Chatting Up the Next Big Thing: Generating Novel Ideas for Systematic Reviews in Breast Reconstruction Research Using Chat-GPT.

BACKGROUND: In reconstructive plastic surgery, the need for comprehensive research and systematic reviews is apparent due to the field's intricacies, influencing the evidence supporting specific procedures. Although Chat-GPT's knowledge is limited to September 2021, its integration into research proves valuable for efficiently identifying knowledge gaps. Therefore, this tool becomes a potent asset, directing researchers to focus on conducting systematic reviews where they are most necessary. METHODS: Chat-GPT 3.5 was prompted to generate 10 unpublished, innovative research topics on breast reconstruction surgery, followed by 10 additional subtopics. Results were filtered for systematic reviews in PubMed, and novel ideas were identified. To evaluate Chat-GPT's power in generating improved responses, two additional searches were conducted using search terms generated by Chat-GPT. RESULTS: Chat-GPT produced 83 novel ideas, leading to an accuracy rate of 83%. There was a wide range of novel ideas produced among topics such as transgender women, generating 10 ideas, whereas acellular dermal matrix (ADM) generated five ideas. Chat-GPT increased the total number of manuscripts generated by a factor of 2.3, 3.9, and 4.0 in the first, second, and third trials, respectively. While the search results were accurate to our manual searches (95.2% accuracy), the greater number of manuscripts potentially diluted the quality of articles, resulting in fewer novel systematic review ideas. CONCLUSION: Chat-GPT proves valuable in identifying gaps in the literature and offering insights into areas lacking research in breast reconstruction surgery. While it displays high sensitivity, refining its specificity is imperative. Prudent practice involves evaluating accomplished work and conducting a comprehensive review of all components involved.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on early termination of ophthalmology clinical trials: A cross-sectional analysis of ClinicalTrials.gov.

Objective: To study the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the early termination of ophthalmology clinical trials. Methods: On June 10, 2022, we searched ClinicalTrials.gov and identified clinical trials pertaining to eye diseases. We included trials last updated between January 1, 2020 and June 8, 2022, as ones possibly impacted by the pandemic. We selected all interventional trials in any stage and country that were "recruiting," "active, not recruiting," "enrolling by invitation," "suspended," "terminated," "completed," or "withdrawn" and excluded trials that had been completed or discontinued before 2020, had incomplete data, trials in which the eye was not the primary focus of the trial (e.g., Chediak-Higashi syndrome, myasthenia gravis). The following trial-level characteristics were collected: location, trial status, enrollment count, ocular condition, sponsors, intervention purpose, trial phase (I-IV), randomization, number of arms, and reasons for discontinuation. In addition to calculating descriptive statistics, we assessed whether trial characteristics differed between ophthalmology clinical trials canceled due to COVID-19 and those canceled for other reasons. Results: Following the screening, 2280/12,679 (18%) ophthalmology clinical trials were retained. Of these, 142 (6.2%) were discontinued between January 1, 2020 and June 8, 2022. Moreover, 34 out of 142 (23.9%) ophthalmology clinical trials were discontinued due to COVID-19. These trials were more likely to be sponsored by academic medical centers (26/34, 76.5% vs 57/108, 52.8%, p = 0.03) and were not assigned to a specific study phase, indicating they were not investigational new drugs (22/34, 64.7% vs 46/108 42.6%, p = 0.003). Conclusions: COVID-19-related trial discontinuations were more likely to be reported by academic medical centers and associated with trials investigating fully approved drugs, medical devices, procedures, diagnostic imaging, and behavioral changes. Further investigation of these characteristics may lead to a more robust and resilient understanding of the causes of early termination of these clinical trials.

Financial conflicts of interest of physicians followed by neurosurgical journals on Twitter.

BACKGROUND: Social media, particularly Twitter, has played an increasing role in networking and the dissemination of neurosurgical research. Despite extensive study on financial conflicts of interest (FCOI) influencing medical research, little is known about the function of conflicts of interest on social media and the influence they may have. In this study, we sought to evaluate the FCOI of physicians followed on Twitter by the top three neurosurgical journals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analysed the FCOI of United States (US) physicians followed by the top three neurosurgical journals (Journal of Neurosurgery, World Neurosurgery, Neurosurgery) on Twitter. We determined the FCOIs of each physician using the Open Payments Search Tool located at https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov and summed the data between 2014 and 2021. RESULTS: We examined 2651 Twitter accounts followed by the top three neurosurgical journals on Twitter and determined 705 (26.6%) belonged to US physicians. Of the 705 US physicians, 577 (81.8%) received general payments between 2014 and 2021. After excluding US physicians currently in residency or fellowship (n = 157), this percentage increased to 93.2% (n = 511/548). In total, nearly $70 million in general payments were made between 2014 and 2021. CONCLUSION: These findings raise questions regarding the interaction between neurosurgical journals and the medical community on Twitter. This study may serve as the basis for future work on best practices for medical journals navigating their affiliations on Twitter.

Rendering classical hydrophilic enantiopure Werner salts [M(en)3]n+nX- lipophilic (M/n = Cr/3, Co/3, Rh/3, Ir/3, Pt/4); new chiral hydrogen bond donor catalysts and enantioselectivities as a function of metal and charge.

Known hydrophilic halide salts of the title compounds are converted to new lipophilic BArf- (B(3,5-C6H3(CF3)2)4-) salts. These are isolated as hydrates (Λ- or Δ-[M(en)3]n+nBArf-·zH2O; z = 17-9) and characterized by NMR (acetone-d6) and microanalyses. Thermal stabilities are probed by capillary thermolyses and TGA and DSC measurements (onset of dehydration 71-151 °C). In the presence of tertiary amines, they are effective catalysts for enantioselective Michael type carbon-carbon or carbon-nitrogen bond forming additions of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds (acceptors: trans-ß-nitrostyrene, di-tert-butylazodicarboxylate, 2-cyclopenten-1-one; average ee = 33%, 52%, 17%). Effects of the metal and charge upon enantioselectivities are analyzed. A number of properties appear to correlate to the NH Brønsted acidity order ([Pt(en)3]4+ > [Cr(en)3]3+ > [Co(en)3]3+ > [Rh(en)3]3+ > [Ir(en)3]3+).