Maryam Okhovati

Background. Continuous review and updating of educational programs within higher education is of paramount importance, serving as a fundamental pillar in achieving sustainable development goals. Specifically within the field of medical library and information science, the remarkable and ongoing expansion in the volume and breadth of scientific information, coupled with the rapid evolution of technological advancements within the healthcare sector, has rendered curriculum revision an absolutely essential undertaking. This article aimed to present a detailed account of the experience gained in implementing a curriculum revision process at the undergraduate level, specifically within the domain of medical library and information science. Methods. This study employed a qualitative research approach, utilizing a conventional content analysis method as its core analytical framework. Data collection was conducted through a series of semi-structured interviews, organized into focus group discussions. Individuals were included as participants based on their demonstrated interest in the subject matter, coupled with prior experience in curriculum design and development. Conversely, those unwilling to participate were excluded from the study. A total of 14 were ultimately involved in the data collection process. Data collection continued until saturation was reached. To ensure the trustworthiness and rigor of the findings, Lincoln and Guba's four criteria for trustworthiness were meticulously applied throughout the research process. MAXQDA 10 software was used for data analysis and management. Results. The analysis yielded five main categories and twelve subcategories. The main categories included: structural barriers at the macro-policy level, organizational obstacles, resistance to change and innovation, challenges pertaining to collaboration and alignment within the higher education and employment systems, and operational and implementation challenges. Conclusion. Curriculum revision requires the active involvement of all stakeholders, including faculty members, students, administrators, and employers. The importance of employing systematic research methods and well-defined theoretical frameworks in this process was clearly evident. However, the barriers and challenges identified in this study need to be directly addressed, and practical solutions must be developed to ensure higher quality and more effective curriculum revisions in the future.

Introduction: Universities play a significant and determining role in many aspects of the contemporary world and must move closer to their proper position by assigning missions correctly. This study was conducted to present examples of mission differentiation in medical universities. Methods: This descriptive phenomenology study was conducted with 10 experts with experience in academic differentiation. Participants in this study were selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews (30 to 70 minutes). The Colaizzi method was used for data analysis. Methods for determining the accuracy and validity of the findings included consideration of credibility, confirmability, and transferability. Findings: The differentiation of the mission of universities of medical sciences was obtained in 5 dimensions including academic education, service provision, research, knowledge management, and social service. Conclusion: Operationalizing differentiation in the academic functional domain of universities of medical sciences is important because it improves quality across all areas of higher education and, consequently, enhances the ranking of Iranian universities in international rankings. There is no general or magical formula for building a world-class university. National contexts and institutional models differ significantly. Therefore, each country must select a strategy from various paths based on its strengths and resources.

Following the evolution of research topics is important, and this study explains some existing methods such as dynamic topic modeling and neural topic models, co-occurrence networks, and their disadvantages. Therefore, the authors introduce a metric-...

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted mental health, leading to psychiatric complications such as anxiety, depression, and insomnia. Health anxiety, a perceived threat to one's health, increased during the pandemic, influencing individuals'; health informationseeking behavior. This study explores the relationship between health anxiety and health information- seeking behavior among COVID-19 patients. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Kerman, Iran, from September 2021 to July 2022. A total of 288 COVID-19 patients participated through convenience sampling. Data were collected via a validated online questionnaire consisting of three sections: demographic information, health information-seeking behavior (39 items), and health anxiety (Short Form Health Anxiety Inventory). The study utilized descriptive statistics, t-tests, chi-square, ANOVA, and logistic regression for data analysis. Results: The mean total health anxiety score was 22.95±6.36, indicating significant anxiety levels among participants. Regression analysis revealed that information sources, needs, and barriers significantly influenced health anxiety. Notably, national television and consultation with other patients were predictors of health anxiety. Moreover, difficulty distinguishing trustworthy information from misinformation and limited time for information search were significant barriers associated with increased anxiety. Conclusion: The findings suggest a bi-directional relationship between health anxiety and information- seeking behavior. High-quality, timely healthcare information is crucial to alleviate health anxiety during pandemics. Future studies should focus on reducing anxiety through psychological interventions and improving digital health literacy to mitigate misinformation and its psychological impact.

Objective: Emergency department (ED) rotations are vital for medical education, fostering clinical skills and teamwork. However, these high-stress environments pose significant mental health risks, including stress, burnout, and depression. Despite their importance, research on the specific stressors medical students face in these settings is limited, indicating a crucial gap in understanding their experiences. This study aims to identify and analyze the significant stressors affecting medical students during ED rotations. Methods: This mixed-method sequential explanatory study, conducted at Kerman University of Medical Sciences in 2024, had two phases. In the quantitative phase, the Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire (MSSQ) survey was completed by 184 participants selected using the convenience sampling technique. In the qualitative phase, in-depth semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 16 medical students to explore their perspectives on ED stressors. Quantitative data were analyzed by mean and standard deviation. Frequency counts were used to assess students’ responses to items across the six survey scales. In the qualitative phase, content analysis using the steps proposed by Graneheim and Ludman was employed to identify and analyze key themes and concepts from the interviews. The data were validated based on Goba and Lincoln’s criteria. Data analysis was performed using MAXQDA-10 software. Results: The 184 participants comprised 52.72% female students, and 62.50% were in their internship. The results indicated that female students reported higher stress levels in academic, teaching-learning, and drive/desire-related areas, while males faced more social-related stress. The top stressors included insufficient medical skill practice (M=3.60), heavy workloads (M=3.44), tests (M=3.15), and poor grades (M=3.20). The qualitative interviews with 16 students reinforced these findings, revealing themes of clinical demands and educational challenges during ED rotations. Conclusion: This study identified significant stressors for medical students, including genderbased differences, inadequate clinical skill practice, excessive workload, anxiety over exams, and low test performance. To enhance professional development and resilience during ED rotations, we recommend increasing opportunities for hands-on clinical practice, managing workloads to reduce stress, and providing targeted resources for exam preparation. By addressing these key issues, ED rotations can become valuable growth opportunities, ultimately fostering a more supportive educational environment that promotes the well-being and development of medical students.

