Finding the new potential research on diabetic kidney disease and hemodialysis in healthcare insurance databases: A bibliometric analysis

To the best of our knowledge, bibliometric analysis has not been performed for studies related to diabetic kidney disease (DKD) and hemodialysis using healthcare big data. Herein, the aim of this bibliometric analysis was to identify emerging research trends in DKD and hemodialysis within healthcare insurance databases by exploring authors, co-author networks, and countries to discover new potential research areas. A bibliometric study was conducted, utilizing data obtained from the Scopus database. Keywords such as diabetic kidney disease, hemodialysis, insurance or big data, and prediction were employed. Inclusion criteria were original articles and review articles written in English published between 2010 and 2022. VOSviewer and the Bibliometrix package in R were used for comprehensive bibliometric analysis. VOSviewer facilitated keyword co-occurrence analysis to identify clusters and visualize relationships among keywords, emphasizing distinct research themes, keyword density, and network visualization. Meanwhile, Bibliometrix allowed exploration of key metrics such as prolific authors and institutions, publication trends, co-authorship networks, citations, document types, emerging trends through keyword analysis, and network visualizations, including co-authorship and keyword co-occurrence. Results from both tools were integrated for a thorough analysis. The present study yielded 2,199 articles, which was reduced to 1,828 after removing duplicates and applying inclusion criteria. This bibliometric analysis found that machine learning and artificial intelligence are emerging yet remain relatively under-researched in the context of hemodialysis and DKD. The prominence of topics such as diabetic nephropathy, non-insulin treatments, and lifestyle modifications highlighted ongoing research priorities in DKD and hemodialysis. Taiwan's dominance in publications suggested robust research activity in this field, while international collaboration underscored global interest and the potential for diverse research perspectives. The need for similar research development in Indonesia, leveraging big data and machine learning, indicates opportunities for advancing the understanding and management of DKD and hemodialysis within the region.