scholarly journals A Roadmap for Building Data Science Capacity for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Beyene ◽  
Solomon W. Harrar ◽  
Mekibib Altaye ◽  
Tessema Astatkie ◽  
Tadesse Awoke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Domain Knowledge ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Clinical Medicine ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Care Systems

Technological advances now make it possible to generate diverse, complex and varying sizes of data in a wide range of applications from business to engineering to medicine. In the health sciences, in particular, data are being produced at an unprecedented rate across the full spectrum of scientific inquiry spanning basic biology, clinical medicine, public health and health care systems. Leveraging these data can accelerate scientific advances, health discovery and innovations. However, data are just the raw material required to generate new knowledge, not knowledge on its own, as a pile of bricks would not be mistaken for a building. In order to solve complex scientific problems, appropriate methods, tools and technologies must be integrated with domain knowledge expertise to generate and analyze big data. This integrated interdisciplinary approach is what has become to be widely known as data science. Although the discipline of data science has been rapidly evolving over the past couple of decades in resource-rich countries, the situation is bleak in resource-limited settings such as most countries in Africa primarily due to lack of well-trained data scientists. In this paper, we highlight a roadmap for building capacity in health data science in Africa to help spur health discovery and innovation, and propose a sustainable potential solution consisting of three key activities: a graduate-level training, faculty development, and stakeholder engagement. We also outline potential challenges and mitigating strategies.

Time-Based QoS Prediction and Rank Aggregation of Web Services

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 79-100
Author(s):  
V. Mareeswari ◽  
E. Sathiyamoorthy
Keyword(s):  
Web Services ◽  
Web Applications ◽  
Cloud Model ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Rank Aggregation ◽  
Qos Prediction ◽  
Short Time Span ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Commercial Applications

Everyday activities are equipped with smart intellectual possessions in the modern Internet domain for which a wide range of web services are deployed in business, health-care systems, and environmental solutions. Entire services are accessed through web applications or hand-held computing devices. The recommender system is more prevalent in commercial applications. This research predicts the preference of consumers and lists the recommended services in order of ranking for consumers to choose services in a short time span. This proposed approach aims to offer the exact prediction of missing QoS (quality of service) value of web services at a specified time slice. The uncertainty of QoS value has been predicted using the cloud model theory. The focus is to give the global ranking using the aggregated ranking of the consumer's ranking list, which has been obtained through the Kemeny optimal aggregation algorithm. In this work, multidimensional QoS data of web services have experimented and given an accurate prediction and ranking in the web environment.

scholarly journals A Population Perspective on Prevention of Dementia

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esmé Eggink ◽  
Eric P. Moll van Charante ◽  
Willem A. van Gool ◽  
Edo Richard
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Convincing Evidence ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Effective Prevention ◽  
People With Dementia ◽  
Dementia Prevention ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Care Systems

The global number of people living with dementia is expected to increase to 130 million in 2050. Based on extensive evidence from observational studies, it is estimated that about 30% of dementia cases may be attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors. This suggests that interventions targeting these factors could perhaps delay or prevent the onset of dementia. Since the vast majority of people with dementia live in low- and middle-income countries, such interventions should preferably be easy and affordable to implement across a wide range of health care systems. However, to date, results from dementia prevention trials do not provide convincing evidence that treatment of these risk factors reduces the risk of dementia. The current paper aims to give an overview of available evidence for the potential for dementia prevention. In particular, we discuss methodological issues that might complicate the development of effective prevention interventions and explore the opportunities and challenges for future dementia prevention research. Currently, several ongoing and planned trials are testing the effect of multi-domain interventions on dementia risk in high-risk populations. It is desirable that future dementia strategies also target the wider population, through interventions on the individual, community, and population level, in order to constrain the growing prevalence of dementia worldwide.

scholarly journals Computer-Aided Pharmacoepidemiology in Drug Use and Safety: Examining the Intersection between Data Science and Medicines Research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Chikowe ◽  
Elias Peter Mwakilama
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Computer Aided ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Research Narrative ◽  
Randomised Controlled ◽  
Improving Health Care

Pharmacoepidemiology is a relatively new area of study that focuses on research aimed at producing data about drugs’ usage and safety in well-defined populations. Its significant impact on patient safety has translated into improving health care systems worldwide, where it has been widely adopted. This field has developed to an extent that policy and guidelines makers have started using its evidence alongside that produced from randomised controlled clinical trials. Although this significant improvement has been partly attributed to the adoption of statistics and computer-aided models into the way pharmacoepidemiology studies are designed and conducted, certain gaps still exist. This chapter reports some of the significant developments made, along with the gaps observed so far, in the adoption of statistics and computing into pharmacoepidemiology research. The goal is to highlight efforts that have led to the new pharmacoepidemiology developments, while examining the intersection between data science and pharmacology through research narrative reviews of computer-aided pharmacology. The chapter shows the significant number of initiatives that have been applied/adopted to improve pharmacoepidemiology research. Nonetheless, further developments in integrating pharmacoepidemiology with computers and statistics are needed in order to enhance the research agenda.

