318 research outputs found
Secure and Trustable Electronic Medical Records Sharing using Blockchain
Electronic medical records (EMRs) are critical, highly sensitive private
information in healthcare, and need to be frequently shared among peers.
Blockchain provides a shared, immutable and transparent history of all the
transactions to build applications with trust, accountability and transparency.
This provides a unique opportunity to develop a secure and trustable EMR data
management and sharing system using blockchain. In this paper, we present our
perspectives on blockchain based healthcare data management, in particular, for
EMR data sharing between healthcare providers and for research studies. We
propose a framework on managing and sharing EMR data for cancer patient care.
In collaboration with Stony Brook University Hospital, we implemented our
framework in a prototype that ensures privacy, security, availability, and
fine-grained access control over EMR data. The proposed work can significantly
reduce the turnaround time for EMR sharing, improve decision making for medical
care, and reduce the overall costComment: AMIA 2017 Annual Symposium Proceeding
Composição de serviços para aplicações biomédicas
Doutoramento em Engenharia InformáticaA exigente inovação na área das aplicações biomédicas tem guiado a evolução
das tecnologias de informação nas últimas décadas. Os desafios associados a
uma gestão, integração, análise e interpretação eficientes dos dados
provenientes das mais modernas tecnologias de hardware e software
requerem um esforço concertado. Desde hardware para sequenciação de
genes a registos electrónicos de paciente, passando por pesquisa de
fármacos, a possibilidade de explorar com precisão os dados destes
ambientes é vital para a compreensão da saúde humana. Esta tese engloba a
discussão e o desenvolvimento de melhores estratégias informáticas para
ultrapassar estes desafios, principalmente no contexto da composição de
serviços, incluindo técnicas flexíveis de integração de dados, como
warehousing ou federação, e técnicas avançadas de interoperabilidade, como
serviços web ou LinkedData.
A composição de serviços é apresentada como um ideal genérico, direcionado
para a integração de dados e para a interoperabilidade de software.
Relativamente a esta última, esta investigação debruçou-se sobre o campo da
farmacovigilância, no contexto do projeto Europeu EU-ADR. As contribuições
para este projeto, um novo standard de interoperabilidade e um motor de
execução de workflows, sustentam a sucesso da EU-ADR Web Platform, uma
plataforma para realizar estudos avançados de farmacovigilância. No contexto
do projeto Europeu GEN2PHEN, esta investigação visou ultrapassar os
desafios associados à integração de dados distribuídos e heterogéneos no
campo do varíoma humano. Foi criada uma nova solução, WAVe - Web
Analyses of the Variome, que fornece uma coleção rica de dados de variação
genética através de uma interface Web inovadora e de uma API avançada. O
desenvolvimento destas estratégias evidenciou duas oportunidades claras na
área de software biomédico: melhorar o processo de implementação de
software através do recurso a técnicas de desenvolvimento rápidas e
aperfeiçoar a qualidade e disponibilidade dos dados através da adopção do
paradigma de web semântica.
A plataforma COEUS atravessa as fronteiras de integração e
interoperabilidade, fornecendo metodologias para a aquisição e tradução
flexíveis de dados, bem como uma camada de serviços interoperáveis para
explorar semanticamente os dados agregados. Combinando as técnicas de
desenvolvimento rápidas com a riqueza da perspectiva "Semantic Web in a
box", a plataforma COEUS é uma aproximação pioneira, permitindo o
desenvolvimento da próxima geração de aplicações biomédicas.The demand for innovation in the biomedical software domain has been an
information technologies evolution driver over the last decades. The challenges
associated with the effective management, integration, analyses and
interpretation of the wealth of life sciences information stemming from modern
hardware and software technologies require concerted efforts. From gene
sequencing hardware to pharmacology research up to patient electronic health
records, the ability to accurately explore data from these environments is vital
to further improve our understanding of human health. This thesis encloses the
discussion on building better informatics strategies to address these
challenges, primarily in the context of service composition, including
warehousing and federation strategies for resource integration, as well as web
services or LinkedData for software interoperability.
