Trip Database Blog

We’re getting fairly close to the launch of the new TRIP, hopefully within the next 4 weeks – depending on testing.  We are very busy behind the scenes and there is even more work to come.  We’ve just reviewed the 7th iteration of design.  Each time we get a set of designs we need to review them and comment.  I believe version 8 will be the version we approve.  Once they have been ‘signed-off’ we’ll be busy plugging the new and old functionality into the design and then on to proper testing!

The work on the new site started last year and included a large review of our users (click here for the main results).  Our users have been great since then feeding back on various questions I’ve had.  One user (via our Facebook page) even helped formulate a – sort of – tagline of ‘find evidence fast‘, a very simple yet powerful explanation of what TRIP does.  And I cannot forget the wonderful donations we received that have helped make this all happen! 

In conjunction with user input has been a significant amount of work on my part exploring the literature on information retrieval and search.  So, what can we expect?  In no particular order (and there are more as those listed below):

• Redesign.  We’ve used a great designer who’s worked wonders. The old site was looking old and had suffered from new design/features simply being bolted on.  While it’s still a search engine it has been completely redesigned – even the logo will change.  IT IS LOVELY.  I appreciate some people will be put off as it’s a huge change, but people will get used to it and love it.
• PICO search.  As well as the ‘usual’ search we have introduced a PICO search to help users formulate focused searches. 
• Clear demarcation of content types.  While TRIP is principally about evidence, we also have videos, images etc in our index.  We’ll be making this more explicit and easier to use.
• Filter move.  Currently the filter by evidence type is on the left-hand side, we’re moving it to the right.  The most important aspect of TRIP are the results, so they should be in the most prominent position!
• Improved filtering – allowing easier filtering by clinical area, year and even the ability to restrict the results to a single publisher.
• Cited.  We’re starting to automatically explore citations.  If you find an article you like, we’ll link to other articles in TRIP that have cited it (typically a systematic review or guideline).  This is new and experimental – so expect mixed results!
• Important papers.  For any search on TRIP we’ll explore the citations found in the results and see which articles appear most frequently – surely a sign of importance to the search terms.
• Login.  While not compulsory we’re going to encourage people to login.  This serves numerous functions, some obvious now and others for the future.  But, immediately, when you search we’ll also include previous papers you’ve viewed – as we know people often revisit the same papers, this makes it much easier. 
• Starred.  Like and article or think it’s interesting – well star it and we’ll save it for you in your timeline….
• Timeline.  This is where we record your activity on TRIP: searches, articles viewed, articles starred, any new content that we think is of interest to you (based on your recorded keywords of interest).  There’s a twist in the timeline that will make it special.  The Timeline might lead to much bigger things.

TRIP was good before, it will now be better and I think we’re getting close to greatness.

We’ve been working very hard on the next version of TRIP and we’re getting there!  There are two main components of work, functionality and design.  These are performed by separate people (a techie and a designer) and eventually brought together by the techie.  We’re hoping to go live in the next 4-6 weeks.

We had a first round of designs about 2-3 weeks ago and had the latest version yesterday.  So, it was a hectic day going over them and giving feedback to the designer.  But the design is close to being signed-off.  It’s actually a complete overhaul of the site, including a new logo.  It will look and behave radically differently, it’s a significant step forward for TRIP.

See below a small sneak preview of a component of the results page (click on image to increase the size).  Some hidden for tease value and some hidden as they need altering. I hope you enjoy it 🙂

I’m doing some work (well, thinking really) around clinician similarity and information needs.

Basically, if a UK general practitioner does a search for diabetes the intention/information needs are likely to be different than, say, a Brazilian endocrinologist. Yet, TRIP returns the same results.

If we created a similarity score (based on profession, interests and geography) we could we show the results as per normal but also have an area ‘Clinicians like you who searched for diabetes looked at these articles…’. 

We could also introduce something similar at an article level – ‘Clinicians like you who looked at this article also looked at these…’.

In a way, it’s using the experience of previous similar users of TRIP to filter and hopefully improve search results.

What do people think?

As part of the new upgrade to the site we’re experimenting with a number of new features. An ‘Important Papers’ feature is a side-effect of one of our efforts, but what’s that?

When you search TRIP our algorithm is designed to show the best, most research, which is great.  However, much of the latest research is built on significant ‘historical’ papers in that field, for the time being we’re calling them ‘Important Papers’ (happy to take suggestions for other names).  These are important papers associated with the main search results.

