Patient's View

Revised WMA Declaration of Helsinki 2013: Improved Side-by-Side Comparison

ibex — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 12:29:32 +0200

The Declaration of Helsinki (DoH): Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects was revised by the World Medical Association (WMA) at the 64th WMA General Assembly, Fortaleza, Brazil, October 2013.¹

This new version of Declaration of Helsinki (2013) replaces the version of 2008 of 59th WMA General Assembly, Seoul, Republic of Korea, October 2008.

What has changed?

Finding the differences in new revisions of guidelines is not obvious. Unfortunately, the creators usually do not provide diffs between versions. This is a pity and complicates the understanding of everyone since no one really knows what has changed.

Improved Side-by-Side Comparison

My initial side-by-side comparison showed large differences of the documents. An analysis showed, that is due to text movements.

In order to be more useful, I tried to rearrange the versions structurally.

The new, improved side-by-side comparison (HTML, 196 KiB).

By clicking the above link, you will see the saved comparison as static HTML page. Differences are shown word-by-word.

Synchronization of versions for better comparison

For a better comparison I slightly modified the texts; I rearranged the paragraphs of the version 2008 where helpful. For validity, I changed almost nothing in the version 2013.

Modifications of the version 2008:

Moved the paragraphs to the same position as in the version 2013.
Split two paragraphs, tagged with [TOx], [FROMx], e.g. [TO5'], [FROM5]. Moved parts are enclosed in curly brackets "{}".
Added synchronization tags, e.g. [SYNC3-4], whereas the first number is the paragraph number in the version 2008 and the second number is the paragraph number in the version 2013.
Added visible spaces "·" for synchronized line breaking.

Modifications of the version 2013:

Added synchronization tags, e.g. [SYNC3-4], whereas the first number is the paragraph number in the version 2008 and the second number is the paragraph number in the version 2013.
Added visible spaces "·" for synchronized line breaking.

Making of

I downloaded both versions², converted them by hand to Markdown and synchronized the versions. Afterwards, I called the following script using Pandoc for normalization and html2diff for formatting.

#!/bin/bash

# Normalize
pandoc -f markdown_phpextra -t markdown_phpextra --atx-headers -o doh2013.sync.norm.md doh2013.sync.md
pandoc -f markdown_phpextra -t markdown_phpextra --atx-headers -o doh2008.sync.norm.md doh2008.sync.md

# Diff
diff -U9999999 --minimal doh2008.sync.norm.md doh2013.sync.norm.md > doh_2008_2013_sync.diff

# Generate pretty HTML
diff2html.py -o doh_2008_2013_sync.diff.html -i doh_2008_2013_sync.diff -a 1

All the necessary software is Open Source. So, you can repeat or improve it.

I have already created a similar comparison for a Swiss conflict of interest guideline (German) and could reuse this tool chain.

Hint

I created this comparison after seeing a tweet of Ben Goldacre.

anyone written an interesting commentary on new Declaration of Helsinki yet? Important changes? http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1760318

Remarks

The improved comparison shows the changes much clearer. The changes can now be analyzed in detail.

I haven't yet analyzed the content of the texts and the changes yet.

I hope this structural side-by-side comparison is helpful.
I hope the creators of guideline revisions provide diffs and better archives in the future.

World Medical Association (2013). WMA Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects JAMA DOI: 10.1001/jama.2013.281053 ↩︎
Finding the Declaration of Helsinki 2008 in the Internet was not easy. Revision control and archives could really be better. ↩︎

Most Frequent Authors of Multiple Sclerosis Publications

ibex — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 09:42:10 +0100

Who has published the most scientific publications about multiple sclerosis (MS)? Who is the most productive researcher? Where do these multiple sclerosis researchers come from? How many publications exist about multiple sclerosis?

As an MS patient, I am interested in advances in MS research. I am interested in knowing who contributes to multiple sclerosis research. In order to answer these questions, I have queried the the scientific database Web of Science from Thomson Reuters. The results of my research are shown in the following table.

