scholarly journals Information Technology for Clinical, Translational and Comparative Effectiveness Research

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (01) ◽  
pp. 178-182
Author(s):  
R. Choquet ◽  
C. Daniel ◽  

Summary Objectives: To select and summarize key constributions to current research and to select best papers published in 2014 in the field of Clinical Research Informatics (CRI).Method: A bibliographic search using a combination of MeSH and free terms search over PubMed on Clinical Research Informatics (CRI) was performed followed by a double-blind literature review. Results: The review process yielded four papers, illustrating various aspects of current research efforts done in the area of CRI. The first paper exemplifies the process of developping a domain ontology for integrating structured, unstructured, and signal data into a coherent structure for patient care as well as clinical research. In the second paper, the authors analysed in five sites’ hospital information system environments in Germany the possibility of implementing a patient recruitment process and provided recommendations for the development of dedicated patient recruitment modules. The third paper describes the IMI EHR4CR project which developed an instance of a platform, providing communication, security and semantic interoperability services to the eleven participating hospitals and ten pharmaceutical companies located in seven European countries. The last paper describes the relation between health status severity and the availability of data in EHR systems. They demonstrate that it introduces a biasis in patient selection for clinical research. Conclusions: Distributed research networks are growing in importance for clinical research and population health surveillance and current research demonstartes that different projects and initiatives could be well placed to deliver international scale solutions to enable the reuse of hospital EHR data to support clinical research studies. Selected articles demonstrate the potential of formal representation of multimodal and multi-level data in supporting data interoperability across clinical research and care domains. With the development of pragmatic research, designed with input from health systems and producing evidence that can be readily used to improve care, a key issue for “learning health care organizations” is to systematically assess the quality of their data.

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (01) ◽  
pp. 224-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Choquet ◽  
C. Daniel ◽  

SummaryObjective: To select and summarize key contributions to current research in the field of Clinical Research Informatics (CRI).Method: A bibliographic search using a combination of MeSH and free terms search over PubMed was performed followed by a blinded review.Results: The review process resulted in the selection of four papers illustrating various aspects of current research efforts in the area of CRI. The first paper tackles the challenge of extracting accurate phenotypes from Electronic Healthcare Records (EHRs).Privacy protection within shared de-identified, patient-level research databases is the focus of the second selected paper. Two other papers exemplify the growing role of formal representation of clinical data - in metadata repositories - and knowledge – in ontologies - for supporting the process of reusing data for clinical research.Conclusions: The selected articles demonstrate how concrete platforms are currently achieving interoperability across clinical research and care domains and have reached the evaluation phase. When EHRs linked to genetic data have the potential to shift the research focus from research driven patient recruitment to phenotyping in large population, a key issue is to lower patient re-identification risks for biomedical research databases.Current research illustrates the potential of knowledge engineering to support, in the coming years, the scientific lifecycle of clinical research.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (01) ◽  
pp. 219-223
Author(s):  
R. Choquet ◽  
C. Daniel ◽  

Summary Objectives: To summarize key contributions to current research in the field of Clinical Research Informatics (CRI) and to select best papers published in 2015. Method: A bibliographic search using a combination of MeSH and free terms search over PubMed on Clinical Research Informatics (CRI) was performed followed by a double-blind review in order to select a list of candidate best papers to be then peer-reviewed by external reviewers. A consensus meeting between the two section editors and the editorial team was finally organized to conclude on the selection of best papers. Results: Among the 579 returned papers published in the past year in the various areas of Clinical Research Informatics (CRI) - i) methods supporting clinical research, ii) data sharing and interoperability, iii) re-use of healthcare data for research, iv) patient recruitment and engagement, v) data privacy, security and regulatory issues and vi) policy and perspectives - the full review process selected four best papers. The first selected paper evaluates the capability of the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) Operational Data Model (ODM) to support the representation of case report forms (in both the design stage and with patient level data) during a complete clinical study lifecycle. The second selected paper describes a prototype for secondary use of electronic health records data captured in non-standardized text. The third selected paper presents a privacy preserving electronic health record linkage tool and the last selected paper describes how big data use in US relies on access to health information governed by varying and often misunderstood legal requirements and ethical considerations. Conclusions: A major trend in the 2015 publications is the analysis of observational, “nonexperimental” information and the potential biases and confounding factors hidden in the data that will have to be carefully taken into account to validate new predictive models. In addiction, researchers have to understand complicated and sometimes contradictory legal requirements and to consider ethical obligations in order to balance privacy and promoting discovery.


