Running Out of Funds

Zhelnov P. Running out of funds. Zheln. 2020 Dec 26;52(2):s29e2. URI: https://zheln.com/summary/2020/12/26/2/.

Status

• As predicted, Zheln is running out of funds.
• Nothing happened on Zheln in the past week.
• Starting next week, record screening and tagging and appraisals are officially on pause.
• However, I will continue to download daily records from PubMed to ensure continuity.
• The time to work closely on the business model for Zheln has eventually come. I’m currently working on it and a couple related projects.
• More info on the Zheln’s future is about to come in the next, Anniversary 30th Zheln Summary Post.

Who Is Zheln For?

Everyone

Watch thorough and concise video-reviews of new important health research on YouTube (Health Science News)

Health Care Practitioners

Stay up to date with published systematic reviews in your AMA medical specialty (Zheln Records)

Academic Researchers

Explore methods used to power this affiliation-free, crowdfunded, living open evidence synthesis (Zheln Protocol)

What Exactly Is Zheln?

In practice, Zheln has got two components: Zheln Records and Zheln Appraisals aka Health Science News.

Zheln Records

• Zheln Records are records that came from my Replicated Systematic Subset PubMed query retrieving most of all systematic reviews being published. They are different from plain PubMed records in that I’m tagging them with AMA specialty tags taken from the AMA Physician Masterfile specialty list, so you can browse Zheln Records by AMA Specialty, whereas on PubMed, locating all records relevant to your specialty requires use of very extensive search strategies and is, in practice, unfeasible. Of course, Zheln Record Search is also available.
• They are added daily (unless PubMed fails, and it does), most of them were published this fall, and each of them is counting as a true positive by Shojania & Bero 2001 criteria for systematic reviews. There are 864 recent systematic review records on Zheln currently.
• As you can see from the Zheln appraisal log and from the flow diagram below, only a (random) fraction of Replicated Systematic Subset records is processed as Zheln Records currently because this is a very high workload (roughly 500 new records daily on average), but not to worry: As soon as I crowd-raise enough money to keep Zheln running ($600/mo), I will make artificial intelligence do the stuff (in fact, it could manage even better than I do). This will involve discussions with machine learning specialists in evidence synthesis, such as Iain Marshall, and will allow stable processing of 100% of records.

Health Science News

• When I skim through the Zheln Records, I select the most appealing systematic reviews, critically appraise and replicate them, and record two-minute summary videos targeted at general audiences. At first, I planned to publish these videos daily, but now it is clear it is not feasible at present.
• As a rule, I select a review for a critical appraisal with replication when the topic covered is likely to have a very large practice impact with regard either to both global health care workers and the public or to the minorities. COVID-19 publications are not selected.
• Crowdfunding an appraisal is also possible.
• Some of the appraisals are already available as Health Science News on YouTube. Also, I make some of these natively available in Russian. Finally, all of these are also available from the Zheln Instagram channel.

Scientific Nuts & Bolts

• Zheln is not only an affiliation-free, nonprofit, health-educational project but also a formal scientific study.
• Read the preprint of the full-featured academic protocol for the Zheln overview of systematic reviews: DOI 10.31222/osf.io/y2nrb. I also submitted it for PROSPERO registration but was told processing the submission might take up to three months due to very high demand.
• It has not been peer-reviewed yet, but I’m eager! I welcome wide discussion and feedback of any sort very much, so please do engage me on Twitter or elsewhere!
• Also, I have started contacting the authors and publishers of the systematic reviews I appraise (first on Twitter, then, if no answer, by email) to collect more feedback and possibly resolve any content misunderstandings at my end. Please follow me on Twitter to engage in public discussions; I’m really looking forward to this!
• At last, external peer comments on the project have started to appear at ResearchGate.

Zheln Flow Diagram

This is the Zheln flow diagram. It shows the flow of systematic reviews on Zheln since the last summary post. The flow diagram is modified from the PRISMA 2020 Statement preprint by Matthew Page et al. and the SRflowdiagram tool by Neal Haddaway. I am deeply grateful to the original authors!

List of Included Studies

Some of the appraisals are already available as videos on YouTube, so click the button next to the appraisal heading to watch them.

