CaRROT-CDM:An Open-Source Tool for Transforming Data for Federated Discovery in Health Research

Health Data are collected or repurposed for research in many organisations across the UK. These data are held in many formats and at many scales. Such data can contain information on biometric measurements, medical conditions, medical procedures, demographics, and prescribed medications with several coding systems in use. For GDPR compliance, data are stored securely and de-identified prior to use in research making sharing and standardisation more difficult. The Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) program’s Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Common Data Model (CDM) provides standard data objects and coding for health data.   CaRROT-CDM  Open-Source tools were developed to define mappings and transform data from numerous disparate organisations (the Data Partners) to the OMOP standard to allow federated data queries via the Health Data Research UK (HDR-UK) gateway. These tools are CaRROT-Mapper and CaRROT-CDM, with the latter being the focus here.  CaRROT-CDM takes mapping information from the CaRROT-Mapper and source data as input. It produces OMOP CDM format data as output. The tool was designed to run in Data Partners’ compute environments, reducing the governance burden for transforming data to the common standard. Sensitive, identifiable data are never seen by the development team.  Conclusions and Current Work  The CaRROT-CDM tool is in use at Data Partner sites and has transformed over 20 COVID-19 and Pain data sets, so far, which are available for aggregated query via the HDR UK innovation gateway. Current work is focussed on re-engineering and testing the software for scaling to population-level health data.

CaRROT-CDM:An Open-Source Tool for Transforming Data for Federated Discovery in Health Research

Health Data are collected or repurposed for research in many organisations across the UK. These data are held in many formats and at many scales. Such data can contain information on biometric measurements, medical conditions, medical procedures, demographics, and prescribed medications with several coding systems in use. For GDPR compliance, data are stored securely and de-identified prior to use in research making sharing and standardisation more difficult. The Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) program’s Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Common Data Model (CDM) provides standard data objects and coding for health data.   CaRROT-CDM  Open-Source tools were developed to define mappings and transform data from numerous disparate organisations (the Data Partners) to the OMOP standard to allow federated data queries via the Health Data Research UK (HDR-UK) gateway. These tools are CaRROT-Mapper and CaRROT-CDM, with the latter being the focus here.  CaRROT-CDM takes mapping information from the CaRROT-Mapper and source data as input. It produces OMOP CDM format data as output. The tool was designed to run in Data Partners’ compute environments, reducing the governance burden for transforming data to the common standard. Sensitive, identifiable data are never seen by the development team.  Conclusions and Current Work  The CaRROT-CDM tool is in use at Data Partner sites and has transformed over 20 COVID-19 and Pain data sets, so far, which are available for aggregated query via the HDR UK innovation gateway. Current work is focussed on re-engineering and testing the software for scaling to population-level health data.

Relation of Gallstones with Hepatitis C Infection

Objective: The objective of this study case was to draw an analogy of frequency of gallstonesbetween  patients diagnosed with Hepatitis C and those without the virus.Place and Duration of Study: The examination spanned almost two years (January 2018 – September 2018) at the Mayo hospital, Lahore.Materials and Methods:By using the Non probability sampling technique, 1000 cases were included, regardless of age and sex. The patients were examined by the gimmune chromatographic strip-test method for the Anti-HCV antibody.Individual groups for those with Hepatitis C and without it were categorized. Group 1 included seronegative while the Group 2 compromised of seropositive patients. The abdomen region was scanned with ultrasound to determine the presence of gallstones. A particular program was design for the collection of data of age, gender, absence or presence of gallstones. The details were assessed by employing SPSS V.21. Description statistics and Chi square test was implemented.ResultsAn aggregate number of 1000 patients were incorporated into the examination, which were classified into two groups. In Group I, 500 patients were HCV seronegative and keeping in mind that in Group II 500 patients were HCV seropositive. Out of 1000 patients, 735 (73.5%) were female and 265 (26.5%) were male. Mean age of the patients was 41 ± 2.33 years.Most youthful patient was 18 years of age and oldest was 89 years of age. Male and females with Hepatitis C antibodies were 122 (46.03%) and 522 (71.02%) individually. Add up to existence of gallstone in the two groups was 233 (23.3%) patients. In Group I gallstones were found in 51 (6.12%) patients and in group II (HCV+ve) in 132 (31.43%) cases.Conclusion: Hepatitis infection is positively relatedto the gallstone formation.Key Words: gallstones, gallbladder, Hepatitis C, GBD, virus, cholelithiasis

The Alleviate Advanced Pain Discovery Platform Data Hub:A national resource for accessing and sharing pain data

