Case studies on the use of sentiment analysis to assess the effectiveness and safety of health technologies : a scoping review

A health technology assessment (HTA) is commonly defined as a multidisciplinary approach used to evaluate medical, social, economic, and ethical issues related to the use of a health technology in a systematic, transparent, unbiased, robust manner. To help inform HTA recommendations, the surveillance of social media platforms can provide important insights to the clinical community and to decision makers on the effectiveness and safety of the use of health technologies on a patient. A scoping review of the published literature was performed to gain some insight on the accuracy and automation of sentiment analysis (SA) used to assess public opinion on the use of health technologies. A literature search of major databases was conducted. The main search concepts were SA, social media, and patient perspective. Among the 1,776 unique citations identified, 12 studies that described the use of SA methods to evaluate public opinion on or experiences with the use of health technologies as posted on social media platforms were included. The SA methods used were either lexicon-or machine learning-based. Two studies focused on medical devices, three examined HPV vaccination, and the remaining studies targeted drug therapies. Due to the limitations and inherent differences among SA tools, the outcomes of these applications should be considered exploratory. The results of our study can initiate discussions on how the automation of algorithms to interpret public opinion of health technologies should be further developed to optimize the use of data available on social media

COVID-19 Detection from Mass Spectra of Exhaled Breath

According to the World Health Organization, the SARS-CoV-2 virus generated a global emergency between 2020 and 2023 resulting in about 7 million deaths out of more than 750 million individuals diagnosed with COVID-19. During these years, polymerase-chain-reaction and antigen testing played a prominent role in disease control. In this study, we propose a fast and non-invasive detection system exploiting a proprietary mass spectrometer to measure ions in exhaled breath. We demonstrated that infected individuals, even if asymptomatic, exhibit characteristics in the air expelled from the lungs that can be detected by a nanotech-based technology and then recognized by soft-computing algorithms. A clinical trial was ran on about 300 patients: the mass spectra in the 10-351 mass-to-charge range were measured, suitably pre-processed, and analyzed by different classification models; eventually, the system shown an accuracy of 95% and a recall of 94% in identifying cases of COVID-19. With performances comparable to traditional methodologies, the proposed system could play a significant role in both routine examination for common diseases and emergency response for new epidemics.Comment: 15 page

[Morbidity for congenital malformations. From 2005 to 2009 in Vercelli and neighboring countries]

Special attention is now placed in the diagnosis of congenital malformations, MC, and several recent studies attest to the role of indicators of injury is inherent is extrinsic to the environmental component. In the Vercelli area recognize different sources of environmental pressure can result in damage potential direct and indirect effects on community residents; about, identify plants with high environmental impact on health including a MSW incinerator off in March 2014. The study refers to the morbidity derived from SDO from 2005 to 2009 than the specific rates ASL VC. The main concern the excess female for the area south and central ages 50-69 years old for the rest of the areas considered. Worthy of investigation is the excess of males in the group 5-19 years. Events have been of important insights, but in light of its limitations is certainly worth a discussion in terms expansion is as period of observation that as more data sources for the precise and reliable diagnosis of CD

Urban Forms of Life. Per una critica delle forme di vita urbana

Che forme assume la vita nei contesti urbani? Da che deriva la loro presunta, attuale «illeggibilità»? Che cosa impedisce il fiorire di forme di vita appaganti, degne, vitali? È possibile rendere visibile e articolabile l’«elemento» urbano in cui siamo immersi? Quali esperimenti tentare per risvegliare un nuovo senso (comune) di vita urbana? Che ruolo pos- sono assumere le forme di vita urbana nei confronti del contesto più ampio, umano e non-umano, da cui dipendono sotto molteplici aspetti? Quali opportunità e quali insidie si prospettano con l’inarrestabile penetrazione delle nuove tecnologie digitali e di intelligenza artificiale nel tessuto urbano? A partire da queste e altre domande è nato nel 2017 un progetto di ricerca in filosofia, presentato all’Ateneo della Sapienza – Università di Roma, che lo ha finanziato e di cui questo libro è uno dei risultati, insieme a una serie di incontri e seminari, a partire da quello tenutosi presso il Centre Marc Bloch di Berlino nel settembre del 2018What forms does life take in urban contexts? Where does their sup- posed, current “unreadability” come from? What prevents the flour- ishing of fulfilling, worthy, vital forms of life? Is it possible to make visible and articulable the urban “element” in which we are immersed? What experiments should be attempted to awaken a new (common) sense of urban life? What role can urban forms of life assume vis-à- vis the larger human and non-human context on which they depend in multiple respects? What opportunities and pitfalls lie ahead with the unstoppable penetration of new digital and artificial intelligence technologies into the urban fabric? Starting from these and other ques- tions, a research project in philosophy was presented to the Sapienza - University of Rome in 2017, of which this book is one of the results, along with a series of meetings and seminars, starting with the one held at the Marc Bloch Centre in Berlin in September 201

ERRATUM: Dietary treatment of urinary risk factors for renal stone formation. A review of CLU Working Group

Due to a technical error, Dr. Manuel Ferraro was omitted from the author list of this article. The correct author details appear above

Appropriateness of antiplatelet therapy for primary and secondary cardio- and cerebrovascular prevention in acutely hospitalized older people

Aims: Antiplatelet therapy is recommended for the secondary prevention of cardio- and cerebrovascular disease, but for primary prevention it is advised only in patients at very high risk. With this background, this study aims to assess the appropriateness of antiplatelet therapy in acutely hospitalized older people according to their risk profile. Methods: Data were obtained from the REPOSI register held in Italian and Spanish internal medicine and geriatric wards in 2012 and 2014. Hospitalized patients aged ≥65 assessable at discharge were selected. Appropriateness of the antiplatelet therapy was evaluated according to their primary or secondary cardiovascular prevention profiles. Results: Of 2535 enrolled patients, 2199 were assessable at discharge. Overall 959 (43.6%, 95% CI 41.5–45.7) were prescribed an antiplatelet drug, aspirin being the most frequently chosen. Among patients prescribed for primary prevention, just over half were inappropriately prescribed (52.1%), being mainly overprescribed (155/209 patients, 74.2%). On the other hand, there was also a high rate of inappropriate underprescription in the context of secondary prevention (222/726 patients, 30.6%, 95% CI 27.3–34.0%). Conclusions: This study carried out in acutely hospitalized older people shows a high degree of inappropriate prescription among patients prescribed with antiplatelets for primary prevention, mainly due to overprescription. Further, a large proportion of patients who had had overt cardio- or cerebrovascular disease were underprescribed, in spite of the established benefits of antiplatelet drugs in the context of secondary prevention

Bedside surgery in the newborn infants: survey of the Italian society of pediatric surgery

This is the report of the first official survey from the Italian Society of Pediatric Surgery (ISPS) to appraise the distribution and organization of bedside surgery in the neonatal intensive care units (NICU) in Italy

A cross-sectional nationwide survey on esophageal atresia and tracheoesophageal fistula

Our study aims at disclosing epidemiology and most relevant clinical features of esophageal atresia (EA) pointing to a model of multicentre collaboration