scholarly journals On the Front (Phone) Lines: Results of a COVID-19 Hotline in Northeast Ohio

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Margolius ◽  
Mary Hennekes ◽  
Jimmy Yaho ◽  
Douglas Einstadter ◽  
Douglas Gunzler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Emergency Care ◽  
Smoking Status ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Patient Characteristics ◽  
Care Practice ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
At Home

ABSTRACT Importance: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and the associated coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) have presented immense challenges for health care systems. Many regions have struggled to adapt to disruptions to health care practice and employ systems that effectively manage the demand for services. Objective: To examine the effectiveness of the first five weeks of a 24/7 physician-staffed COVID-19 hotline. Design: Cohort study using electronic health records. Setting: A single large health care system in Northeast Ohio. Participants: During 5 weeks of operation, 10,112 patients called the hotline (callers) and were evaluated by a registered nurse (RN) using standardized protocols. Of these, 4,213 (42%) were referred for a physician telehealth visit (telehealth patients). The mean age of callers was 42 years. 67% were female, 51% white, and 46% were on Medicaid or uninsured. Intervention: Physician telehealth visits for COVID-19. Main Outcomes and Measures: We describe clinical diagnosis, patient characteristics (age, sex race/ethnicity, smoking status, insurance status), and visit disposition. We use logistic regression to evaluate associations between patient characteristics, visit disposition and subsequent emergency department use, hospitalization, and SARS-Cov-2 PCR testing. Results: Common caller concerns included cough, fever, and shortness of breath. Most telehealth patients (79%) were advised to self-isolate at home, 14% were determined to be unlikely to have COVID-19, 3% were advised to seek emergency care, and 4% had miscellaneous other dispositions. A total of 287 (7%) patients had a subsequent ED visit, and 44 (1%) were hospitalized with a COVID-19 diagnosis. Of the callers, 482 (5%) had a COVID-19 test reported with 69 (14%) testing positive. Among patients advised to stay at home, 83% had no further face-to-face visits. In multivariable results, only a physician recommendation to seek emergency care was associated with emergency room use (OR=4.73, 95%CI 1.37-16.39, p=.014). Only older age was associated with having a positive test result. Conclusions and Relevance: Robust, physician-directed telehealth services can meet a wide range of needs during the acute phase of a pandemic, conserving scarce resources such as personal protective equipment and testing supplies and preventing the spread of infections to patients and health care workers.

An Exploration of the Experiences of Migrant Women

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 9-23
Author(s):  
Jane Fitzpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Safety Education ◽  
Employment Opportunities ◽  
Seeking Safety ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
National Boundaries

Women across the world migrate for a wide range of reasons. Some gravitate to urban centres in their own countries seeking safety, education, health care, and employment opportunities. Others travel across national boundaries seeking reprieve from the atrocities of war and extreme poverty. Migration within countries is on the rise, as people move in response to adverse conditions such as lack of resources, services and education, and employment opportunities. In addition they may want to escape from violence or natural disasters. This movement of people from rural to urban areas has resulted in an explosive growth of cities around the globe. This paper draws on a research case study undertaken with the Kewapi language group in Port Moresby and the Batri Villages of the Southern Highlands in Papua New Guinea. It seeks to highlight the perspectives of women traveling vast distances from their home communities in order to seek education and health care. It explores the implications for developing effective service user focused health care systems designed to meet the needs of mobile and vulnerable women. The study suggests that if women and their families from remote rural communities are encouraged and facilitated in participating in health promoting initiatives they can dramatically improve their life and health experiences and that of their community.

Teaching Epidemiologic Concepts as the Scientific Basis for Understanding Problems of Organizing and Evaluating Health Services

1972 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. L. White
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Environmental Medicine ◽  
Clinical Medicine ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Laboratory Medicine ◽  
Scientific Basis ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Individual Medicine

Applications of epidemiologic concepts and methods to health services problems constitute extensions of other successful applications to health and disease problems in populations. Because population medicine is as important as individual medicine for improving and maintaining the health of communities, epidemiology should be regarded as a fundamental science of medicine. Clinical medicine, laboratory medicine, environmental medicine, and population or social medicine should be seen as complementary, not competitive, fields. For administrative medicine and management of health care systems, competence in epidemiology should be regarded as a necessary but not sufficient component of education for this essential branch of medical practice.

scholarly journals History and Prospects for African Land Governance: Institutions, Technology and ‘Land Rights for All’

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 292
Author(s):  
Robert Home
Keyword(s):  
Academic Research ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Population Pressure ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Land Administration ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Spatial Technology