CNS Spectrums ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 757-761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uriel Halbreich ◽  
Nancy Smail ◽  
Xin Tu ◽  
Judith Halbreich

AbstractIntroduction: This report demonstrates parameters of quality of care and treatment outcome of acute schizophrenia patients who were involved as subjects in a clinical trial of two marketed widely used antipsychotics compared with their fellow patients who received routine clinical hospital care.Methods: Patients were newly admitted severely agitated schizophrenia patients who agreed to participate in a double-blind randomized trial of short-term (5 days) rate of improvement in response to two second-generation oral antipsychotics. Treatment outcomes as measured by the Clinical Global Impression and parameters of quality of care were compared with the general population of inpatients in the same county hospital.Results: Of 145 patients screened, 109 patients did not meet study inclusion and exclusion criteria. It is of note that systematic diagnostic interview did not confirm the clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia in 17 patients (11.7%). Study patients had shorter length of stay (6.75 days vs 15.3 days of total psychiatric patients at the hospital during the study period), no physical restraints (vs 21.9%), no use of antipsychotics as chemical restraints (vs 19.8%), and less recidivism following the trial (28.1%) compared with prior to the trial (64.3%).Conclusion: Patients who participate in structured clinical research with well-delineated procedures, clinical outcome measures, and clear expectations, faired better than their fellow patients in the same non-research hospital wards. Application of some characteristics of clinical research to the diagnosis and treatment of clinical non-research patients may be considered.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (01) ◽  
pp. 209-211
Author(s):  
C. Daniel ◽  
R. Choquet

Summary Objectives: To summarize key contributions to current research in the field of Clinical Research Informatics (CRI) and to select the best papers published in 2016. Methods: A bibliographic search using a combination of MeSH and free terms on CRI was performed using PubMed, followed by a double-blind review in order to select a list of candidate best papers to be then peer-reviewed by external reviewers. A consensus meeting between the two section editors and the editorial team was organized to finally conclude on the selection of best papers. Results: Among the 452 papers published in 2016 in the various areas of CRI and returned by the query, the full review process selected four best papers. The authors of the first paper utilized a comprehensive representation of the patient medical record and semi-automatically labeled training sets to create phenotype models via a machine learning process. The second selected paper describes an open source tool chain securely connecting ResearchKit compatible applications (Apps) to the widely-used clinical research infrastructure Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside (i2b2). The third selected paper describes the FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. The fourth selected paper focuses on the evaluation of the risk of privacy breaches in releasing genomics datasets. Conclusions: A major trend in the 2016 publications is the variety of research on “real-world data” - healthcare-generated data, person health data, and patient-reported outcomes -highlighting the opportunities provided by new machine learning techniques as well as new potential risks of privacy breaches.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (01) ◽  
pp. 209-213
Author(s):  
C. Daniel ◽  
R. Choquet

Summary Objectives: To summarize key contributions to current research in the field of Clinical Research Informatics (CRI) and to select the best papers published in 2016. Methods: A bibliographic search using a combination of MeSH and free terms on CRI was performed using PubMed, followed by a double-blind review in order to select a list of candidate best papers to be then peer-reviewed by external reviewers. A consensus meeting between the two section editors and the editorial team was organized to finally conclude on the selection of best papers. Results: Among the 452 papers published in 2016 in the various areas of CRI and returned by the query, the full review process selected four best papers. The authors of the first paper utilized a comprehensive representation of the patient medical record and semi-automatically labeled training sets to create phenotype models via a machine learning process. The second selected paper describes an open source tool chain securely connecting ResearchKit compatible applications (Apps) to the widely-used clinical research infrastructure Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside (i2b2). The third selected paper describes the FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. The fourth selected paper focuses on the evaluation of the risk of privacy breaches in releasing genomics datasets. Conclusions: A major trend in the 2016 publications is the variety of research on “real-world data” - healthcare-generated data, person health data, and patient-reported outcomes -highlighting the opportunities provided by new machine learning techniques as well as new potential risks of privacy breaches.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-32
Author(s):  
Andrew Storer

