Clinical governance: An in-depth scientometric analysis

ABSTRACT

Objective

To analyze the research status of clinical governance (CG); the most productive authors, countries and organizations; connections among research themes.

Methods

We used a ‘funnel model’, consisting of 3 layers describing various CG domains and settings. We retrieved bibliometric data from 1998 to 2021 from the Scopus database. Text mining, visual analysis, descriptive statistics and data visualization were performed. Citation bursts were detected.

Results

The total number of studies was 2429. On a global scale, there is a swinging trend in publications, with four peaks detected (2000, 2009, 2013, 2021). Citation burst keywords include: “national health service”, “medical audit”, “psychological aspect”, “quality improvement” and “surveys and questionnaires”. UK is the most productive and cited country. The most active organizations were in the UK, Australia, USA, Italy and Iran. The most productive journals and authors were identified. The most frequent keywords identified were ‘health care quality’, ‘clinical governance’, ‘organization and management’ and ‘medical audit’. Research trends for each CG domain and setting type were reported.

Conclusion

By using scientometric methodology, we created a thorough scientific picture on CG, including the mapping of pivotal concepts as a function of time.

KEYWORDS:

• Clinical governance
• health care quality
• scientometric analysis
• patient-centerd care
• bibliometrics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Contributors

AA, AP, AGdB, AC and WR conceived the study. AA, AP and EdM designed the study. AA, AP and FD collected and analysed the data. AA, AP and AGdB interpreted the findings. AA and AP drafted the manuscript. AGdB, WR and AC approved the final manuscript for submission.

Ethics approval

This study does not involve human participants and/or animal subjects. Ethics Committee or Institutional Board approval is not required for scientometric analyses.

Data availability statement

All data used for this study are available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author Dr. Andrea Adduci, email: [email protected]. Reuse is always permitted.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrea Adduci

Andrea Adduci, MD, is a Public Health resident at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome. He worked at the Italian Ministry of Health and currently collaborates with the WHO European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.

Alessio Perilli

Alessio Perilli, MD is a Public Health resident at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome and a researcher at the Italian Institute for Planetary health. His main research interests currently include Planetary Health and Health Services Research. He has co-authored several scientific publications.

Francesca Durante

Francesca Durante, MSc, graduated in Healthcare Management from the Faculty of Economics at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome.

Egidio de Mattia

Egidio de Mattia is a PhD student in Health Systems and Service Research at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, ALTEMs in Rome.

Americo Cicchetti

Americo Cicchetti, PhD, is Full Professor of Management at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Faculty of Economics. He is Director of the Advanced School of Health Economics and Management. Founder and Past President of the Italian Society of Health Technology Assessment (SIHTA). Chairman of the Health Policy forum of SIHTA.

Walter Ricciardi

Walter Ricciardi, MD, MPH, MSc, Hon PhD is Full Professor of Hygiene and Public Health at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Chairman of the EU Mission Board for Cancer. Past President of the European Public Health Association (2003–2004; 2010–2014). Past president of the World Federation of Public Health Associations (2020–2022).

Antonio Giulio de Belvis

Antonio Giulio de Belvis, MD, is Associate Professor of Hygiene and Public Health at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Since 2011, he is National Leading Member for Italy for the WHO Eurobs on Healthcare. Since 2012, he is Clinical Governor at the Teaching Hospital “Agostino Gemelli” IRCCS in Rome.