Carla Allen

International collaboration in medical radiation science

International collaboration is recognised for enhancing the ability to approach complex problems from a variety of perspectives, increasing development of a wider range of research skills and techniques and improving publication and acceptance rates. The aim of this paper is to describe the current status of international collaboration in medical radiation science and compare this to other allied health occupations.

Search tactics for medical image retrieval

Few studies have explored image search behavior in the medical field. This study investigated the effect of domain knowledge on the uses of search tactics during image search process by radiologic technologists. We found that in the field of Radiography, experts and novices demonstrated significant differences in employing five search tactics: Browse, Enlarge, Examine Enlarged Images, Refine, and Exhaust. Experts showed strong capabilities when using image content information to make their relevance judgments, while novices relied more on textual information (e.g., captions) to select relevant images. We also found that experts used exhaustive query terms to initiate a search and browsed several screens of results to locate well-matched images or generate new ideas for further search moves. On the contrary, novices usually started their search with a simpler concept and only browsed the results on the first few screens.

Serendipity in the Research Literature: A Phenomenology of Serendipity Reporting

The role of information sciences is to connect people with the information they need to accomplish the tasks that contribute to the greater societal good. While evidence of the wonderful contributions arising from serendipitous events abound, the framework describing the information behaviors exhibited during a serendipitous experience is just emerging and additional detail regarding the factors influencing those behaviors is needed in order to support these experiences effectively. Furthermore, it is important to understand the whole process of serendipity to fully appreciate the impact of research policies, disciplinary traditions and academic reporting practices on this unique type of information behavior. This study addresses those need by examining the phenomenon of serendipity as it is reported by biomedical and radiography researchers. A mixed method content analysis of existing research reports will be incorporated with semi-structured interviews of serendipity reporters to gain a robust understanding of the phenomenon of serendipity, and provide detail that may inform the design of information environments.

Whose mammogram is this anyway? Perspectives on technology, breast health and mammography

ABSTRACT There is an increasing demand to ensure that emerging health technologies are patient-centred. Yet, understanding what constitutes patient-centredness can be a complex task, particularly in relation to screening technologies, where lack of patient-centred design can result in decreased compliance with screening recommendations. This holds true for breast cancer screening, where nearly 80% of women do not comply with screening mammography recommendations. To support patient-centred design of breast screening systems, semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants who could provide diverse perspectives on breast screening, including mammographers, breast cancer survivors, and self-identified mammography avoiders. Interviews explored opinions and attitudes surrounding current screening technology and systems, and ways in which screening might be conducted in the future. Using an inductive, constructivist approach, we identified several themes that should be considered when designing breast screening technology and systems. Concerns regarding the current processes and needs for support in relation to self-advocacy were revealed. Interest in improved technology was wide-spread, but feelings of inadequacy limited acceptance of self-screening designs. This study showcased the opportunities for design scholarship to improve the breast cancer screening process and, potentially enhance the patient–provider relationship.

Visual Reasoning Indexing and Retrieval Using In-memory Computing

Research has shown that visual information of multimedia is critical in highly-skilled application, such as biomedicine and life sciences, and a certain visual reasoning process is essential for meaningful search in a timely manner. Relevant image characteristics are learned and verified with accumulated experiences during the reasoning processes. However, such type of process is highly dynamic and elusive to computationally quantify and therefore challenging to analyze, let alone to make the knowledge shareable across users. In this paper we study real-time human visual reasoning processes with the aid of gaze tracking devices. Temporal and spatial representations are proposed for gaze modeling, and a visual reasoning retrieval system utilizing in-memory computing such as Apache Spark is designed for real-time search. Simulated data derived from human subject experiments show that the system has a reasonably high accuracy and provides predictive estimations for hardware requirements versus data sizes for exhaustive searches.

Visual Reasoning Indexing and Retrieval Using In-Memory Computing

Research has shown that visual information of multimedia is critical in highly-skilled application, such as biomedicine and life sciences, and a certain visual reasoning process is essential for meaningful search in a timely manner. Relevant image characteristics are learned and verified with accumulated experiences during the reasoning processes. However, such type of process is highly dynamic and elusive to computationally quantify and therefore challenging to analyze, let alone to make the knowledge shareable across users. In this paper we study real-time human visual reasoning processes with the aid of gaze tracking devices. Temporal and spatial representations are proposed for gaze modeling, and a visual reasoning retrieval system utilizing in-memory computing such as Apache Spark is designed for real-time search. Simulated data derived from human subject experiments show that the system has a reasonably high accuracy and provides predictive estimations for hardware requirements versus data sizes for exhaustive searches.

Needs analysis on the development of evidence-based practice in an undergraduate problem-based learning context

Evidence‐based practice (EBP) is a formal information behavior recently imposed on healthcare providers, which emphasizes the incorporation of the best research evidence into the delivery of patient care. Internationally, policies that require both healthcare practice and the educational environment under which health science students are educated to be evidence based are on the rise. In medical and health sciences curricula, EBP and problem‐based learning (PBL) are often seen as synonymous, as traditional medical PBL requires students to seek out research evidence related to posed clinical problems. However, students in an undergraduate radiography program exhibit difficulties in implementing EBP, despite successful completion of a PBL course. This study describes the findings of a needs analysis undertaken to better understand the issues hindering the development of effective evidence‐based decision making skills in the PBL context.