Consensus groups believe that clinical research networks are a more effective method of conducting clinical research than stand-alone sites. For example, clinical research networks have increased patient recruitment, decreased financial overhead, and allowed for coordinated research efforts, resulting in decreased duplication within high-cost research infrastructure. To date, there is little evidence describing the benefits and effectiveness of clinical research networks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 2314
Author(s):  
Mikolaj Przydacz ◽  
Marcin Chlosta ◽  
Piotr Chlosta

Objectives: Population-level data are lacking for urinary incontinence (UI) in Central and Eastern European countries. Therefore, the objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence, bother, and behavior regarding treatment for UI in a population-representative group of Polish adults aged ≥ 40 years. Methods: Data for this epidemiological study were derived from the larger LUTS POLAND project, in which a group of adults that typified the Polish population were surveyed, by telephone, about lower urinary tract symptoms. Respondents were classified by age, sex, and place of residence. UI was assessed with a standard protocol and established International Continence Society definitions. Results: The LUTS POLAND survey included 6005 completed interviews. The prevalence of UI was 14.6–25.4%; women reported a greater occurrence compared with men (p < 0.001). For both sexes, UI prevalence increased with age. Stress UI was the most common type of UI in women, and urgency UI was the most prevalent in men. We did not find a difference in prevalence between urban and rural areas. Individuals were greatly bothered by UI. For women, mixed UI was the most bothersome, whereas for men, leak for no reason was most annoying. More than half of respondents (51.4–62.3%) who reported UI expressed anxiety about the effect of UI on their quality of life. Nevertheless, only around one third (29.2–38.1%) of respondents with UI sought treatment, most of whom received treatment. Persons from urban and rural areas did not differ in the degrees of treatment seeking and treatment receiving. Conclusion: Urinary incontinence was prevalent and greatly bothersome among Polish adults aged ≥ 40 years. Consequently, UI had detrimental effects on quality of life. Nonetheless, most affected persons did not seek treatment. Therefore, we need to increase population awareness in Poland about UI and available treatment methods, and we need to ensure adequate allocation of government and healthcare system resources.


Author(s):  
Paulo Fávio Macedo Gouvêa ◽  
Zélia Maria Nogueira Britschka ◽  
Cristina de Oliveira Massoco Salles Gomes ◽  
Nicolle Gilda Teixeira de Queiroz ◽  
Pablo Antonio Vásquez Salvador ◽  
...  

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of treatment with Peruíbe Black Mud (PBM) on the clinical parameters and quality of life of patients with knee osteoarthritis and to compare the effects of PBM samples simply matured in seawater and PBM sterilized by gamma radiation. A controlled, double-blind trial was conducted with 41 patients divided into two treatment groups composed of 20 and 21 patients: one group was treated with matured PBM and the other with sterilized PBM. Evaluations were done using the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 (SF-36) questionnaires, the Kellgren and Lawrence (KL) radiographic scale, and the quantification of the serum levels of inflammatory biomarkers. An improvement in pain, physical functions, and quality of life was observed in all of the patients who underwent treatment with both simply matured and sterilized PBM. Nine patients showed remission in the KL radiographic scale, but no statistically significant differences were observed in the serum levels of inflammatory mediators before or after treatment. Peruíbe Black Mud proves to be a useful tool as an adjuvant treatment for knee osteoarthritis (OA), as shown by the results of the WOMAC and SF-36 questionnaires and by the remission of the radiographic grade of some patients on the Kellgren and Lawrence scale.


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