There are many clinical and non-clinical datasets investigating pain that have been collected by researchers over many years, however, finding and getting access to them is challenging. The data are siloed in hard-to-reach places, in non-standard formats, and it is not possible to assess how relevant they are before getting access. This is a barrier to the pain research community and results in duplication of effort. It does not have to be this way and there are alternative solutions available. Alleviate is an HDR UK Data Hub for the federated querying and secure sharing of UK pain data to researchers, analysts and clinicians at a national and international level. Alleviate is the Data Hub for the Advanced Pain Discovery Platform (APDP), a £24 million research initiative to break through the complexity of pain and reveal potential new treatment approaches to address a wide spectrum of chronic and debilitating clinical conditions

Well-being of Women Entrepreneurs in Pakistan: A Conceptual Review of Challenges and Opportunities

Purpose: The economic significance of women's entrepreneurship is globally recognized; yet, the pace of women's entrepreneurial activities is slow. The lowering share of women's participation in the entrepreneurial population has been attributed to many reasons but for health. Women entrepreneurs’ health and well-being are important, yet widely neglected notions in research and practice. Especially, in Pakistani patriarchal society women are expected to work (self-employed or organizationally employed) with disproportionate family and work responsibilities. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study provides a conceptual review of key challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. To serve this purpose, relevant literature was selected and reviewed following a four-step procedure. Findings: In fulfilling their traditional roles of house-maker and the need to support family, the mental and physical health of women entrepreneurs is compromised. Findings of this study reveal that role expectation, stress overload, work-life conflict, fear of harassment, and workaholism are among the key factors that challenge the well-being of women entrepreneurs. However, family support, societal approval of their business, and work engagement may serve as an opportunity to improve women entrepreneurs’ well-being. Implications/Originality/Value: The study sheds light on key challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in a developing country context and suggests avenues for further research

Conceptualizing Peer Effects of Corporate Social Performance on Corporate Financial Performance

Purpose: Existing approaches to explaining the dynamics of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance (CFP) through peer effect are incomplete as they do not conceptualize the complexity of the phenomenon. Building on the extant literature the paper aims to critically document parameters to understand the connectivity between peer effect-CSR and CSR-CFP. Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper is based on a proposed conceptual framework identifying key parameters to understand the connectivity between peer effect-CSR and CSR-CFP. Relevant extant literature published during 1993-2017 in high-quality journals is synthesized. This review reveals different approaches and measurement techniques as the basis of inconclusive empirical evidence on the relationship between corporate social and financial performance. Findings: The paper implies that firms mimic their peers’ CSR strategies for different reasons such as reputation or learning in the hope of devising better strategies for growth and sustainable development. To state, there are different motives behind and channels through which peers influence CSR-CFP association. Implications/Originality/Value: The paper establishes a link between corporate social and financial performance through the lens of peer effect, especially in the context of developing economies. This paper has implications in enhancing overall understanding of social responsibility and financial performance connection by providing clarity on underlying themes, theoretical underpinnings and measurement approaches

Black Carbon Personal Exposure during Commuting in the Metropolis of Karachi

Black carbon (BC) exposure and inhalation dose of a commuter using four traffic modes (car, bus, auto-rickshaw, and motorbike) were monitored in Karachi, Pakistan. The real-time exposure concentrations in office-peak and off-peak hours were recorded during the winter season using microAeth® AE51 BC monitors. Exposure concentrations were higher in peak hours and were reduced to half in the off-peak time. The inclination levels of the inhaled dose were similar, and this trend was observed with all four modes of commute. The motorbike was found to be the most exposed mode of transportation, followed by auto-rickshaws, cars, and buses, respectively. However, the order was reversed when accounting for inhaled doses, e.g., the inhalation dose for auto rickshaws was highest, followed by the bus, motorbike, and car, respectively. Spatiotemporal analysis reveals that driving roads with lower traffic intensity and fewer intersections resulted in lower exposures. Therefore, traffic intensity, road topology, the timing of the trip, and the degree of urbanization were found to be the major influences for in-vehicle BC exposure

Black Carbon Personal Exposure during Commuting in the Metropolis of Karachi

Black carbon (BC) exposure and inhalation dose of a commuter using four traffic modes (car, bus, auto-rickshaw, and motorbike) were monitored in Karachi, Pakistan. The real-time exposure concentrations in office-peak and off-peak hours were recorded during the winter season using microAeth® AE51 BC monitors. Exposure concentrations were higher in peak hours and were reduced to half in the off-peak time. The inclination levels of the inhaled dose were similar, and this trend was observed with all four modes of commute. The motorbike was found to be the most exposed mode of transportation, followed by auto-rickshaws, cars, and buses, respectively. However, the order was reversed when accounting for inhaled doses, e.g., the inhalation dose for auto rickshaws was highest, followed by the bus, motorbike, and car, respectively. Spatiotemporal analysis reveals that driving roads with lower traffic intensity and fewer intersections resulted in lower exposures. Therefore, traffic intensity, road topology, the timing of the trip, and the degree of urbanization were found to be the major influences for in-vehicle BC exposure