Results

Nr.	Author	Country	# MS Publications	% of 51’645 Publications
1.	FILIPPI M*	IT	606	1.18%
2.	COMI G	IT	453	0.88%
3.	MILLER DH	UK	450	0.87%
4.	POLMAN CH	NL	335	0.65%
5.	THOMPSON AJ	AU	334	0.65%
6.	BARKHOF F	NL	333	0.65%
7.	HARTUNG HP*	DE	327	0.63%
8.	ANONYMOUS		257	0.5%
9.	EBERS GC	UK	248	0.48%
10.	LASSMANN H	AT	245	0.48%
11.	RODRIGUEZ M	SP	237	0.46%
12.	KAPPOS L	CH	231	0.45%
13.	LINK H	SE	231	0.45%
14.	MONTALBAN X	SP	230	0.45%
15.	WEINER HL	US	228	0.44%
16.	OLSSON T	SE	208	0.4%
17.	GOLD R	DE	200	0.39%
18.	ROVARIS M	IT	197	0.38%
19.	MCFARLAND HF	US	195	0.38%
20.	HAFLER DA	US	191	0.37%
21.	MARTIN R	US	190	0.37%
22.	STEINMAN L	US	186	0.36%
23.	ROCCA MA	IT	185	0.36%
24.	POZZILLI C	IT	180	0.35%
25.	HAUSER SL	US	176	0.34%
26.	RAINE CS	US	165	0.32%
27.	HOHLFELD R	DE	163	0.32%
28.	RANSOHOFF RM	US	163	0.32%
29.	COMPSTON A*	UK	161	0.31%
30.	RUDICK RA	US	161	0.31%
31.	ANTEL JP	CA	159	0.31%
32.	HILLERT J	SE	156	0.3%
33.	GIOVANNONI G	UK	155	0.3%
34.	MCDONALD WI	UK	154	0.3%
35.	BRÜCK W	DE	150	0.29%
36.	OKSENBERG JR	US	150	0.29%
37.	MARTINELLI V	IT	144	0.28%
38.	SADOVNICK AD	CA	142	0.28%
39.	RIECKMANN P	DE	141	0.27%
40.	SORENSEN PS	DK	139	0.27%
41.	WEINSTOCK GUTTMAN B	US	138	0.27%
42.	PATY DW	CA	136	0.26%
43.	OFFNER H	US	135	0.26%
44.	UITDEHAAG BMJ	NL	135	0.26%
45.	WEINSHENKER BG	US	130	0.25%
46.	DE SEZE J	FR	129	0.25%
47.	HEMMER B	DE	129	0.25%
48.	GHEZZI A	IT	128	0.25%
49.	BARKER GJ	UK	127	0.25%
50.	GROSSMAN RI	US	126	0.24%
51.	FAZEKAS F	AT	125	0.24%
52.	KIESEIER BC	DE	125	0.24%
53.	MILLER SD	US	125	0.24%
54.	ZIVADINOV R	US	125	0.24%
55.	CONFAVREUX C	FR	124	0.24%
56.	TOYKA KV	DE	118	0.23%
57.	VERMERSCH P	FR	118	0.23%
58.	WIENDL H	DE	117	0.23%
59.	TROJANO M	IT	115	0.22%
60.	KURTZKE JF	US	113	0.22%
61.	ZIPP F	DE	111	0.22%
62.	CALABRESI PA	US	110	0.21%
63.	FREDRIKSON S	SE	110	0.21%
64.	COMPSTON DAS*	UK	109	0.21%
65.	WOLINSKY JS	US	109	0.21%
66.	IEEE		107	0.21%
67.	SORMANI MP	IT	107	0.21%
68.	CAPUTO D	IT	106	0.21%
69.	STÜVE O	DE	106	0.21%
70.	POSER CM	US	104	0.2%
71.	VANDENBARK AA	US	104	0.2%
72.	ARNOLD DL	UK	103	0.2%
73.	CROSS AH	US	103	0.2%
74.	RACKE MK	US	103	0.2%
75.	ACHIRON A	IL	102	0.2%
76.	DE STEFANO N	IT	101	0.2%
77.	AMATO MP	IT	100	0.19%
78.	DE KEYSER J	BE	99	0.19%
79.	FILIPPI MASSIMO*	IT	99	0.19%
80.	MILLER A	US	99	0.19%
81.	TOURTELLOTTE WW	US	97	0.19%
82.	FROHMAN EM	US	96	0.19%
83.	TINTORE M	ES	96	0.19%
84.	BAKSHI R	US	95	0.18%
85.	FREEDMAN MS	CA	95	0.18%
86.	WEKERLE H	DE	95	0.18%
87.	MYHR KM	NO	94	0.18%
88.	RAMAGOPALAN SV	UK	94	0.18%
89.	SAWCER S	UK	94	0.18%
90.	GOODKIN DE	CA	93	0.18%
91.	THOMPSON EJ	US	92	0.18%
92.	HARTUNG HANS PETER*	DE	90	0.17%
93.	BAR OR A	CA	89	0.17%
94.	CLANET M	BE	89	0.17%
95.	DIJKSTRA CD	NL	89	0.17%
96.	MARTINO G	IT	89	0.17%
97.	BERGER T	AT	88	0.17%
98.	MATTHEWS PM	UK	88	0.17%
99.	GASPERINI C	IT	87	0.17%
100.	KIRA J	JP	87	0.17%

