The role of Zambia's expansive Inter-agency Coordinating Committee (ICC) in supporting evidence-based vaccine and health sector programming.

New vaccines, technologies, and regulations, alongside increased demand for vaccines, all require prioritization and coordination from key players within the vaccine sector. Inter-agency Coordinating Committees (ICC) support decision-making and coordination at the national-level and act as key drivers for sustainable improvements in vaccination programming. We utilized a previous qualitative case study, which investigated critical success factors for high routine immunization coverage in Zambia from 2000-2018, specifically to study the Zambian ICC.

Temporal search persistence, certainty, and source preference in dentistry: Results from the National Dental PBRN.

Objectives: The primary goal of this paper was to investigate an old question in a new way: what are the search patterns that professionals demonstrate when faced with a specific knowledge gap?

Methods: We examine data from a cascading survey question design that captures details about searching for information to answer a self-nominated clinical question from 1027 dental professionals enrolled in the National Dental Practice Based Research Network. Descriptive and conditional logistical regression analysis techniques were used.

Results: 61% of professionals in our sample choose informal sources of information, with only about 11% looking to formal peer reviewed evidence.

The association between professional stratification and use of online sources: Evidence from the National Dental Practice-Based Research Network.

The use of online information sources in most professions is widespread, and well researched. Less understood is how the use of these sources vary across the strata within a single profession, and how question context affects search behaviour. Using the dental profession as a case of a highly stratified discipline, we examine search preferences for sources by professional strata among dentists in a practice-based network.

Association between predoctoral evidence-based practice training and later use of peer-reviewed journals: National dental PBRN.

Objective: We examined whether evidence-based practice (EBP) during dental school was associated with the increased use of peer-reviewed literature during subsequent clinical practice for National Dental Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN) dentists. We also sought to understand whether this association was moderated by being a dental specialist.

Methods: We analyzed cross-sectional data from 1228 dentists participating in the PBRN.

Preferences for peer-reviewed versus other publication sources: a survey of general dentists in the National Dental PBRN.

Background: Medical professionals have access to a broad range of resources to address clinical information needs. While much attention is given to new sources of data such as those available on the internet, it is less clear how clinicians choose between peer-reviewed research literature and other publication-based sources. This analysis distinguishes between possible drivers of publication type preference (namely, practice setting, advanced training, professional development experiences).

Missed Opportunities for Detecting Alternative Nicotine Product Use in Youth: Data From the National Dental Practice-Based Research Network.

Purpose: With growing rates of youth e-cigarette and hookah use, and the fact that use of these products is difficult to detect, surveillance and early detection efforts need to be reassessed. Physicians and pediatricians both report that their level of knowledge about these products is low. Given that over 80% of youth have had dental visits in the past year and that the effects of nicotine use are visible early in routine dental examinations, it is likely that dental professionals are well positioned to play a critical role in detection.

Dental Blogs, Podcasts, and Associated Social Media: Descriptive Mapping and Analysis.

Background: Studies of social media in both medicine and dentistry have largely focused on the value of social media for marketing to and communicating with patients and for clinical education. There is limited evidence of how dental clinicians contribute to and use social media to disseminate and access information relevant to clinical care.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to inventory and assess the entry, growth, sources, and content of clinically relevant social media in dentistry.