Service composition is introduced as a general principle, geared towards data
integration and software interoperability. Concerning the latter, this research
covers the service composition requirements within the pharmacovigilance
field, namely on the European EU-ADR project. The contributions to this area,
the definition of a new interoperability standard and the creation of a new
workflow-wrapping engine, are behind the successful construction of the EUADR
Web Platform, a workspace for delivering advanced pharmacovigilance
studies. In the context of the European GEN2PHEN project, this research
tackles the challenges associated with the integration of heterogeneous and
distributed data in the human variome field. For this matter, a new lightweight
solution was created: WAVe, Web Analysis of the Variome, provides a rich
collection of genetic variation data through an innovative portal and an
advanced API. The development of the strategies underlying these products
highlighted clear opportunities in the biomedical software field: enhancing the
software implementation process with rapid application development
approaches and improving the quality and availability of data with the adoption
of the Semantic Web paradigm.
COEUS crosses the boundaries of integration and interoperability as it provides
a framework for the flexible acquisition and translation of data into a semantic
knowledge base, as well as a comprehensive set of interoperability services,
from REST to LinkedData, to fully exploit gathered data semantically. By
combining the lightness of rapid application development strategies with the
richness of its "Semantic Web in a box" approach, COEUS is a pioneering
framework to enhance the development of the next generation of biomedical
applications
Enabling Web-scale data integration in biomedicine through Linked Open Data
The biomedical data landscape is fragmented with several isolated, heterogeneous data and knowledge sources, which use varying formats, syntaxes, schemas, and entity notations, existing on the Web. Biomedical researchers face severe logistical and technical challenges to query, integrate, analyze, and visualize data from multiple diverse sources in the context of available biomedical knowledge. Semantic Web technologies and Linked Data principles may aid toward Web-scale semantic processing and data integration in biomedicine. The biomedical research community has been one of the earliest adopters of these technologies and principles to publish data and knowledge on the Web as linked graphs and ontologies, hence creating the Life Sciences Linked Open Data (LSLOD) cloud. In this paper, we provide our perspective on some opportunities proffered by the use of LSLOD to integrate biomedical data and knowledge in three domains: (1) pharmacology, (2) cancer research, and (3) infectious diseases. We will discuss some of the major challenges that hinder the wide-spread use and consumption of LSLOD by the biomedical research community. Finally, we provide a few technical solutions and insights that can address these challenges. Eventually, LSLOD can enable the development of scalable, intelligent infrastructures that support artificial intelligence methods for augmenting human intelligence to achieve better clinical outcomes for patients, to enhance the quality of biomedical research, and to improve our understanding of living systems
Reply to: Soils need to be considered when assessing the impacts of land-use change on carbon sequestration
Industrial Ecolog
The Future of HIPAA in the Cloud
This white paper examines how cloud computing generates new privacy challenges for both healthcare providers and patients, and how American health privacy laws may be interpreted or amended to address these challenges. Given the current implementation of Meaningful Use rules for health information technology and the Omnibus HIPAA Rule in health care generally, the stage is now set for a distinctive law of “health information” to emerge. HIPAA has come of age of late, with more aggressive enforcement efforts targeting wayward healthcare providers and entities. Nevertheless, more needs to be done to assure that health privacy and all the values it is meant to protect are actually vindicated in an era of ever faster and more pervasive data transfer and analysis.
After describing how cloud computing is now used in healthcare, this white paper examines nascent and emerging cloud applications. Current regulation addresses many of these scenarios, but also leaves some important decision points ahead. Business associate agreements between cloud service providers and covered entities will need to address new risks. To meaningfully consent to new uses of protected health information, patients will need access to more sophisticated and granular methods of monitoring data collection, analysis, and use. Policymakers should be concerned not only about medical records, but also about medical reputations used to deny opportunities. In order to implement these and other recommendations, more funding for technical assistance for health privacy regulators is essential
Protecting Health Privacy in an Era of Big Data Processing and Cloud Computing
This Article examines how new technologies generate privacy challenges for both healthcare providers and patients, and how American health privacy laws may be interpreted or amended to address these challenges. Given the current implementation of Meaningful Use rules for health information technology and the Omnibus HIPAA Rule in health care generally, the stage is now set for a distinctive law of “health information” to emerge. HIPAA has come of age of late, with more aggressive enforcement efforts targeting wayward healthcare providers and entities. Nevertheless, more needs to be done to assure that health privacy and all the values it is meant to protect are actually vindicated in an era of ever faster and more pervasive data transfer and analysis.
