Data quality in European primary care research databases. Report of a workshop held in London September 2013

Primary care research databases provide a significant resource for health services and epidemiological research. However since data are recorded primarily for clinical care their suitability for research may vary widely according to the research application or recording practices of individual general practitioners. A methodological approach for characterising data quality is required. We describe a one-day workshop entitled “Towards a common protocol for measuring and monitoring data quality in European primary care research databases”. Researchers, database experts and clinicians were invited to give their perspectives on data quality and to exchange ideas on what data quality metrics should be made available to researchers. We report the main outcomes of this workshop, including a summary of the presentations and discussions and suggested way forward

Web 2.0 Sprint Session: 4 Rapid Fire Presentations

Nate Bunnyfield - Posterous is a leading blogging platform with some fantastic social media integration. We will explore basic lifestreaming (posting a video to Twitter/Facebook from a mobile phone), collaborative blogging, and advanced (setting up DNS entries; using Google Analytics; and customizing themes) use cases. Rosemary Talab - Learn how to use Twitter, Tweetdeck, Tweetworks, Broadtexter and cell phones with videconference classes to enhance teaching options, student collaboration and networking. See a live demonstration of these features with students. Hattie Williams - No one has the time, resources, or energy to adopt the latest and greatest development tool every three months or however often they appear. So how can you stay ahead of the curve with what you have? I propose that all you need (at absolute minimum) is expertise on three concepts: Hotspots,Graphics Editing,and On-Screen Presentation. In addition, it always helps to have full command of the product you are using. Print off those help manuals. Leave them at your work station or do not hesitate to hit the button and look things up. You may be surprised to learn how robust your tool actually is; that however is a discussion I will leave for a different session. In this presentation, I will demonstrate how to use these three concepts and some basic functions to create engaging training with Camtasia, beyond basic movie making. The tips in this presentation can be generalized to PowerPoint, HTML, basic Flash, or any other tool that allows you to use images + buttons. Jenell Williams - Basics of Voice Thread

A pragmatic approach for measuring data quality in primary care databases

There is currently no widely recognised methodology for undertaking data quality assessment in electronic health records used for research. In an attempt to address this, we have developed a protocol for measuring and monitoring data quality in primary care research databases, whereby practice-based data quality measures are tailored to the intended use of the data. Our approach was informed by an in-depth investigation of aspects of data quality in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink Gold database and presentations of the results to data users. Although based on a primary care database, much of our proposed approach would be equally applicable to other health care databases

Exploiting the potential of large databases of electronic health records for research using rapid search algorithms and an intuitive query interface.

Objective: UK primary care databases, which contain diagnostic, demographic and prescribing information for millions of patients geographically representative of the UK, represent a significant resource for health services and clinical research. They can be used to identify patients with a specified disease or condition (phenotyping) and to investigate patterns of diagnosis and symptoms. Currently, extracting such information manually is time-consuming and requires considerable expertise. In order to exploit more fully the potential of these large and complex databases, our interdisciplinary team developed generic methods allowing access to different types of user. Materials and methods: Using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink database, we have developed an online user-focused system (TrialViz), which enables users interactively to select suitable medical general practices based on two criteria: suitability of the patient base for the intended study (phenotyping) and measures of data quality. Results: An end-to-end system, underpinned by an innovative search algorithm, allows the user to extract information in near real-time via an intuitive query interface and to explore this information using interactive visualization tools. A usability evaluation of this system produced positive results. Discussion: We present the challenges and results in the development of TrialViz and our plans for its extension for wider applications of clinical research. Conclusions: Our fast search algorithms and simple query algorithms represent a significant advance for users of clinical research databases

Well Log Segmentation in Spectral Domain

Classic well log interpretation involves direct horizon mapping using log signature, attributes cross plot, etc to produce lithologic section for the delineation, exploration and production of hydrocarbon in oil and gas fields. The methods operate on recorded lithologic logs without adequate calibration. These result in interpretational ambiguities because of relatively poor resolution of well log owing to its recording in time, under sampling and coarse processing. In this paper, a new technique and algorithm for segmenting well log using discrete Fourier transform in the interpretation of well data obtained from the Niger Delta is presented. The aims and objectives of the study are to segment well logs into their constituent lithology in time domain, transform the well data from time to frequency domain and segment, and deduce viable diagnostic attributes such as magnitude, phase and frequency from the transform coefficients which could be used to identify the most probable zonation/contact in the well. The algorithm adopts Short time Fourier transform technique in the time to frequency transformation and is implementable on both standard and general seismic and well log interpretational platforms. It directly computes the spectral equivalent of the adopted lithologic log (Gamma-ray) and recovers hitherto lost frequency information. The results of the spectral decomposition of the well data yielded frequency (pseudo) logs that reveal subtle sub-well horizons and differences in lithology. By revealing masked horizons and better delineating and delimiting reservoirs, more hydrocarbons will be recovered and field development will be enhanced. Keywords: Fourier transform, Spectral decompositio

NASA/JAXA Igniters Manufacturing Dialog--NASA STD 6001 Tests 1 and 4. (procedure published in IS0 14624-1

A dialog between NASA White Sands Testing Facility and JAXA discussing the manufacturing of igniters is presented