ABSTRACT
Background: The investigation into sudden unexpected and unnatural deaths supports criminal justice, aids in litigation, and provides important information for public health including surveillance, epidemiology, and prevention programs. The use of mortality data to convey trends can inform policy development and resource allocations. Hence, data practices/management systems in Forensic Medicine are critical. This study scoped literature and described the body of knowledge on data management and practice systems in Forensic Medicine. Methods: Five steps of the methodological framework of Arksey and O'Malley guided this scoping review. A combination of keywords, Boolean terms, and Medical Subject Headings was used to search PubMed, EBSCOhost (CINAHL with full text and Health Sources), Cochrane Library, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, WorldCat, and Google Scholar from the 18th to 24th of June 2020 and updated in November 2021 for peer review papers. This study included articles involving unnatural deaths, focused on data practice or data management systems, relating to Forensic Medicine, all study designs, and published in English. Screening and selection and data extraction were conducted by two reviews. Thematic analysis was conducted, and the results were reported using both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results: Of the 23,059 articles, 16 met this study's inclusion criteria. The included articles were published between 2008 and 2019. Eight of the 16 articles were published between 2017 and 2019. Most of the included studies were conducted in the USA (5) and Australia/New Zealand (4). Only two publications were from lower- and middle-income countries (Nigeria, Mexico), and the remaining 14 were from high-income countries (Italy, Denmark, USA, Australia, and New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland, Canada). The data management systems found in this study were as follows: Virtopsy, Canadian Coroner and Medical Examiner Database, Infant Injury Database, Fatal injury surveillance system, Medical Examiners and Coroners Alert System, National Violent Deaths Reporting System, AM/PM Database, Tokyo CDISC/ODM, and National Coronial Information System. Conclusions: This study's results revealed limited articles relating to data management and practice systems in Forensic Medicine, particularly in LMICs through literature indicating there is a prevalence of unnatural deaths in LMICs. This study, therefore, recommends research on data management and practice systems relating to forensic medicine in LMICs to inform policy decisions. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41935-022-00293-3.
ABSTRACT
In Africa, the efficiency of death investigation systems is impacted by a shortage of forensic pathologists. The continued use of paper-based documentation is an additional obstacle to accurate and up-to-date statistics and reporting. A sustainable, portable, and low-maintenance data collection system was designed to improve autopsy and statistics reporting and support an environment conducive to research. Accordingly, a mobile data application was created to store pertinent autopsy information in real-time and generate statistics and trend reports for various purposes. This user-friendly application was created for in-training, and practising pathologists use and requires minimal training. Implementation will provide an efficient and reliable system that will positively impact judicial processes and research in forensic pathology. The autopsy data application is currently undergoing user testing and will be piloted. The use of technology and digitisation alleviate multiple challenges, including deteriorating infrastructure, staff shortages, and unavailability of funding. The mobile application which conforms to legal and ethical requirements can significantly improve efficiency and offers a sustainable solution to forensic pathology practice in resource-constrained contexts.
Subject(s)
Documentation , Pathologists , Autopsy , Electronics , Forensic Medicine , Forensic Pathology , HumansABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Data related to forensic postmortems or autopsies are still mainly captured in hard copy format and archived. This paper-based practice impacts on the practitioner's ability to report on incidence, prevalence, and statistical trends related to cases that are commonly seen in mortuaries in forensic medicine. An autopsy can be used to inform and provide evidence-based knowledge for further research about important issues, including social development and assist in providing statistics and data for public health initiatives for implementation and monitoring. Currently, in forensic medicine and pathology research developments are largely hampered by the inefficient data capturing system which only allows access to basic information while pertinent information is largely recorded manually and is therefore difficult to obtain. There is thus a need to improve the efficiency of the data capturing system in forensic pathology, and this review is intended to inform the choice and decisions of appropriate data capture practices and is being conducted to identify nationally and internationally the current data mining and storage systems in place. METHODS: The methodology for this scoping review will be guided by the methodological framework for scoping review. The search strategy was developed by the authors, and we will conduct a search from 1 January 2008 of electronic databases (Cochrane Library, Scopus, Web of Science, and Science Direct) and search through WorldCat and PubMed for citations and literature using both keywords and the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).The electronic search will be supplemented by hand searching references of the included studies and references in journals and websites. All articles will be assessed for eligibility by two reviewers (the primary and secondary authors) and uploaded into EndNote Excel spreadsheet, and duplicates will be identified and removed. The two reviewers (primary and secondary authors) will screen the eligible abstracts and articles against the inclusion criteria, and selection will be on a minimum percentage agreement of 50%. The selection process will be documented by following and using a PRISMA flow diagram. The extracted data will be analyzed and reported in the form of a narrative review with descriptive analysis and text analysis once the data is summarized for description and characterization. DISCUSSION: The results of this review will identify and describe data capturing, management, and storage practices for use in forensic medicine. It will also review the efficiency of the different data systems and report where possible on the uses of the data system within the forensic medicine and pathology field. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Although research ethics approval is not required for this scoping review because the study will not include human or animal participants, the study was submitted for approval to the University of Kwazulu Natal Biomedical Research Ethics Committee and obtained provisional approval. Data will be sourced only from published literature and gray literature. The results will be presented at relevant national and international conferences and published in a peer-reviewed journal. All search results including excluded studies will be added into an addendum in the article and made available for public perusal to therefore ensure transparency and reproducibility.
