Ernst Fuchs (1851-1930) and the Worldwide Renown of the Vienna School of Ophthalmology around 1900

By presenting documents and original photographs of the ophthalmologist Ernst Fuchs his life and scientific work are presented in a way never done before. German Version: http://e-book.fwf.ac.at/o:1551 English Version: http://e-book.fwf.ac.at/o:1773Anhand von bisher größtenteils noch niemals veröffentlichten Originaldokumenten und -abbildungen werden Leben und wissenschaftliches Wirken des Ophthalmologen Ernst Fuchs dargestellt. Ernst Fuchs war um 1900 nicht nur der bedeutendste österreichische Ophthalmologe, sondern genoss auch international hohes Ansehen. Er führte die Wiener ophthalmologische Schule zu seiner Zeit zu Weltruf. Deutsche Version: http://e-book.fwf.ac.at/o:1551 Englische Version: http://e-book.fwf.ac.at/o:177

Ernst Fuchs (1851-1930) and the Worldwide Renown of the Vienna School of Ophthalmology around 1900

By presenting documents and original photographs of the ophthalmologist Ernst Fuchs his life and scientific work are presented in a way never done before. German Version: http://e-book.fwf.ac.at/o:1551 English Version: http://e-book.fwf.ac.at/o:177

Assessing and improving rational antimicrobial use in urban and rural health care facilities in Vietnam

The global problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is particularly pressing in developing countries including Vietnam, where the infectious disease burden is high and cost constrains the replacement of older antimicrobials with newer, more expensive ones. Along with surveillance and infection control, responsible use of antimicrobials is one of the main objectives of the Vietnam National Action Plan on combating AMR. This thesis aims to get a better understanding of how antimicrobials are used in the Vietnamese community and how its use can be improved, to tailor evidence-based interventions and inform policies in controlling AMR. To assess the current situation of community access and use of antimicrobials and identify determinants associated with current practice, an observational study was conducted in 30 private pharmacies in northern Vietnam. This study was followed by a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate a point of care (POC) C-reactive protein (CRP, a biomarker of inflammation) test in reducing unnecessary antimicrobial prescribing for patients with non-severe acute respiratory infections (ARI) and analysis of the economic impact and acceptance of this intervention among users. In private pharmacies, profit incentives coupled to poor knowledge about AMR are key drivers of over the counter dispensing of antimicrobials regardless the existence of regulations. Using a simple rapid blood test to identify customers who do not benefit from antimicrobial therapy would be a potential solution. Primary healthcare stations where over-prescription of antimicrobials for self-limiting infections are common, were chosen for the intervention. CRP POC testing reduced unnecessary AB use for ARI patients without compromising patient’s recovery. This supports and extends findings from European trials by showing that such a stewardship approach is applicable even in resource constrained settings. However, there were several obstacles identified among users regarding test adherence associated with large between-site heterogeneity that need to be addressed to maximize the intervention’s effect in the future. More importantly, our cost analysis indicated that to encourage adoption at scale, proper funding mechanisms to balance the invested costs and achieve global impact on AMR is recommended. In summary, antimicrobial use in Vietnam is largely uncontrolled both in the community and the healthcare system leading to overuse and over-prescription for non-severe ARI. Use of commercially available CRP tests can be an effective, scalable and economically viable approach, even in highly resource-constrained settings. For the future, we are looking at ways to optimise use of POC biomarker testing in primary healthcare and private pharmacy setting. The potential for biomarker based tests to be combined with rapid pathogen detection, enhancing test algorithm adherence, use of CRP tests with equal financial incentives as as selling of antimicrobials and introducing pay for performance mechanisms may be crucial parts for optimisation

Applications of big knowledge summarization

Advanced technologies have resulted in the generation of large amounts of data ( Big Data ). The Big Knowledge derived from Big Data could be beyond humans\u27 ability of comprehension, which will limit the effective and innovative use of Big Knowledge repository. Biomedical ontologies, which play important roles in biomedical information systems, constitute one kind of Big Knowledge repository. Biomedical ontologies typically consist of domain knowledge assertions expressed by the semantic connections between tens of thousands of concepts. Without some high-level visual representation of Big Knowledge in biomedical ontologies, humans cannot grasp the big picture of those ontologies. Such Big Knowledge orientation is required for the proper maintenance of ontologies and their effective use. This dissertation is addressing the Big Knowledge challenge - How to enable humans to use Big Knowledge correctly and effectively (referred to as the Big Knowledge to Use (BK2U) problem) - with a focus on biomedical ontologies. In previous work, Abstraction Networks (AbNs) have been demonstrated successful for the summarization, visualization and quality assurance (QA) of biomedical ontologies. Based on the previous research, this dissertation introduces new AbNs of various granularities for Big Knowledge summarization and extends the applications of AbNs. This dissertation consists of three main parts. The first part introduces two advanced AbNs. One is the weighted aggregate partial-area taxonomy with a parameter to flexibly control the summarization granularity. The second is the Ingredient Abstraction Network (IAbN) for the National Drug File - Reference Terminology (NDF-RT) Chemical Ingredients hierarchy, for which the previously developed AbNs for hierarchies with outgoing relationships, are not applicable. Since NDF-RT\u27s Chemical Ingredients hierarchy has no outgoing relationships. The second part describes applications of the two advanced AbNs. A study utilizing the weighted aggregate partial-area taxonomy for the identification of major topics in SNOMED CT\u27s Specimen hierarchy is reported. A multi-layer interactive visualization system of required granularity for ontology comprehension, based on the weighted aggregate partial-area taxonomy, is demonstrated to comprehend the Neoplasm subhierarchy of National Cancer Institute thesaurus (NCIt). The IAbN is applied for drug-drug interaction (DDI) discovery. The third part reports eight family-based QA studies on NCIt\u27s Neoplasm, Gene, and Biological Process hierarchies, SNOMED CT\u27s Infectious disease hierarchy, the Chemical Entities of Biological Interest ontology, and the Chemical Ingredients hierarchy in NDF-RT. There is no one-size-fits-all QA method and it is impossible to find a QA method for each individual ontology. Hence, family-based QA is an effective way, i.e., one QA technique could be applicable to a whole family of structurally similar ontologies. The results of these studies demonstrate that complex concepts and uncommonly modeled concepts are more likely to have errors. Furthermore, the three studies on overlapping concepts in partial-area taxonomies reported in this dissertation combined with previous three studies prove the success of overlapping concepts as a QA methodology for a whole family of 76 similar ontologies in BioPortal

Pharmaceutical compounding and drug repositioning from hospital pharmacy in situations of therapeutic gap

This doctoral thesis focuses on offering therapeutic alternatives through pharmaceutical compounding and drug repositioning from the hospital pharmacy to cover therapeutic gaps. An ophthalmic compounded formulation of cysteamine in hyaluronic acid packaged in novel single-dose containers was developed for the treatment of ocular cystinosis. On the other hand, an inhaled compounded formulation of ethanol was developed for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and subsequently studied for efficacy and safety in the phase II clinical trial ALCOVID-19. In both cases, appropriate galenic development and characterisation has been performed in conjunction with preclinical pharmacokinetic studies prior to appropriate translation into clinical practice