Issues relating to land are specifically referred to in five of the United Nations’ (UN) 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and UN-Habitat’s Global Land Tools Network views access to land and tenure security as key to achieving sustainable, inclusive and efficient cities. The African continent is growing in importance, with climate change and population pressure on land. This review explores an interdisciplinary approach, and identifies recent advances in geo-spatial technology relevant to land governance in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It discusses historical legacies of colonialism that affect the culture of its land administration institutions, through three levels of governance: international/regional, national and sub-national. Short narratives on land law are discussed for four Anglophone former British colonies of SSA. A wide range of sources are drawn upon: academic research across disciplines, and official publications of various actors, including land professions (particularly surveyors, lawyers and planners), government and wider society. The findings are that African countries have carried forward colonial land governance structures into the post-independence political settlement, and that a gulf exists between the institutions, language and cultures of land governance, and the mass of its peoples struggling with basic issues of survival. This gulf may be addressed by recent approaches to land administration and technological advances in geo-spatial technology, and by new knowledge networks and interactions.

scholarly journals Possible effect of epinephrine in minimizing COVID-19 severity: a review

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (9) ◽  
pp. 030006052095859
Author(s):  
Mahnaz Derakhshan ◽  
Hamid Reza Ansarian ◽  
Mory Ghomshei
Keyword(s):  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Case Fatality ◽  
Literature Survey ◽  
Severe Illness ◽  
Plasma Epinephrine ◽  
Successful Management ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
New Treatment

Objective Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) shows a wide range of severity, ranging from an asymptomatic presentation to a severe illness requiring intensive care unit admission. Identification of a strategy to manage the severity of this disease will not only help to reduce its case fatality but also help to remove some of the burden from the already overwhelmed health care systems. While successful management of symptoms in general is important, identifying measures to modify the severity of the illness is a key factor in the fight against this pandemic. Methods This paper presents a short literature review to suggest a new treatment modality for COVID-19. Results COVID-19 is less severe and rarely fatal in children than in adults, which could be caused by greater fluctuations of plasma epinephrine in children. Our literature survey endorses this hypothesis according to both the epidemiological and immunological findings. Conclusion Application of epinephrine pulses with a specific amplitude may be considered an intervention to minimize the severity of COVID-19.

scholarly journals European network staff eXchange for integrAting precision health in the health Care sysTems” project

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
M Mariani ◽  
R Pastorino ◽  
W Ricciardi ◽  
S Boccia
Keyword(s):  
Data Science ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Systems Design ◽  
Research Topics ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Scientific Papers ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Staff Exchange ◽  
Precision Health

Abstract Background Precision health aims to prevent and predict illness, maintaining health and quality of life for as long as possible, by drawing on the new technological and data science tools to translate volumes of research and clinical data into information that citizens, patients and doctors can use. Objective The ExACT consortium, funded by the Marie Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) 2017 - Horizon 2020, is aimed at building a community of academic and non-academic institutions that generates high quality, multidisciplinary collaboration by exchanging knowledge in research and training activities on precision health. Results From 2019 to 2023, 74 secondments are foreseen; staff involved will be trained on precision health research topics unavailable at their home institutions. The research topics include 5 domains: Integration of Big Data and digital solutions into healthcare systems; design and promotion of innovative citizen engagement models; education of healthcare professionals and leadership; HTA in precision health; Ethical-legal, social, organisational and policy issues surrounding precision health. Conclusions Secondees will produce key reports, policy recommendations, scientific papers, and informative materials for citizens, fostering public-private interplay and fostering integration of precision health in the EU health systems, contributing to better health for EU citizens. Key messages Once the secondees are back in their home institution, they will use competences acquired during the secondment to advance the research, and transfer the knowledge to the home organization. Sharing knowledge,building synergies and expertise and encouraging best practices,among top-level institutions,will stimulate translational effort for implementing precision health in EU health system.

scholarly journals Making governance work in the health care sector: evidence from a ‘natural experiment’ in Italy

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabina Nuti ◽  
Federico Vola ◽  
Anna Bonini ◽  
Milena Vainieri
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Performance Evaluation ◽  
Natural Experiment ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Universal Coverage ◽  
Regional Governance ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Governance Models ◽  
Regional Governments

AbstractThe Italian Health care System provides universal coverage for comprehensive health services and is mainly financed through general taxation. Since the early 1990s, a strong decentralization policy has been adopted in Italy and the state has gradually ceded its jurisdiction to regional governments, of which there are twenty. These regions now have political, administrative, fiscal and organizational responsibility for the provision of health care. This paper examines the different governance models that the regions have adopted and investigates the performance evaluation systems (PESs) associated with them, focusing on the experience of a network of ten regional governments that share the same PES. The article draws on the wide range of governance models and PESs in order to design a natural experiment. Through an analysis of 14 indicators measured in 2007 and in 2012 for all the regions, the study examines how different performance evaluation models are associated with different health care performances and whether the network-shared PES has made any difference to the results achieved by the regions involved. The initial results support the idea that systematic benchmarking and public disclosure of data are powerful tools to guarantee the balanced and sustained improvement of the health care systems, but only if they are integrated with the regional governance mechanisms.

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