To illustrate what I’m talking about, take an example search for ‘warfarin anticoagulation’, on the main TRIP the top results can be seen here (the top result being: Comparative Effectiveness of Warfarin and Newer Oral Anticoagulants for the Long-term Prevention and Treatment of Arterial and Venous Thromboembolism (Veterans Affairs Evidence-based Synthesis Program Reports 2012)).  Using our ‘Important Paper’ feature, the top 3 results are:

• Placebo-controlled, randomised trial of warfarin and aspirin for prevention of thromboembolic complications in chronic atrial fibrillation (Lancet, 1989)
• Oral Anticoagulants vs Aspirin in Nonvalvular Atrial Fibrillation An Individual Patient Meta-analysis (JAMA, 2002)
• A risk score for predicting stroke or death in individuals with new-onset atrial fibrillation in the community: the Framingham Heart Study (JAMA, 2003)

We’re using a number of measures to infer importance including citations and social media.

Also, to be clear these results will be presented away from the main results (as a side-feature).

Will this feature be a hit?  I’ve no idea.  The results are certainly interesting and user feedback will decide if it stays.

For a number of years I’ve been pondering the numerous relationships contained within TRIP.  These are numerous and a few examples include:

• Relationships between articles e.g. via citations, by being in the same publication
• Relationships between users e.g. linked by clinical interests, by geographic location
• Relationships between articles and users e.g. looking at the same articles

I can’t help feeling there is value in these links and I do not mean in the financial sense.

Take a really simple example (click on image to enlarge it)

This is an imaginary search undertaken by 5 users and a line signifies which papers they looked at.  We can deduce some things:

• Papers six and seven weren’t liked.
• Paper two looks the most popular
• Users 2 and 3 appear similar/close (both looking at two of the same papers)

Now, if we add an extra level of data:

In this image the rounder reddish boxes signify doctors while the green boxes signify nurses.  Do these inferences seem reasonable?

• Paper five is really suited to nurses while papers one (to a point), two and three are more ‘doctor’ focused
• Paper four has mixed interest.

Imagine if you can add extra detail (different types of doctors, different geographic location) and lots of data (something we have lots of in TRIP) you might be able to generate a really powerful system.  Could it inform search results?

What do people think? I’ve really simplified things to make a point and I doubt the data will ever be as clear cut. 

Are you in for a treat?  I’d like to think so.

I had a long but rewarding meeting with Phil (our genius techie) and Reuben (our new and wonderful design guy) to thrash out the final details of the next upgrade to TRIP.  I am so excited by the proposed developments which are:

• 3 major innovations – for me really really important developments
• A handful of significant improvements
• A load of minor improvements
• A design overhaul

I’m being deliberately vague with the details for now.  But as things develop and designs get drawn, features get available I may well share them here and on Facebook (if you didn’t know we had a Facebook page, click here).

No firm timetable but I’d like to think it’ll be ready in 3 months.

Also, I’ve started planning the next upgrade, the one after this one, but much depends on how the innovations from this one take off.  If you have any suggestions then feel free to let me know.

It’s less than a month ago when I heard the gutting news that a potential purchaser of TRIP had pulled out (with no reason) from purchasing TRIP.

But every cloud has a silver lining.  While waiting for the acquisition issue I’d not given a huge amount of thought to the next updates of TRIP, not since the survey of last year (click here for details).  But not now – WOW – it’s been a great two weeks of reflection.

I’ve met with Phil (our genius techie) to discuss the updates from last year’s survey and they seem all straightforward(ish) to implement.  We had our request for donations (click here, it’s not too late) which has generated a good amount.

I really like being open about what I’ve been thinking recently, but it’s so special (at least I think so) that I need to keep it under wraps.  It’s built on our social learning tool called TILT but goes way beyond it.  One possible offshoot of this idea is to have organisational accounts of TRIP.  This would allow organisations to upload their own documents to TRIP and then these would be searchable via TRIP.  So, the University Hospital of Bristol might create an account and upload documents (local guidelines, protocols, antibiotic resistance data, clinic opening times – whatever they wish).  A local doctor or nurse could link their profile to the University Hospital of Bristol’s profile and when they search they’d see local documents.  In addition to local documents the organisational account might add their link-resolver details – making linking to full-text documents so much easier.

The big issue for me is needing to make it as painless as possible for organisations to upload their documents.  Also, it needs to be easy for individuals to find their institution.  Both shouldn’t be too problematic

So, feel free to comment or add any feature you think would make it even more powerful.

As mentioned this is a relatively small offshoot of a bigger idea which I hope to reveal gradually over the next month or so,

Following on from my recent post about TILT (click here) I’ve decided to get the wisdom of the crowd to try and improve things – I really don’t want to give up on the idea.

So, if you can spare five minutes then please take the survey – click here.

Thanks!