Proceedings of the OHBM Brainhack 2021

The global pandemic presented new challenges and op-portunities for organizing conferences, and OHBM 2021was no exception. The OHBM Brainhack is an event thatoccurs just prior to the OHBM meeting, typically in-per-son, where scientists of all levels of expertise and interestgather to work and learn together for a few days in a col-laborative hacking-style environment on projects of com-mon interest (1). Building off the success of the OHBM2020 Hackathon (2), the 2021 Open Science SpecialInterest Group came together online to organize a largecoordinated Brainhack event that would take place overthe course of 4 days. The OHBM 2021 Brainhack eventwas organized along two guiding principles, providinga highly inclusive collaborative environment for inter-action between scientists across disciplines and levelsof expertise to push forward important projects thatneed support, also known as the “Hack-Track” of theBrainhack. The second aim of the OHBM Brainhack is toempower scientists to improve the quality of their sci-entific endeavors by providing high-quality hands-ontraining on best practices in open-science approaches.This is best exemplified by the training events providedby the “Train-Track” at the OHBM 2021 Brainhack. Here,we briefly explain both of these elements of the OHBM2021 Brainhack, before continuing on to the Brainhackproceedings

Global economic burden of unmet surgical need for appendicitis

Background There is a substantial gap in provision of adequate surgical care in many low- and middle-income countries. This study aimed to identify the economic burden of unmet surgical need for the common condition of appendicitis. Methods Data on the incidence of appendicitis from 170 countries and two different approaches were used to estimate numbers of patients who do not receive surgery: as a fixed proportion of the total unmet surgical need per country (approach 1); and based on country income status (approach 2). Indirect costs with current levels of access and local quality, and those if quality were at the standards of high-income countries, were estimated. A human capital approach was applied, focusing on the economic burden resulting from premature death and absenteeism. Results Excess mortality was 4185 per 100 000 cases of appendicitis using approach 1 and 3448 per 100 000 using approach 2. The economic burden of continuing current levels of access and local quality was US $92 492 million using approach 1 and$73 141 million using approach 2. The economic burden of not providing surgical care to the standards of high-income countries was $95 004 million using approach 1 and$75 666 million using approach 2. The largest share of these costs resulted from premature death (97.7 per cent) and lack of access (97.0 per cent) in contrast to lack of quality. Conclusion For a comparatively non-complex emergency condition such as appendicitis, increasing access to care should be prioritized. Although improving quality of care should not be neglected, increasing provision of care at current standards could reduce societal costs substantially

Global economic burden of unmet surgical need for appendicitis

Background There is a substantial gap in provision of adequate surgical care in many low- and middle-income countries. This study aimed to identify the economic burden of unmet surgical need for the common condition of appendicitis. Methods Data on the incidence of appendicitis from 170 countries and two different approaches were used to estimate numbers of patients who do not receive surgery: as a fixed proportion of the total unmet surgical need per country (approach 1); and based on country income status (approach 2). Indirect costs with current levels of access and local quality, and those if quality were at the standards of high-income countries, were estimated. A human capital approach was applied, focusing on the economic burden resulting from premature death and absenteeism. Results Excess mortality was 4185 per 100 000 cases of appendicitis using approach 1 and 3448 per 100 000 using approach 2. The economic burden of continuing current levels of access and local quality was US $92 492 million using approach 1 and$73 141 million using approach 2. The economic burden of not providing surgical care to the standards of high-income countries was $95 004 million using approach 1 and$75 666 million using approach 2. The largest share of these costs resulted from premature death (97.7 per cent) and lack of access (97.0 per cent) in contrast to lack of quality. Conclusion For a comparatively non-complex emergency condition such as appendicitis, increasing access to care should be prioritized. Although improving quality of care should not be neglected, increasing provision of care at current standards could reduce societal costs substantially