Background: Despite recent progress in misinformation detection methods, further investigation is required to develop more robust fact-checking models with particular consideration for the unique challenges of health information sharing. This study aimed to identify the most effective approach for detecting and classifying reliable information versus misinformation health content shared on Twitter/X related to COVID-19. Methods: We have used 7 different machine learning/deep learning models. Tweets were collected, processed, labeled, and analyzed using relevant keywords and hashtags, then classified into two distinct datasets: “Trustworthy information” versus “Misinformation”, through a labeling process. The cosine similarity metric was employed to address oversampling the minority of the Trustworthy information class, ensuring a more balanced representation of both classes for training and testing purposes. Finally, the performance of the various fact-checking models was analyzed and compared using accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score ROC curve, and AUC. Results: For measures of accuracy, precision, F1 score, and recall, the average values of TextConvoNet were found to be 90.28, 90.28, 90.29, and 0.9030, respectively. ROC AUC was 0.901.“Trustworthy information” class achieved an accuracy of 85%, precision of 93%, recall of 86%, and F1 score of 89%. These values were higher than other models. Moreover, its performance in the misinformation category was even more impressive, with an accuracy of 94%, precision of 88%, recall of 94%, and F1 score of 91%. Conclusion: This study showed that TextConvoNet was the most effective in detecting and classifying trustworthy information V.S misinformation related to health issues that have been shared on Twitter/X.

Background: Prenatal care is the correct implementation of principles that aim to maintain the health of the mother and her baby. The failure to provide effective prenatal care will lead to an increase in premature birth, low birth weight infants, and maternal and infant mortality. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the effect of a training intervention based on self-efficacy and health literacy on pregnancy outcomes in pregnant women. Methods: This interventional study adopted a pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The participants in the study were 49 women who visited Bahrabad Healthcare Center in Mehrestan County and were placed into the intervention group (25 persons) and the control group (24 persons) in 2022. The inclusion criteria were having literacy, not completing any medical education course or programs, and a gestational age of less than 20 weeks. The data in this study were collected using the Health Literacy Scale, the Pregnancy Outcome Questionnaire, and the Sherer’s General Self-Efficacy Scale. After administering the pre-test to the participants in both groups, the training intervention was conducted in eight face-to-face sessions for the participants in the intervention group. The data collected in the pre-intervention and post-intervention phases were analyzed using paired samples t-test, independent samples t-test, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) at a significance level of P<0.05 to assess differences between groups. Results: The data from this study indicated that the training intervention significantly improved the self-efficacy (t=-2.466; P=0.021) and health literacy (t=-2.163; P=0.041) of the participants in the intervention group. The findings also showed a significant difference in pregnancy outcomes between the intervention and control groups (t=-7.180; P<0.001). These results indicated that the training intervention had a positive impact on participants’ pregnancy experiences and outcomes. Conclusion: This study revealed that training interventions are effective in promoting self-efficacy and health literacy, which in turn lead to improved pregnancy outcomes. The findings also highlighted the importance of incorporating training programs into routine prenatal care to improve maternal and newborn health. Future research should focus on long-term follow-up and examine the impact of different educational strategies on larger populations.

Background: The convergence of scientific research and technological breakthroughs is critical to societal health. However, both academic literature and patents can grow at separate rates, leading to gaps in fields like breast cancer. This study aims to identify and bridge the gap between science and technology in breast cancer research ...

Background: A Green Hospital is a hospital that sees the environment as a part of its service quality processes and reduces environmental risks by applying effective measures in all dimensions, including management, water, energy, and waste. This study aimed to investigate the status of Green Hospital standards in the teaching hospitals of Urmia University of Medical Sciences (UMSU). Methods: This descriptive study was conducted cross-sectionally on eight teaching hospitals associated with UMSU in 2022. The information collection tool was the Green Hospital Checklist, which consists of seven dimensions: energy, waste management, architecture, water, chemicals, supplies, and medicine. Data were collected through field observation and interviews with hospital executives. Descriptive statistics were used in SPSS 22 software for data analysis. Results: According to the results, among the eight hospitals covered by UMSU, four hospitals in the energy consumption dimension, two hospitals in the architecture dimension, one hospital in the waste management dimension, six hospitals in the chemicals dimension, and five hospitals in the medicine consumption dimension met 50% or more of the Green Hospital standards. Regarding water conservation and purchasing supplies, no hospital met the Green Hospital standards. Only one hospital met more than 50% of the Green Hospital standards overall. Conclusion: Considering that the score obtained from the studied hospitals was lower than the desired level, identifying the challenges of achieving standards in implementing Green Hospital programs is paramount. Implementing these standards requires creating a green management team and planning for the seven studied variables.