After describing how cloud computing is now used in healthcare, this Article examines nascent and emerging cloud applications and big data processing methods. Current regulation addresses many of these scenarios, but also leaves some important decision points ahead. Business associate agreements between cloud service providers and covered entities will need to address new risks. To meaningfully consent to new uses of protected health information, patients will need access to more sophisticated and granular methods of monitoring data collection, analysis, and use. Policymakers should be concerned not only about medical records, but also about medical reputations used to deny opportunities. To implement these and other recommendations, more funding for technical assistance for health privacy regulators is essential
an overview of the current situation and future expectations
Tese de mestrado, Regulação e Avaliação do Medicamento e Produtos de Saúde, 2023, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Farmácia.Cancro de pâncreas é um dos mais letais tipos de neoplasias e seu diagnóstico tardio é um fator importante no mau prognóstico. Diferentes abordagens terapêuticas disponíveis para este tipo de cancro, sendo frequentes a ressecção do tumor combinada com quimioterapia, radioterapia e imunoterapia. O desenvolvimento de novas e melhores abordagens poderá promover uma ativação direcionada do sistema imunitário com medicamentos celulares para identificar e gerar uma resposta contra as células tumorais. O produto hipotético PANC-XDC é descrito nesta tese como um medicamento autólogo à base de células dendríticas para o tratamento do cancro do pâncreas, tendo como objetivo acelerar uma resposta imunitária, fazendo também com que seja mais forte e direccionada através da aplicação de antigénios específicos do doente. O desenvolvimento, manufatura e aspetos regulatórios são descritos e comparados a outras abordagens terapêuticas.Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest types of cancer and its late diagnosis is an important factor on the poor prognosis. The therapeutic approaches available for this type of cancer are often resection of the tumor combined with chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy. Development of newer and better approaches could promote a targeted activation of the immune system with cellular based medicinal products to combat the tumor cells. The hypothetical product PANC-XDC is described in this thesis as an autologous dendritic cell-based medicinal product for the treatment of pancreatic cancer aiming for a faster, stronger and specific immune response through the use of patient-specific tumor antigens. The development, manufacture and regulatory aspects regarding the PANC-XDC are described and are compared to other therapeutic approaches
emerging technologies for food and drug safety
Abstract Emerging technologies are playing a major role in the generation of new approaches to assess the safety of both foods and drugs. However, the integration of emerging technologies in the regulatory decision-making process requires rigorous assessment and consensus amongst international partners and research communities. To that end, the Global Coalition for Regulatory Science Research (GCRSR) in partnership with the Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) hosted the seventh Global Summit on Regulatory Science (GSRS17) in Brasilia, Brazil on September 18–20, 2017 to discuss the role of new approaches in regulatory science with a specific emphasis on applications in food and medical product safety. The global regulatory landscape concerning the application of new technologies was assessed in several countries worldwide. Challenges and issues were discussed in the context of developing an international consensus for objective criteria in the development, application and review of emerging technologies. The need for advanced approaches to allow for faster, less expensive and more predictive methodologies was elaborated. In addition, the strengths and weaknesses of each new approach was discussed. And finally, the need for standards and reproducible approaches was reviewed to enhance the application of the emerging technologies to improve food and drug safety. The overarching goal of GSRS17 was to provide a venue where regulators and researchers meet to develop collaborations addressing the most pressing scientific challenges and facilitate the adoption of novel technical innovations to advance the field of regulatory science
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