938 research outputs found

    Where can teens find health information? A survey of web portals designed for teen health information seekers

    Get PDF
    The Web is an important source for health information for most teens with access to the Web (Gray et al, 2005a; Kaiser, 2001). While teens are likely to turn to the Web for health information, research has indicated that their skills in locating, evaluating and using health information are weak (Hansen et al, 2003; Skinner et al, 2003, Gray et al, 2005b). This behaviour suggests that the targeted approach to finding health information that is offered by web portals would be useful to teens. A web portal is the entry point for information on the Web. It is the front end, and often the filter, that users must pass through in order to link to actual content. Unlike general search engines such as Google, content that is linked to a portal has usually been pre-selected and even created by the organization that hosts the portal, assuring some level of quality control. The underlying architecture of the portal is structured and thus offers an organized approach to exploring a specific health topic. This paper reports on an environmental scan of the Web, the purpose of which was to identify and describe portals to general health information, in English and French, designed specifically for teens. It answers two key questions. First of all, what portals exist? And secondly, what are their characteristics? The portals were analyzed through the lens of four attributes: Usability, interactivity, reliability and findability. Usability is a term that incorporates concepts of navigation, layout and design, clarity of concept and purpose, underlying architecture, in-site assistance and, for web content with text, readability. Interactivity relates to the type of interactions and level of engagement required by the user to access health information on a portal. Interaction can come in the form of a game, a quiz, a creative experience, or a communication tool such as an instant messaging board, a forum or blog. Reliability reflects the traditional values of accuracy, currency, credibility and bias, and in the web-based world, durabililty. Findability is simply the ease with which a portal can be discovered by a searcher using the search engine that is most commonly associated with the Web by young people - Google - and using terms related to teen health. Findability is an important consideration since the majority of teens begin their search for health information using search engines (CIBER, 2008; Hansen et al, 2003). The content linked to by the portals was not evaluated, nor was the portals’ efficacy as a health intervention. Teens looking for health information on the Web in English have a wide range of choices available but French-language portals are much rarer and harder to find. A majority of the portals found and reviewed originated from hospitals, associations specializing in a particular disease, and governmental agencies, suggesting that portals for teens on health related topics are generally reliable. However, only a handful of the portals reviewed were easy to find, suggesting that valuable resources for teens remain buried in the Web

    THE USE OF ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS BASED ON A PHYSICIAN DIAGNOSIS OF ASTHMA FOR COUNTY WIDE ASTHMA SURVEILLANCE

    Get PDF
    Allegheny County (AC) has limited information on asthma morbidity. In order to improve upon the sensitivity of asthma, a cross sectional study from January 1, 2002 through December 31, 2005 was conducted to determine whether the data received for emergency room visits from a large regional medical center might be a good predictor for quantifying asthma cases for surveillance. An electronic medical record (EMR) abstract using the Council for State and Territorial Epidemiology (CSTE) Asthma Surveillance case definition of an ICD 9 coded physician diagnosis for primary and secondary asthma (n= 18,284), and primary asthma (n = 5,100) were used to define asthma. The analysis used data from a subset of six hospitals from a large regional medical center covering approximately 60% of adult ED visits in AC that use electronic data for reporting. A secondary analysis of the physician diagnosed primary asthma cases (n= 180) was applied against the CSTE Clinical and Laboratory case definition. Statistical software was used to validate these data abstracted from the EMR. Once these data were validated for accuracy, a fourth dataset of any primary asthma emergency room visits (n= 10,183) were used to test the relationship between asthma morbidity and exposure to ozone. Recent studies have linked asthma hospitalizations in several cities to ozone action days. However, data on the effects of ozone as they relate to asthma emergency room (ER) visits have not been well studied. Electronic medical records from the six hospitals representing the large metropolitan medical center in Allegheny County, PA were obtained on individuals with asthma based on the ICD-9 discharge diagnosis of (493.0-493.9) for the respective time period. Data on ozone, PM2.5, and temperature were obtained for same period. A case crossover methodology using conditional logistic regression as the statistical estimator was conducted to assess the relationship between levels of ozone and PM 2.5 and increases in asthma ER visits. A time stratified sampling strategy was employed assuming a 3:1 case-control ratio.A total of 6,979 individuals were included in the study, with a mean age of 39.25 ±21.0. The mean ozone exposure for this period was 40.6 ppb (range: 0-126). The effect estimates for year-round data was greatest for a 2-day lag adjusted for temperature (OR= 1.02 (95% CI= 1.01-1.04) (p<.05). For each 10-ppb increase in 24-hour maximum ozone, a 2% increase was noted in asthma ER visits. These results indicate that asthma ED visits may be an additional source of information for use in environmental public health tracking

