Improving healthcare delivery with new interactive visualization methods

Over the last years, the implementation and evolution of computer resources in hospital institutions has been improving both the financial and temporal efficiency of clinical processes, as well as the security in the transmission and maintenance of their data, also ensuring the reduction of clinical risk. Diagnosis, treatment and prevention of human illness are some of the most information-intensive of all intellectual tasks. Health providers often do not have or cannot find the information they need to respond quickly and appropriately to patient’s medical problems. Failure to review and follow up on patient’s test results in a timely manner, for example, represents a patient’s safety and malpractice concern. Therefore, it was sought to identify problems in a medical exams results management system and possible ways to improve this system in order to reduce both clinical risks and hospital costs. In this sense, a new medical exams visualization platform (AIDA-MCDT) was developed, specifically in the Hospital Center of Porto (CHP), with several new functionalities in order to make this process faster, intuitive and efficient, always guaranteeing the confidentiality and protection of patients’ personal data and significantly improving the usability of the system, leading to a better health care delivery.FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UID/CEC/00319/2019

Machine Learning for Health: Algorithm Auditing & Quality Control

Developers proposing new machine learning for health (ML4H) tools often pledge to match or even surpass the performance of existing tools, yet the reality is usually more complicated. Reliable deployment of ML4H to the real world is challenging as examples from diabetic retinopathy or Covid-19 screening show. We envision an integrated framework of algorithm auditing and quality control that provides a path towards the effective and reliable application of ML systems in healthcare. In this editorial, we give a summary of ongoing work towards that vision and announce a call for participation to the special issue Machine Learning for Health: Algorithm Auditing & Quality Control in this journal to advance the practice of ML4H auditing

Treatment of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma: recommendations from the International Myeloma Working Group

This Policy Review presents the International Myeloma Working Group's clinical practice recommendations for the treatment of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma. Based on the results of phase 2 and phase 3 trials, these recommendations are proposed for the treatment of patients with relapsed and refractory disease who have received one previous line of therapy, and for patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma who have received two or more previous lines of therapy. These recommendations integrate the issue of drug access in both low-income and middle-income countries and in high-income countries to help guide real-world practice and thus improve patient outcomes

Does Sex Speed Up Evolutionary Rate and Increase Biodiversity?

Most empirical and theoretical studies have shown that sex increases the rate of evolution, although evidence of sex constraining genomic and epigenetic variation and slowing down evolution also exists. Faster rates with sex have been attributed to new gene combinations, removal of deleterious mutations, and adaptation to heterogeneous environments. Slower rates with sex have been attributed to removal of major genetic rearrangements, the cost of finding a mate, vulnerability to predation, and exposure to sexually transmitted diseases. Whether sex speeds or slows evolution, the connection between reproductive mode, the evolutionary rate, and species diversity remains largely unexplored. Here we present a spatially explicit model of ecological and evolutionary dynamics based on DNA sequence change to study the connection between mutation, speciation, and the resulting biodiversity in sexual and asexual populations. We show that faster speciation can decrease the abundance of newly formed species and thus decrease long-term biodiversity. In this way, sex can reduce diversity relative to asexual populations, because it leads to a higher rate of production of new species, but with lower abundances. Our results show that reproductive mode and the mechanisms underlying it can alter the link between mutation, evolutionary rate, speciation and biodiversity and we suggest that a high rate of evolution may not be required to yield high biodiversity

Combined Tevatron upper limit on gg->H->W+W- and constraints on the Higgs boson mass in fourth-generation fermion models

Report number: FERMILAB-PUB-10-125-EWe combine results from searches by the CDF and D0 collaborations for a standard model Higgs boson (H) in the process gg->H->W+W- in p=pbar collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV. With 4.8 fb-1 of integrated luminosity analyzed at CDF and 5.4 fb-1 at D0, the 95% Confidence Level upper limit on \sigma(gg->H) x B(H->W+W-) is 1.75 pb at m_H=120 GeV, 0.38 pb at m_H=165 GeV, and 0.83 pb at m_H=200 GeV. Assuming the presence of a fourth sequential generation of fermions with large masses, we exclude at the 95% Confidence Level a standard-model-like Higgs boson with a mass between 131 and 204 GeV.We combine results from searches by the CDF and D0 collaborations for a standard model Higgs boson (H) in the process gg→H→W+W- in pp̅ collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider at √s=1.96  TeV. With 4.8  fb-1 of integrated luminosity analyzed at CDF and 5.4  fb-1 at D0, the 95% confidence level upper limit on σ(gg→H)×B(H→W+W-) is 1.75 pb at mH=120  GeV, 0.38 pb at mH=165  GeV, and 0.83 pb at mH=200  GeV. Assuming the presence of a fourth sequential generation of fermions with large masses, we exclude at the 95% confidence level a standard-model-like Higgs boson with a mass between 131 and 204 GeV.Peer reviewe

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta