MEDICAL EXPRESS - HEALTH INFORMATICS

1. New AI tool improves risk assessment for heart failure care

   UVA Health researchers have developed a powerful new risk assessment tool for predicting outcomes in heart failure patients. The researchers have made the tool publicly available for free to clinicians.

2. Will AI replace doctors who read X-rays, or just make them better than ever?

   How good would an algorithm have to be to take over your job?

3. Machine learning sheds light on gene transcription

   A team led by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center has developed deep learning models to identify a simple set of rules that govern the activity of promoters—regions of DNA that initiate the process by which genes produce proteins.

4. Artificial intelligence tool detects sex-related differences in brain structure

   Artificial intelligence (AI) computer programs that process MRI results show differences in how the brains of men and women are organized at a cellular level, a new study shows. These variations were spotted in white matter, tissue primarily located in the human brain's innermost layer, which fosters communication between regions.

5. AI aids analysis of lifetime environmental exposures

   The idea that biology is not destiny is hardly new. Studies in twins have shown that even among identical pairs—those sharing 100% of their DNA—the same disease genes do not turn into full-blown illness in both individuals.

6. An auxiliary CHD diagnostic system based on multi-view and multi-modal transthoracic echocardiograms

   Congenital heart disease (CHD) is one of the most common congenital anomalies worldwide, which brings a heavy health and financial burden to patients. Early CHD screening and treatment can significantly improve children's prognosis and quality of life. However, inexperienced sonographers often face difficulties in recognizing CHD through transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) images.

7. Forget ringing the button for the nurse: Patients can now stay connected by wearing one

   Patients admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital get a monitoring device about the size of a half-dollar affixed to their chest—and an unwitting role in the expanding use of artificial intelligence in health care.

8. Study shows ChatGPT can accurately analyze medical charts for clinical research, other applications

   ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot designed to assist with language-based tasks, can effectively extract data for research purposes from physicians' clinical notes, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report in a new study.

9. Study traces an infectious language epidemic

   "Sticks and stones may break my bones," the old adage goes. "But words will never hurt me." Tell that to Eugenia Rho, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, and she will show you extensive data that prove otherwise.

10. Researchers create AI model to understand how brain activity relates to illness

    A team of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Yale University incorporated generative artificial intelligence (AI) to create a foundational model for brain activity. The Brain Language Model (BrainLM) was developed to model the brain in silico and to determine how brain activities are related to human behavior and brain diseases.

11. New tool streamlines nurse work environment research

    New research from Penn Nursing's Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR)—recently published in the journal Research in Nursing & Health—has successfully validated a new, streamlined version of the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI), originally authored in 2002 by Eileen T. Lake, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, Professor of Nursing, the Edith Clemmer Steinbright Professor in Gerontology, and Associate Director of CHOPR, who is also lead author on this publication. This innovative tool, known as the PES-5, is designed to revolutionize how nurse work environments are measured across the United States.

12. Predicting and detecting abuse in supported living for people with a learning disability and autistic people

    The abuse of people with a learning disability and autistic people sadly features in several health and care services across the years. Researchers have consistently reported that people with a learning disability and autistic people are more at risk of abuse than other groups, especially when living in residential services (as compared to older people more generally, or those people with mental health needs).

13. What makes a public health campaign successful?

    The highest performing countries across public health outcomes share many drivers that contribute to their success. That's the conclusion of a study published May 9 in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health by Dr. Nadia Akseer, an Epidemiologist-Biostatistician at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and co-author of the study and colleagues in the Exemplars in Global Health (EGH) program.

14. Human brain map contains never-before-seen details of structure

    A cubic millimeter of brain tissue may not sound like much. But considering that tiny square contains 57,000 cells, 230 millimeters of blood vessels, and 150 million synapses, all amounting to 1,400 terabytes of data, Harvard and Google researchers have just accomplished something enormous.

15. Researchers estimate vaccines have saved 154 million lives over past half-century

    An international team of health and medical researchers including workers at the WHO, working with economists and modeling specialists, has found that the use of vaccines to prevent or treat disease has saved the lives of approximately 154 million people over the past half-century.

