may explain the non-publication of the oral communications (quitting the project, communication about preliminary results, refused publication by many journals) and unfortunately we do not have those results. We should get back individually to the submitters to know the reasons for non-publication of their works.

CONCLUSION

In the end, 40% of the oral communication presented at the annual congress of the SIFUD were published in an indexed journals PubMed/MedLine. Seventy-one percent of them are in English.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

4.

Cancer death rates in US congressional districts

Knowledge of the cancer burden is important for informing and advocating cancer prevention and control. Mortality data are readily available for states and counties, but not for congressional districts, from which representatives are elected and which may be more influential in compelling legislation and policy. The authors calculated average annual cancer death rates during 2002 to 2011 for each of the 435 congressional districts using mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics and population estimates from the US Census Bureau. Age-standardized death rates were mapped for all sites combined and separately for cancers of the lung and bronchus, colorectum, breast, and prostate by race/ethnicity and sex. Overall cancer death rates vary by almost 2-fold and are generally lowest in Mountain states and highest in Appalachia and areas of the South. The distribution is similar for lung and colorectal cancers, with the lowest rates consistently noted in districts in Utah. However, for breast and prostate cancers, while the highest rates are again scattered throughout the South, the geographic pattern is less clear and the lowest rates are in Hawaii and southern Texas and Florida. Within-state heterogeneity is limited, particularly for men, with the exceptions of Texas, Georgia, and Florida. Patterns also vary by race/ethnicity. For example, the highest prostate cancer death rates are in the West and north central United States among non-Hispanic whites, but in the deep South among African Americans. Hispanics have the lowest rates except for colorectal cancer in Wyoming, eastern Colorado, and northern New Mexico. These data can facilitate cancer control and stimulate conversation about the relationship between cancer and policies that influence access to health care and the prevalence of behavioral and environmental risk factors.

Politics of science: Progress toward prevention of the dementia-Alzheimer's syndrome

There exist many challenges hampering the discovery and development of effective interventions to prevent dementia. Three major trends have now intersected to influence the emerging interest in disease modifying therapies that may delay or halt dementia. The three crucial factors shaping this current focus are: (1) the emergence of the longevity revolution and the impact of a aging society, (2) the effects of the US Federal investment in research in advancing knowledge about the neurobiology of aging and dementia, and (3) the problem of US legislators and health policy makers to balance the allocation of evermore scarce research funding resources. The purpose of this essay is to provide a survey of the politics of science and to describe efforts to correctly manage the high level of expectations of both the patient and research communities. The perspective offered reviews the history and evolution of the ideas to treat or prevent dementia and Alzheimer's disease as a national strategic goal. The aim is to evaluate the interplay between science and formulation of public policy for setting research priority. We use the history of developing US National Institute of Aging's extramural research programs on brain aging and Alzheimer's disease (Khachaturian, 2006; 2007) as an initial case study.