An Introduction to our October-December 2018 articles

Table of contents

In October-December 2018, the journal publishes several original research, including an outstanding Prospective Cohort Study, some experimental studies, and an editorial on a topic of current interest in today’s medical research. 

The October-December 2018 issue begins with an editorial on “Statistical Issues in Randomized Controlled Trials”. Because of the increasing number of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) submitted to Electronic Physician, the journal has invited Associate Professor Dr. Umesh Wadgave, who is an expert in statistical analysis of RCTs, and his team, to review and discuss the timely topic of statistical errors in this field. Dr. Umesh Wadgave is an Associate Editor of Electronic Physician from India. According to Dr. Wadgave, understanding strengths and limitations of different statistical designs of RCTs will prevent statistical errors, which can yield an accurate estimate of treatment effect.

After the editorial, we have a Prospective Cohort Study by Professor Dr. Behnam Askari and his team from Urmia University of Medical Sciences. The journal has recently published five Cohort Studies, which are particular form of longitudinal studies on how risk factors affect the incidence of diseases. Cohort studies are often used to determine the initial causes of diseases, and to provide pre-clinical justification for the plausibility of protective factors (treatments). Dr. Behnam Askari’s Cohort study examines the “effect of pre-operative statin administration on delirium rate after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG)”. According to the authors, Statin Pretreatment reduces the occurrence of post-operative delirium after coronary artery bypass surgery. 

In the upcoming issue, the journal also presents some Randomized Controlled Trials and Experimental Studies. In a randomized clinical trial, Professor Ali Delirrooyfard and his team from the Emergency Medicine Department of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences study the antiemetic effects of metoclopramide with and without dexamethasone in children with minor head trauma. Their study indicates that dexamethasone can be used as an effective medication along with metoclopramide, to control vomiting in children with minor head trauma.

The upcoming issue also includes two excellent research from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In a web-based online study, Lujain Hatem Alsughair and Elsayeda Youssi from Qassim University examine factors influencing dentists’ choices of restorative materials in Saudi Arabia. One of the interesting features of their study is that they followed the ethics of web-based surveys in full. As the strength of their study, using the web-based survey has advantages over traditional paper-based surveys in terms of confidentiality of sensitive information of participants, the ease of use, and decreasing the possibilities of receiving incomplete questionnaires.

We also have good news for postgraduate students who want to see how they should develop a new instrument for their PhD: “There is also an instrument development study among our October-December 2018 publications”. In this study, Abdullah Alamri and his team from King Abdulaziz University and King Abdulaziz University (Saudi Arabia), describe how they developed an instrument and conducted a regression analysis on “patterns of digital device usage and its related health effects on elementary and middle school students”.

There are also more interesting studies on our last issue of 2018, which will be available online by December 01, 2018. Finally, because of the increased rejection rate of the manuscripts in 2017 and 2018, which resulted in decreasing the number of publications and increasing the quality of the work we publish, the journal expects to decrease the number of publications to 60-80 articles in 2019, which requires switching back to its previous routine of publishing as a quarterly. All of the future issues of the journal are then scheduled to be available online by the first day of the third month of any season, which is March 01, June 01, September 01, and December 01 of every year. 

Electronic physician

November 11, 2018