Protocol for a scoping review of the current data practices in forensic medicine

Abstract

Background: Data related to forensic postmortems or autopsies are still mainly captured in hard copy format and archived. This paper-based practice impacts on the practitioner's ability to report on incidence, prevalence, and statistical trends related to cases that are commonly seen in mortuaries in forensic medicine. An autopsy can be used to inform and provide evidence-based knowledge for further research about important issues, including social development and assist in providing statistics and data for public health initiatives for implementation and monitoring. Currently, in forensic medicine and pathology research developments are largely hampered by the inefficient data capturing system which only allows access to basic information while pertinent information is largely recorded manually and is therefore difficult to obtain. There is thus a need to improve the efficiency of the data capturing system in forensic pathology, and this review is intended to inform the choice and decisions of appropriate data capture practices and is being conducted to identify nationally and internationally the current data mining and storage systems in place. Methods: The methodology for this scoping review will be guided by the methodological framework for scoping review. The search strategy was developed by the authors, and we will conduct a search from 1 January 2008 of electronic databases (Cochrane Library, Scopus, Web of Science, and Science Direct) and search through WorldCat and PubMed for citations and literature using both keywords and the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).The electronic search will be supplemented by hand searching references of the included studies and references in journals and websites. All articles will be assessed for eligibility by two reviewers (the primary and secondary authors) and uploaded into EndNote Excel spreadsheet, and duplicates will be identified and removed. The two reviewers (primary and secondary authors) will screen the eligible abstracts and articles against the inclusion criteria, and selection will be on a minimum percentage agreement of 50%. The selection process will be documented by following and using a PRISMA flow diagram. The extracted data will be analyzed and reported in the form of a narrative review with descriptive analysis and text analysis once the data is summarized for description and characterization.

Interprofessional education interventions in undergraduate students of musculoskeletal healthcare professions: a scoping review protocol

“…A data extraction tool adapted by the primary researcher and an independent reviewer specifically a Data Charting Form 39 ( online supplemental appendix 2 ) will be used to document all extracted data from the included literature. The data extracted will include specific details that include the title, author names, date of source, publication year and type, study design, keywords, abstract screening for appropriateness, study setting and population, reported benefits, reported limitations, conclusion, most significant findings, and findings relevant to the review questions.…”

Introductory evidence on data management and practice systems of forensic autopsies in sudden and unnatural deaths: a scoping review

“…This study’s protocol was developed a priori and published (Prahladh and van Wyk 2020 ). This study used the Arksey and O’Malley framework to conduct a scoping review which includes the following: (i) the research question was identified, (ii) relevant studies were identified, (iii) eligible studies were selected, (iv) the data was charted, and (v) the results were collated and summarized (Arksey and O'Malley 2005 ; PRISMA 2018 ).…”

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“…• Se centran en sintetizar información respecto a áreas emergentes, conceptos clave, metodologías específicas y lagunas en la información en los estudios publicados 9 . Así, podríamos llevar a cabo una scoping review para identificar las prácticas de manejo de datos utilizadas en medicina forense 12 . • No suelen dar respuesta a preguntas específicas, como las preguntas "PICO" (población, intervención, comparación y resultado) en las revisiones sistemáticas.…”