The 100 most frequent authors of multiple sclerosis (MS) publications. # denotes the number of publications. Authors marked with * were twice in the results. Data source: Thomson Reuters Web of Science, Date: 02.09.2011

I have summed up above results per country. The following table shows the results.

Nr.	Country	# Authors	# MS Publications
	All countries	95	15403
1.	US	28	3809
2.	IT*	14	2697
3.	DE*	12	1872
4.	UK*	10	1783
5.	CA	6	714
6.	NL	4	892
7.	SE	4	705
8.	AT	3	458
9.	FR	3	371
10.	SP	2	467
11.	BE	2	188
12.	AU	1	334
13.	CH	1	231
14.	DK	1	139
15.	IL	1	102
16.	ES	1	96
17.	NO	1	94
18.	JP	1	87

Combination of the countries for the 100 most frequent authors of multiple sclerosis publications. # denotes "number of". The table is ordered by the number of authors per country. Countries marked with * have an authors who was twice in the results. Thus, the number of publications may vary there +/- 100 publications. Data source: Thomson Reuters Web of Science, Date: 02.09.2011

Method

I have used this Web of Science query:

Topic=(multiple AND sclerosis)
Refined by: Document Type=( ARTICLE OR EDITORIAL MATERIAL OR REVIEW OR PROCEEDINGS PAPER OR LETTER )
No date restriction.

This analysis is based on the name of the authors. Sometimes the authors publish with different names, e.g. with or without a middle name. I have not adjusted the number of publications as I do not know if these publications were already counted for both names. A detailed analysis and adjustement was not possible due to lack of information.

Discussion

In September 2011, there existed a total of 51’645 publication about multiple sclerosis, i.e. having the keyword multiple sclerosis.

A scientific publication has normally several authors. The publication will be assigned to each of these researchers.

The term author is sometimes misleading. Authors are to understand in the sense of contributor or investigator. A person having not written a single line of the publication can be the principal and corresponding author.

The numbers in the above tables show quantities. There may or may not be a correlation with quality. However these numbers allow easily to compare researchers in an objective way. These numbers refer only to multiple sclerosis. These researchers have published probably in other domains of medicine. These publications are not counted here.

I have extended my analysis by summing up the results of the authors to the country where they work. The numbers of the country are only based on the 100 most frequent authors. These numbers do not show the total contribution to multiple sclerosis research. A country with many authors that publish occasionally may not show up here. Countries with very prolific researchers have an advantage. This effect can already be seen for the US researchers. The USA do not have a "top ten" researcher, but overall the US contribution is the biggest.

Remarkably, the "top ten" authors are all, with one exception, coming from Europe. This fact may explain the importance of the ECTRIMS (European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis). Currently, there are also more European pharmaceutical companies that sell and research MS medicaments: Bayer, Merck Serono, Sanofi-aventis, and Novartis.

It remains to not that such quantitative analysis are based on object criteria, but the results must be carefully interpreted and may be limited in evidence.

Patient's View in English

ibex — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 08:49:28 +0100

The blog Patient's View is now also available in English. Selected articles of general interest will be translated.