Automating Content Extraction of HTML Documents

Web pages often contain clutter (such as unnecessary images and extraneous links) around the body of an article that distracts a user from actual content. Extraction of 'useful and relevant' content from web pages has many applications, including cell phone and PDA browsing, speech rendering for the visually impaired, and text summarization. Most approaches to making content more readable involve changing font size or removing HTML and data components such as images, which takes away from a webpage's inherent look and feel. Unlike 'Content Reformatting', which aims to reproduce the entire webpage in a more convenient form, our solution directly addresses 'Content Extraction'. We have developed a framework that employs an easily extensible set of techniques. It incorporates advantages of previous work on content extraction. Our key insight is to work with DOM trees, a W3C specified interface that allows programs to dynamically access document structure, rather than with raw HTML markup. We have implemented our approach in a publicly available Web proxy to extract content from HTML web pages. This proxy can be used both centrally, administered for groups of users, as well as by individuals for personal browsers. We have also, after receiving feedback from users about the proxy, created a revised version with improved performance and accessibility in mind

Implementation of workflow engine technology to deliver basic clinical decision support functionality

BACKGROUND: Workflow engine technology represents a new class of software with the ability to graphically model step-based knowledge. We present application of this novel technology to the domain of clinical decision support. Successful implementation of decision support within an electronic health record (EHR) remains an unsolved research challenge. Previous research efforts were mostly based on healthcare-specific representation standards and execution engines and did not reach wide adoption. We focus on two challenges in decision support systems: the ability to test decision logic on retrospective data prior prospective deployment and the challenge of user-friendly representation of clinical logic. RESULTS: We present our implementation of a workflow engine technology that addresses the two above-described challenges in delivering clinical decision support. Our system is based on a cross-industry standard of XML (extensible markup language) process definition language (XPDL). The core components of the system are a workflow editor for modeling clinical scenarios and a workflow engine for execution of those scenarios. We demonstrate, with an open-source and publicly available workflow suite, that clinical decision support logic can be executed on retrospective data. The same flowchart-based representation can also function in a prospective mode where the system can be integrated with an EHR system and respond to real-time clinical events. We limit the scope of our implementation to decision support content generation (which can be EHR system vendor independent). We do not focus on supporting complex decision support content delivery mechanisms due to lack of standardization of EHR systems in this area. We present results of our evaluation of the flowchart-based graphical notation as well as architectural evaluation of our implementation using an established evaluation framework for clinical decision support architecture. CONCLUSIONS: We describe an implementation of a free workflow technology software suite (available at http://code.google.com/p/healthflow) and its application in the domain of clinical decision support. Our implementation seamlessly supports clinical logic testing on retrospective data and offers a user-friendly knowledge representation paradigm. With the presented software implementation, we demonstrate that workflow engine technology can provide a decision support platform which evaluates well against an established clinical decision support architecture evaluation framework. Due to cross-industry usage of workflow engine technology, we can expect significant future functionality enhancements that will further improve the technology's capacity to serve as a clinical decision support platform

Conceptual knowledge acquisition in biomedicine: A methodological review

AbstractThe use of conceptual knowledge collections or structures within the biomedical domain is pervasive, spanning a variety of applications including controlled terminologies, semantic networks, ontologies, and database schemas. A number of theoretical constructs and practical methods or techniques support the development and evaluation of conceptual knowledge collections. This review will provide an overview of the current state of knowledge concerning conceptual knowledge acquisition, drawing from multiple contributing academic disciplines such as biomedicine, computer science, cognitive science, education, linguistics, semiotics, and psychology. In addition, multiple taxonomic approaches to the description and selection of conceptual knowledge acquisition and evaluation techniques will be proposed in order to partially address the apparent fragmentation of the current literature concerning this domain

Stresscam: non-contact measurement of users’ emotional states through thermal imaging

Abstract We present a novel methodology for monitoring the affective states of computer users. The method is based on thermal imaging of the face. To the user, the imaging system appears much like a video-conferencing camera. The method does not require contact with the subject and is passive; therefore, monitoring can be continuous and transparent to the computer user. We have found that user stress is correlated with increased blood flow in the frontal vessel of the forehead. This increased blood flow dissipates convective heat, which can be monitored through thermal imaging. The system has been evaluated on 12 subjects, and compared against real-time measurements of Energy Expenditure (EE). The new method is highly correlated with the established, but awkward EE methodology. The StressCam methodology is applicable to many instances where the real time measurement of users' emotional state is needed

A retrospective look at the predictions and recommendations from the 2009 AMIA Policy Meeting: Did we see EHR-related clinician burnout coming?

Clinicians often attribute much of their burnout experience to use of the electronic health record, the adoption of which was greatly accelerated by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009. That same year, AMIA\u27s Policy Meeting focused on possible unintended consequences associated with rapid implementation of electronic health records, generating 17 potential consequences and 15 recommendations to address them. At the 2020 annual meeting of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI), ACMI fellows participated in a modified Delphi process to assess the accuracy of the 2009 predictions and the response to the recommendations. Among the findings, the fellows concluded that the degree of clinician burnout and its contributing factors, such as increased documentation requirements, were significantly underestimated. Conversely, problems related to identify theft and fraud were overestimated. Only 3 of the 15 recommendations were adjudged more than half-addressed

Understanding workflow in telehealth video visits: Observations from the IDEATel project

AbstractHome telemedicine is an emerging healthcare paradigm that has the potential to transform the treatment of chronic illness. The purpose of this paper is to: (1) develop a theoretical and methodological framework for studying workflow in telemediated clinician–patient encounters drawing on a distributed cognition approach and (2) employ the framework in an in-depth analysis of workflow in the IDEATel project, a telemedicine program for older adults with diabetes. The methods employed in this research included (a) videotaped observations of 27 nurse–patient encounters and (b) semi-structured interviews with participants. The analyses were used to provide a descriptive analysis of video visits, understand the mediating role of different technologies and to characterize the ways in which artifacts and representations are used to understand the state of the patient. The study revealed barriers to productive use of telehealth technology as well as adaptations that circumvented such limitations. This research has design implications for: (a) improving the coordination of communication and (b) developing tools that better integrate and display information. Although home telemedicine programs will differ in important respects, there are invariant properties across such systems. Explicating these properties can serve as a needs requirement analysis to develop more effective systems and implementation plans