ABSTRACT
Introduction: Information Flow is one of the most critical aspects of information management in organizations. This study aimed to review three aspects of information flow: 'acquisition', 'production and storage', and 'dissemination' of information in the research centers affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences as well as their relationships with parent, parallel, and competing organizations
Methods: In this descriptive-analytical cross-sectional survey, data were collected by means of valid and reliable questionnaires. Kruskal Wallis Test was used for data analysis through SPSS
Results: Findings showed that there was a significant difference among centers in terms of emphasis on different kinds of 'information acquisition sources' [?[2]= 365.40, df= 10, p=0.000], 'methods of information acquisition' [?[2]= 32.40, df= 10, p=0.000], 'types and formats of storage of information' [?[2]= 27.22, df= 10, p=0.001] and 'carriers of production and storage of information' [?[2]= 28.18, df= 10, p=0.001]. But In regard to emphasis on 'audiences', 'methods and formats', and 'carriers' of dissemination of information, there were no significant differences among research centers [?[2]= 6.20, df= 10, p=0.695], [?[2]= 6.40, df= 10, p=0.795] and [?[2]= 16.95, df= 10, p=0.070, respectively]
Conclusion: The current associations going on in the research centers of Tehran University of Medical Sciences are mainly pertinent to two types of organizations: the parent organization [the University] and the aligned organizations. Altogether, relationships between the aligned and the competing organizations have not been defined yet. It can generally be said that the information flow is incomplete in the research centers under study
ABSTRACT
Some of the main questions which can be of importance for those researchers who intend to perform a systematic review in a field of science are: 'What databases should I use for my review?'; 'Do all these databases have the same value?'; and 'Which sources retrieved the highest of relevant references?'. The main aim of this work was the identification of the best database for retrieving information on telemedicine by comparing the percentage of relevant references among the total literature available that can be retrieved from each database. Databases [Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science] were searched on the topic of telemedicine and education, telemedicine and cost benefit, and also telemedicine and patient satisfaction. Results of analysis and accuracy coefficient, sensitivity, uniqueness, and the overlap of databases were calculated. The number of studies retrieved from each database varied for each topic. PubMed with 50.7% in accuracy and 61.4% in sensitivity was the most effective database for retrieving information on the abovementioned topics. Databases with the highest proportion of unique records in retrieved relevant references varied between the 38% for PubMed to 3% for CINAHL. The largest overlap in the four databases was between PubMed and the Web of Science [18.6%]. Few papers [0.7%] were indexed by all four databases. Our analysis suggests that information scientists, librarians, and researchers who want to access the best references on telemedicine should start by searching PubMed. Searching PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, respectively, will provide about 90% of the relevant available literature