ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: With the emerging information and communication technology, the field of medical informatics has dramatically evolved in health care and medicine. Thus, it is crucial to explore the global scientific research landscape on medical informatics. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to present a visual form to clarify the overall scientific research trends of medical informatics in the past decade. METHODS: A bibliometric analysis of data retrieved and extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database was performed to analyze global scientific research trends on medical informatics, including publication year, journals, authors, institutions, countries/regions, references, and keywords, from January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2020. RESULTS: The data set recorded 34,742 articles related to medical informatics from WoSCC between 2011 and 2020. The annual global publications increased by 193.86% from 1987 in 2011 to 5839 in 2020. Journal of Medical Internet Research (3600 publications and 63,932 citations) was the most productive and most highly cited journal in the field of medical informatics. David W Bates (99 publications), Harvard University (1161 publications), and the United States (12,927 publications) were the most productive author, institution, and country, respectively. The co-occurrence cluster analysis of high-frequency author keywords formed 4 clusters: (1) artificial intelligence in health care and medicine; (2) mobile health; (3) implementation and evaluation of electronic health records; (4) medical informatics technology application in public health. COVID-19, which ranked third in 2020, was the emerging theme of medical informatics. CONCLUSIONS: We summarize the recent advances in medical informatics in the past decade and shed light on their publication trends, influential journals, global collaboration patterns, basic knowledge, research hotspots, and theme evolution through bibliometric analysis and visualization maps. These findings will accurately and quickly grasp the research trends and provide valuable guidance for future medical informatics research.
ABSTRACT
Background: The world has been unprecedentedly hit by a global pandemic which broke the record of deadly pandemics that faced humanity ever since its existence. Even kids are well-versed in the terminologies and basics of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 now. The vaccination program has been successfully launched in various countries, given that the huge global population of concern is still far behind to be vaccinated. Furthermore, the scarcity of any potential drug against the COVID-19-causing virus forces scientists and clinicians to search for alternative and complementary medicines on a war-footing basis. Aims and Objectives: The present review aims to cover and analyze the etiology and epidemiology of COVID-19, the role of intestinal microbiota and pro-inflammatory markers, and most importantly, the natural products to combat this deadly SARS-CoV-2 virus. Methods: A primary literature search was conducted through PubMed and Google Scholar using relevant keywords. Natural products were searched from January 2020 to November 2020. No timeline limit has been imposed on the search for the biological sources of those phytochemicals. Interactive mapping has been done to analyze the multi-modal and multi-target sources. Results and Discussion: The intestinal microbiota and the pro-inflammatory markers that can serve the prognosis, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19 were discussed. The literature search resulted in yielding 70 phytochemicals and ten polyherbal formulations which were scientifically analyzed against the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its targets and found significant. Retrospective analyses led to provide information about 165 biological sources that can also be screened if not done earlier. Conclusion: The interactive analysis mapping of biological sources with phytochemicals and targets as well as that of phytochemical class with phytochemicals and COVID-19 targets yielded insights into the multitarget and multimodal evidence-based complementary medicines.