Using a Question Answering System to Enhance Knowledge and Improve the Exchange of Information among Physicians

Due to limited time, physicians often find it challenging to find the exact answers to their questions among search engine results; however, question and answer (Q&A) systems can facilitate more rapidly identify accurate solutions. This study aims to develop and evaluate a Q&A system for physicians at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Four clinical and informatics experts and the two health information managers agreed on 19 features and themes throughout two focus group meetings. Subsequently, a system was developed on a MySQL database using the PHP web development language and then uploaded to the web. Finally, the system was opened up to 40 users and, over three months, evaluated using a community evaluation questionnaire and the six-dimension Users’ Experience Questionnaire. The focus group results in determining the features of the Q&A system consisted of 19 requirements. The average attractiveness, perspicuity, efficiency, dependability, stimulation, and novelty were equal to 1.76, 1.625, 1.9, 1.425, 1.475, and 1.375, respectively. The Q&A system improved the tasks such as share of knowledge, transfer of information, social partnership, and cooperation among users. The physicians were able to obtain the information they required through contact with their co-practitioners over the system.https://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.20088302.2021.19.2.14.

Cancer Is Associated with the Emergence of Placenta-Reactive Autoantibodies

Placenta-specific antigens are minimally expressed or unexpressed in normal adult tissues, while they are widely expressed in cancer. In the course of carcinogenesis, a vast array of autoantibodies (AAbs) is produced. Here, we used a quantitative approach to determine the reactivity of AAbs in the sera of patients with breast (BrC: N = 100, 100% female, median age: 51 years), gastric (GC: N = 30, 46.6% female, median age: 57 years), bladder (BC: N = 29, 34.4% female, median age: 57 years), and colorectal (CRC: N = 34, 41.1% female, median age: 51 years) cancers against first-trimester (FTP) and full-term placental proteome (TP) in comparison with age- and sex-matched non-cancer individuals. Human-on-human immunohistochemistry was used to determine reactive target cells in FTP. The effect of pregnancy on the emergence of placenta-reactive autoantibodies was tested using sera from pregnant women at different trimesters of pregnancy. Except for BC, patients with BrC (p p p p p < 0.0409) in the early stages triggered higher autoantibody reactivity against FTP. The reactivities of BrC sera with FTP did not show an association with ER, PR, or HER2 expression. Pregnancy in the third trimester was associated with the induction of TP- and not FTP-reactive autoantibodies (=0.018). The reactivity of BrC sera with placental proteins was found to be independent of gravidity or abortion. BrC sera showed a very strong and specific pattern of reactivity with scattered cells beneath the syncytiotrophoblast layer. Our results reinforce the concept of the coevolution of placentation and cancer and shed light on the future clinical application of the placental proteome for the non-invasive early detection and treatment of cancer