Data Visualization on Global Trends on Cancer Incidence An Application of IBM Watson Analytics

Visual analytics is widely used to explore data patterns and trends. This work leverages cancer data collected by World Health Organization (WHO) across over a hundred of cancer registries worldwide. In this study, we present a visual analytics platform, IBM Watson Analytics, to explore the patterns of global cancer incidence. We included 26 cancers from different geographic regions. An interactive interface was applied to plot a choropleth map to show global cancer distribution, and line charts to demonstrate historical cancer trends over 29 years. Subgroup analyses were conducted for different age groups. With real-time interactive features, we can easily explore the data with a selection of any cancer type, gender, age group, or geographical region. This platform is running on the cloud, so it can handle data in huge volumes, and is assessable by any computer connected to the Internet

Indoor Air Monitoring Platform and Personal Health Reporting System: Big Data Analytics for Public Health Research

© 2015 IEEE. Air pollution poses an increased risk for respiratory infections and lung cancer. Monitoring systems on air pollution are common for outdoor environment. In this study, our focus is on the air monitoring in household environment and connects it to a personal health reporting system through a mobile APP. Data will be captured and stored in the cloud so as to improve computational efficiency and enhance data storage capacity. Pollution data can be captured hourly year round, hence a sizeable data storage is needed in the cloud. Health statuses can be uploaded through a self-reporting system, so the data can supply useful information for other healthcare studies, and related urban planning in the future. Furthermore, data analytics based on pollution data can help identify highly polluted areas at different time points. These data are useful for the development of alert systems that can remind individuals to take personal precautions to avoid inhaling pollutants. Such alert systems are applicable to households, commercial buildings and public areas. Accumulated data on this cloud platform can support data mining in search of connections between air pollution and health outcomes, which can fuel research studies in the field of public health.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Blood Pressure Management with Data Capturing in the Cloud among Hypertensive Patients: A Monitoring Platform for Hypertensive Patients

© 2015 IEEE. Hypertension is a significant modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular and kidney disease, and blood pressure (BP) control is a very important step for cardiovascular risk management. Recently, home telemonitoring BP has been suggested as an effective tool for BP control and been commonly used in Western countries. Application of technology for healthcare management becomes a trend. Health data is usually longitudinal and voluminous, an effective data management would improve the quality of healthcare service. In order to deal with the volume, variety and velocity of medical data, cloud technology has opened a new horizon, especially data for medical research. Boosting the current home telemonitoring BP system with an automatic data capturing cloud technology along with healthcare provider alert function would be a pioneer. In this study, a cloud-connected personal-based BP meter will be transformed to a research-based BP data capturing cloud platform and will observe daily use of BP measurement and upload data to the cloud through a USB hub and internet-connected personal computer. All personal identity can be decoded and a study identity number will be assigned to each user for data privacy protection. The cloud platform enables easy access for different parties from anywhere, high speed performance, strong infrastructure support and vigorous data analysis power.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Social Media as a Tool to Look for People with Dementia Who Become Lost: Factors That Matter

This research explored how social media were used to look for people with dementia who went lost, and investigated what features of social media usage were associated with the outcomes of finding. Tweets that were disseminated to find missing people with dementia were collected and clustered by cases. Ten cases were selected as sample cases and traced for the outcomes of finding. Information of the Twitter users who tweeted and retweeted were retrieved and categorized. Descriptive analysis was applied to examine the lost cases and features of social media usage; T-test and chi-square analysis were conducted between outcomes of the lost incidents and key features of tweets and Twitter users. Results indicated that there was no significant association between the average number of tweets and retweets and the outcomes of finding, but social media users, especially the ones with a larger group of followers (audience), such as the media, should be encouraged to spread such information. However, a code of conduct is needed to ensure social media are not abused

The knowledge of colorectal cancer symptoms and risk factors among 10,078 screening participants: are high risk individuals more knowledgeable?

OBJECTIVES: We tested the a priori hypothesis that self-perceived and real presences of risks for colorectal cancer (CRC) are associated with better knowledge of the symptoms and risk factors for CRC, respectively. METHODS: One territory-wide invitation for free CRC screening between 2008 to 2012 recruited asymptomatic screening participants aged 50-70 years in Hong Kong. They completed survey items on self-perceived and real presences of risks for CRC (advanced age, male gender, positive family history and smoking) as predictors, and knowledge of CRC symptoms and risk factors as outcome measures, respectively. Their associations were evaluated by binary logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: From 10,078 eligible participants (average age 59 years), the mean knowledge scores for symptoms and risk factors were 3.23 and 4.06, respectively (both score range 0-9). Male gender (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.34, 95% C.I. 1.20-1.50, p<0.01), self-perception as not having any risks for CRC (AOR = 1.12, 95% C.I. 1.01-1.24, p = 0.033) or uncertainty about having risks (AOR = 1.94, 95% C.I. 1.55-2.43, p<0.001), smoking (AOR 1.38, 95% C.I. 1.11-1.72, p = 0.004), and the absence of family history (AOR 0.61 to 0.78 for those with positive family history, p<0.001) were associated with poorer knowledge scores (≤ 4) of CRC symptoms. These factors remained significant for knowledge of risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: Male and smokers were more likely to have poorer knowledge but family history of CRC was associated with better knowledge. Since screening of these higher risk individuals could lead to greater yield of colorectal neoplasm, educational interventions targeted to male smokers were recommended

Cardiovascular mortality in hypertensive patients newly prescribed perindopril vs. lisinopril: a 5-year cohort study of 15,622 Chinese subjects

Background: Perindopril and lisinopril are two common ACE inhibitors prescribed for management of hypertension. Few studies have evaluated their comparative effectiveness to reduce mortality. This study compared the all-cause and cardiovascular related mortality among patients newly prescribed ACE inhibitors. Methods: All adult patients newly prescribed perindopril or lisinopril from 2001 to 2005 in all public clinics or hospitals in Hong Kong were retrospectively evaluated, and followed up until 2010. Patients prescribed the ACE inhibitors for less than a month were excluded. The all-cause mortality and cardiovascular-specific (i.e. coronary heart disease, heart failure and stroke) mortality were compared. Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to assess the mortality, controlling for age, sex, socioeconomic status, patient types, the presence of comorbidities, and medication adherence as measured by the proportion of days covered. An additional model using propensity scores was performed to minimize indication bias. Results: A total of 15,622 patients were included in this study, in which 6910 were perindopril users and 8712 lisinopril users. The all-cause mortality (22.2% vs. 20.0%, p &lt; 0.005) and cardiovascular mortality (6.5% vs. 5.6%, p &lt; 0.005) were higher among lisinopril users than perindopril users. From regression analyses, lisinopril users were 1.09-fold (95% C.I. 1.01–1.16) and 1.18-fold (95% C.I. 1.02–1.35) more likely to die from any-cause and cardiovascular diseases, respectively. Age-stratified analysis showed that this significant difference was observed only among patients aged &gt; 70 years. The additional models controlled for propensity scores yielded comparable results. Conclusions: The long-term all-cause and cardiovascular related mortality rates of lisinopril users was significantly different from those of perindopril users. These findings showed that intra-class variation on mortality exists among ACE inhibitors among those aged 70 years or older. Future studies should consider a longer, large-scale randomized controlled trial to compare the effectiveness between different medications in the ACEI class, especially among the elderly

Factors associated with poorer knowledge scores on symptoms and risk factors of Colorectal Cancer (CRC).

*<p>CRC: Colorectal Cancer.</p