Lists of keywords: One thing AI can be helpful with is finding keywords. While you can ask experts and your medical librarian for help finding keywords, AI can help you by quickly generating a list of basic search terms for a topic.
Producing lists of possible keywords: If I am searching a topic related to “elderly” it is ideal to think of different keywords for this topic. AI can help you build a quick list of possible keywords to use. For example, if I ask ChatGPT:
Can you build me a list of search keywords for "elderly"?
The AI produces:
Note that AI does not present keywords in more advanced ways. For example, it does not truncate (e.g., “*” at the end of words) or use wildcards (e.g., “?” within words). Though, it can be asked to produce the equivalent of exact phrases by adding quote marks around phrases as we will see below.
If you decide to use these words in a search you can then ask AI to help you organize them. Since these are similar or related terms we would want to link them with OR, so we will ask ChatGPT:
Can you organize these by adding quote marks around phrases and linking each search term with OR?
It produces:
("Elderly" OR "Older adults" OR "Aging population" OR "Geriatrics" OR "Gerontology" OR "Seniors" OR "Aging" OR "Aged" OR "Senior citizens" OR "Advanced age" OR "Elderly care" OR "Frail elderly" OR "Aging process" OR "Elderly health" OR "Geriatric health" OR "Age-related conditions" OR "Longevity" OR "Ageing" OR "Older people" OR "Elderly patients")
Note that it does a solid job with this. It puts the entire phrase in parentheses, correctly capitalizes and places OR, and adds quote marks. However, its use of quote marks is not ideal. I asked it to use quotes around phrases (meaning–to me–multiple words), but it also added them to single words. The problem with this is that databases like PubMed and Embase will not translate your keyword in MeSH and Emtree terms respectively. I this asked it:
Can you remove the quotes around single words?
It produces:
(Elderly OR "Older adults" OR "Aging population" OR Geriatrics OR Gerontology OR Seniors OR Aging OR Aged OR "Senior citizens" OR "Advanced age" OR "Elderly care" OR "Frail elderly" OR "Aging process" OR "Elderly health" OR "Geriatric health" OR "Age-related conditions" OR Longevity OR Ageing OR "Older people" OR "Elderly patients")
This is a search closer to what I would like. Of course, I could just edit the phrase manually, too.
AI is helpful with language learning, and it can help with research, too. You can, for example, also use it to help translate a word in Arabic to English search terms. For example if I ask:
Can you give me English keywords for مسنين ?
It produces:
It can also work from Arabic when building a PICO:
Can you build a PICO?
Sure! A PICO framework helps in structuring a clinical question and guiding a literature search. Here is a PICO based on a general topic about the elderly (مسنين):
PICO Question: What is the effect of geriatric care interventions on the quality of life among elderly patients compared to standard care?
Structured PICO:
Population (P):
Intervention (I):
Comparison (C):
Outcome (O):
Full PICO Question:
English: What is the effect of geriatric care interventions on the quality of life among elderly patients compared to standard care?
Arabic: ما هو تأثير تدخلات رعاية المسنين على جودة الحياة بين المسنين مقارنة بالرعاية القياسية؟
This PICO framework can help guide a more focused search for relevant literature and studies on the topic.
AI can also help you build a preliminary search in English using a question in Arabic:
Can you build me a search stream from this research question?: ما هو تأثير تدخلات رعاية المسنين على جودة الحياة بين المسنين مقارنة بالرعاية العامة؟
To create a search string for the research question "ما هو تأثير تدخلات رعاية المسنين على جودة الحياة بين المسنين مقارنة بالرعاية العامة؟" ("What is the effect of geriatric care interventions on the quality of life among the elderly compared to general care?"), you can use a combination of MeSH and free-text terms. Here is a detailed search string in both Arabic and English:
("Elderly"[MeSH Terms] OR "Aged"[MeSH Terms] OR "Older adults"[All Fields] OR "Seniors"[All Fields])
AND
("Geriatric care"[MeSH Terms] OR "Elderly care"[All Fields] OR "Geriatric interventions"[All Fields])
AND
("Quality of life"[MeSH Terms] OR "Health-related quality of life"[All Fields]) AND
("General care"[All Fields] OR "Standard care"[All Fields])