16. AI advancements make the leap into 3D pathology possible

    Human tissue is intricate, complex and, of course, three dimensional. But the thin slices of tissue that pathologists most often use to diagnose disease are two dimensional, offering only a limited glimpse at the tissue's true complexity. There is a growing push in the field of pathology toward examining tissue in its three-dimensional form. But 3D pathology datasets can contain hundreds of times more data than their 2D counterparts, making manual examination infeasible.

17. New AI tool uses a small set of interpretable variables to rapidly assess self-harm risk

    A new assessment tool that leverages powerful artificial intelligence was able to predict whether participants exhibited suicidal thoughts and behaviors using a quick and simple combination of variables.

18. Team develops computational approach to redesign antibodies for broader effectiveness against viral pandemics

    In a new development for addressing future viral pandemics, a multi-institutional team involving Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers has successfully combined an artificial intelligence (AI)-backed platform with supercomputing to redesign and restore the effectiveness of antibodies whose ability to fight viruses has been compromised by viral evolution.

19. Biomarkers + patient-reported outcomes up prediction of interstitial cystitis

    The integration of biomarkers and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) improves prediction of interstitial cystitis (IC)/bladder pain syndrome, according to a study published online April 24 in Urology.

20. Using AI and social media to track depression in communities could offer more reliable assessments than surveys

    A study that used artificial intelligence (AI) and social media posts to assess the rates of depression and anxiety in nearly half of American counties found that the AI-generated measurements produced more reliable assessments than population surveys.

21. AI may help physicians detect abnormal heart rhythms earlier

    An artificial intelligence program developed by investigators in the Smidt Heart Institute and their Cedars-Sinai colleagues can detect a type of abnormal heart rhythm that can go unnoticed during medical appointments, according to a new study.

22. Researchers use foundation models to discover new cancer imaging biomarkers

    Researchers at Mass General Brigham have harnessed the technology behind foundation models, which power tools like ChatGPT, to discover new cancer imaging biomarkers that could transform how patterns are identified from radiological images. Improved identification of such patterns can greatly impact the early detection and treatment of cancer.

23. AI predicts tumor-killing cells with high accuracy, study shows

    Using artificial intelligence, Ludwig Cancer Research scientists have developed a powerful predictive model for identifying the most potent cancer-killing immune cells for use in cancer immunotherapies.

24. Study finds AI is as good as a physician at prioritizing which patients need to be seen first

    Emergency departments nationwide are overcrowded and overtaxed, but a new study suggests artificial intelligence (AI) could one day help prioritize which patients need treatment most urgently.

25. Study identifies signifiers of severe COVID-19 disease and death

    Why do some people with COVID-19 experience little more than a sniffle while others end up on a ventilator? And among critically ill patients, why do some eventually recover while others do not?

26. Measuring differential privacy could balance meaningful analytics and health care data security

    In industries such as health care, where data generation grows by 47% each year, information collected within electronic health records could help inform more efficient care operations or more accurate diagnoses. However, personal health data is highly protected and largely goes untouched by analysts and researchers.

27. Online patient portal usage increasing, study shows

    More people are using online patient portals to view their information while in the emergency room, but access is challenging for members of medically underserved communities and the elderly, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers and national colleagues found in a new study.

28. Benefit of thick liquids in Alzheimer disease and dysphagia unclear

    For hospitalized patients with Alzheimer disease and related dementias (ADRD) and dysphagia, those receiving thick liquids are less likely to be intubated but have no difference in hospital mortality compared with those receiving thin liquids, according to a study published online May 6 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

29. Text message outreach can help increase mammogram completion rates

    Text messaging women after initial outreach for breast cancer screening increases mammogram completion rates, according to a study published online May 6 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

30. Women and Black patients less likely to receive catheter-based treatment for pulmonary embolism

    New data from the REAL-PE analysis investigated catheter-based pulmonary embolism (PE) treatment, showing women and Black people were less frequently treated with minimally invasive therapy compared to men or non-Black patients. The late-breaking results were presented today at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) 2024 Scientific Sessions.