1. Target Blood Pressure in HTN
2. Vegetarian Diets & Maternal Health
3. Empathy Training in Health Care #2
4. Oceans & Human Health in Europe
5. Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Female or Male Infertility
6. Sedentary Time & All-Cause Mortality
7. Maintenance of Abstinence from Alcohol in Primary Care
8. WHO Sedentary Behavior Guidelines
9. WHO Sedentary Behavior Guidelines #2
10. WHO Sedentary Behavior Guidelines #3
11. WHO Sedentary Behavior Guidelines #4
12. Preventing Foot Ulceration in Diabetes
13. Prevention of Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea in Adults
14. International Consensus Statement on Rhinology and Allergy: Rhinosinusitis
15. Literacy in Omics Sciences
16. Mindfullness Mobile Apps in Europe
17. Transcranial AC Stimulation
18. Equity in Virtual Health Care
19. USPSTF on Pediatric HTN Screening
20. Respiratory Virus Sampling
21. Climate Change & Pregnancy AEs
22. Supplements for Pregnancy HTN
23. VA/DoD Low Back Pain Guideline
24. Meds for (Meth)amphetamine Use
25. Sport After Youth Trauma
26. Lifestyle & Prostate Cancer
27. Martial Arts & Mental Health
28. Compassion for Self-Esteem
29. E-Cigs & Metabolic Syndrome
30. Biodegradation of Plastics
31. Schoolbag Weight & Back Pain
32. Massive Diabetes Prevention
33. Attitudes & Eating Behavior
34. What is the effect of physical exercise on executive function in adults older than 55 years of age?
35. What are the therapeutic options for Gulf War Illness?
36. How important the concept of homesickness is?
37. What are the fetal outcomes of opioid detoxification in pregnancy?
38. What are the outcomes of acetaminophen v. ibuprofen for fever or pain in children under two years old?
39. Is quality and safety of hospital care different in outlying patients?
40. How effective is a combination of alpha-blockers and PDE5-inhibitors for lower urinary tract symptoms?
41. Is it good and safe to allow mother and baby skin-to-skin contact during a cesarian?
42. What interventions are there to manage diabetes in homeless adults?
43. What use are mindfulness-based interventions for mental symptoms of Parkinson’s disease?
44. What progress has been made to date in terms of universal influenza vaccines?
45. How effective are interventions to improve antibiotic-prescription behavior among PCPs?
46. What are the reports of practical use of national guidelines on movement in Canada and similar countries?
47. What evidence is there to support active break policies in elementary schools?
48. What is known regarding policy to address pediatric suicidality?
49. How important is postural control in Down syndrome?
50. What works for at-risk mental states?
51. What is the effect of ticagrelor monotherapy after PCI?
52. How good is social accountability for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health?
53. What is in the American Psychiatric Association guideline on schizophrenia?
54. Crowdfunded How effective are tooth decay prevention measures in children six years old or younger?
55. How good is C-reactive protein measurement with regard to health outcomes?
56. What is the association between sugar-free gum and dental caries?
57. How big is the impact of perinatal care systems on infant mortality?
58. How effective is empathy training in health care education?
59. What are the current therapeutic applications of human mesenchymal stem cells?
60. How useful is patient blood management to improve outcomes of major surgery?
61. What is the effectiveness of eHealth interventions for improving public health?
62. What is the risk of congenital malformations associated with beta-blocker use in early pregnancy?
63. How effective behavioral weight-loss interventions in diabetes are?

Reports Wanted

I had selected these systematic reviews for a critical appraisal with replication, but their reports were unavailable to me. Please contact me if you wish to help procuring them.

1. Residential Greenness & Birth Outcomes
2. Calcium and Vitamin D Supplementation for Osteoporosis in Postmenopausal Women
3. Ethics of Familial Genetic Testing
4. How good is the uptake of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist in low- and middle-income countries?
5. What are the outcome predictors of Parent Management Training for child conduct problems?
6. What is the role of a Registered Dietitian in weight management?
7. How effective are anti-amyloid-β drugs for Alzheimer’s disease?
8. How is homelessness experienced by transgender people?
9. How useful is physical exercise for people living with breast cancer?

What’s Next?

Get back on Wed, Dec 30 for the Anniversary 30th Zheln Summary Post

 Watch Health Science News

 Browse Recent Systematic Reviews by Medical Specialty

 Read the Academic Protocol for Zheln

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Email Me about Anything

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All Other Zheln Features Are Free for Everyone

 Search for Appraisals,  Browse by AMA Specialty,  Read Twice-Weekly Appraisal Summaries, or  Watch Daily Video Appraisals on YouTube