    Preface

    Get PDF

    Learning Clinical Data Representations for Machine Learning

    Get PDF

    COMPUTATIONAL PHENOTYPING AND DRUG REPURPOSING FROM ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS

    Get PDF
    Using electronic medical records (EMR) for research involves selecting cohorts and manipulating data for tasks like predictive analysis. Computational phenotyping for cohort characterization and stratification is becoming increasingly important for researchers to produce clinically relevant findings. There are significant amounts of time and effort devoted to manual chart abstraction by subject matter experts and researchers, which creates a large bottleneck for progress in clinical research. I focus on developing computational phenotyping pipelines, and I also focus on using EMR for drug repurposing in breast cancer. Drug repurposing is defined as the process of applying known drugs that are already on the market to new disease indications. Using EMR data for drug repurposing has the unique advantage of being able to observe a patient cohort over time and see drug effects on outcomes. In this dissertation, I present work on computational phenotyping and EMR-based drug repurposing. First, I use embedding models and foundational natural language processing methods to predict oral cancer risk with pathology notes. Second, I use natural language processing methods and transfer learning for breast cancer cohort selection and information extraction. Third, I present a pipeline for producing drug repurposing candidates from EMR and provide supporting evidence for predictions with biomedical literature and existing clinical trials.Doctor of Philosoph

    Intra-regional economic integration. the identification and analysis of clusters in Eastern Bavaria and Central Franconia

    Get PDF
    As many establishments are embedded in regional economic structures, their competitive advantages also depend on local conditions. In many regions, these are shaped by regional clusters. Hence, for more than two decades, clusters have attracted a great deal of attention from regional economics and regional economic policy. Which role can clusters play in the progressing integration of markets and the international division of labour that accompanies it? What drives intra-regional cooperation between establishments? And do establishments that position themselves in clusters differ from others in terms of survival rates and employment growth? These are the questions author addresses using the example of two economic areas in Bavaria, based on data from the cluster-oriented regional information system CORIS.Die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit von Betrieben hängt aufgrund ihrer möglichen Einbettung in die regionalen Wirtschaftsstrukturen auch von den lokalen Bedingungen ab. Deswegen stehen Wirtschaftscluster bereits seit geraumer Zeit im Fokus der regionalökonomischen Forschung und der regionalen Wirtschaftspolitik. Wie können regionale Cluster identifiziert werden? Welche Rolle spielen Cluster im internationalen Standortwettbewerb? Von welchen Faktoren hängt die Kooperation zwischen Betrieben innerhalb eines Clusters ab? Und welche Auswirkungen auf Überlebenswahrscheinlichkeit und Beschäftigtenwachstum hat es, wenn sich Betriebe in Clustern positionieren? Diesen und anderen Fragen geht die Autorin - gestützt auf Daten aus dem regionalen Informationssystem CORIS - am Beispiel der Wirtschaftsregionen Nürnberg und Ostbayern nach

    Healthy lifestyle interventions to combat noncommunicable disease : a novel nonhierarchical connectivity model for key stakeholders : a policy statement from the American Heart Association, European Society of Cardiology, European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, and American College of Preventive Medicine

    Get PDF
    © 2015 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, and the European Society of Cardiology. This article is being published concurrently in Mayo Clinic Proceedings [1]. The articles are identical except for minor stylistic and spelling differences in keeping with each journal's style. Either citation can be used when citing this article. [1] Arena R, Guazzi M, Lianov L, Whitsel L, Berra K, Lavie CJ, Kaminsky L, Williams M, Hivert M-F, Franklin NC, Myers J, Dengel D, Lloyd-Jones DM, Pinto FJ, Cosentino F, Halle M, Gielen S, Dendale P, Niebauer J, Pelliccia A, Giannuzzi P, Corra U, Piepoli MF, Guthrie G, Shurney D. Healthy Lifestyle Interventions to Combat Noncommunicable Diseased - A Novel Nonhierarchical Connectivity Model for Key Stakeholders: A Policy Statement From the American Heart Association, European Society of Cardiology, European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, and American College of Preventive Medicine. Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2015; DOI: 10.1016/j.mayocp.2015.05.001 [In Press]Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have become the primary health concern for most countries around the world. Currently, more than 36 million people worldwide die from NCDs each year, accounting for 63% of annual global deaths; most are preventable. The global financial burden of NCDs is staggering, with an estimated 2010 global cost of 6.3trillion(USdollars)thatisprojectedtoincreaseto6.3 trillion (US dollars) that is projected to increase to 13 trillion by 2030. A number of NCDs share one or more common predisposing risk factors, all related to lifestyle to some degree: (1) cigarette smoking, (2) hypertension, (3) hyperglycemia, (4) dyslipidemia, (5) obesity, (6) physical inactivity, and (7) poor nutrition. In large part, prevention, control, or even reversal of the aforementioned modifiable risk factors are realized through leading a healthy lifestyle (HL). The challenge is how to initiate the global change, not toward increasing documentation of the scope of the problem but toward true action-creating, implementing, and sustaining HL initiatives that will result in positive, measurable changes in the previously defined poor health metrics. To achieve this task, a paradigm shift in how we approach NCD prevention and treatment is required. The goal of this American Heart Association/European Society of Cardiology/European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation/American College of Preventive Medicine policy statement is to define key stakeholders and highlight their connectivity with respect to HL initiatives. This policy encourages integrated action by all stakeholders to create the needed paradigm shift and achieve broad adoption of HL behaviors on a global scale.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
    corecore