ArticleBMJ open2021
Use of complexity theory in health and social care: a scoping review protocol.
Article in BMJ open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Enhancing holistic nursing care for sexual and gender minorities: A scoping review of global training initiatives.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2026Review
- Challenges and opportunities of complexity theory in health care systems.Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences · 2025Article
- Omics Science and Social Aspects in Detecting Biomarkers for Diagnosis, Risk Prediction, and Outcomes of Carotid Stenosis.Biomolecules · 2024Review
- Integrated care systems in England: the significance of collaborative community assets in promoting and sustaining health and wellbeing.Frontiers in sociology · 2024Article
- Application of complexity theory in health and social care research: a scoping review.BMJ open · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionDespite the use of a wide variety of improvement tools and approaches, healthcare organisations continue to struggle in several key areas. Complexity-informed approaches have the potential to offer health and social care a new paradigm for understanding, designing, implementing and evaluating solutions, yet so far has failed to gain the traction anticipated some years ago. There is a growing need for high quality syntheses of the existing knowledge base in this area and given the diversity of theory and approaches, a scoping review is the best approach to curate this knowledge.
methodsA scoping review of relevant literature from January 2000 to present, using the refined Arksey and O'Malley six-stage framework will be conducted. This protocol will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis Protocols Extension for Scoping Reviews. A three-step search strategy will be used. An initial search of databases will be undertaken to identify key search terms followed by an analysis of retrieved papers title and abstract text words, and of index terms used to describe the articles. A second search using all identified keywords and index terms will then be undertaken across all included databases. Third, the reference lists of identified reports and articles will be searched. Authors of primary articles will be contacted and a search for grey material performed. Finally, a complete search strategy of one major database will be included. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: As this is a scoping review, ethical approval is not required. The results of the scoping review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at national and international conferences and will guide a large research project investigating teamwork. All data will be stored in accordance with best General Data Protection Regulation practice. REGISTRATION: This scoping review protocol has been registered with Open Science Framework.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.