bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On Incentives for Open Access Publishing: A Survey at IMIA's Annual General Assembly During HEC2016
Authors: Kuballa Stefanie  , Schulze Mareike  , Mielke Corinna  , Gefeller Olaf  , Haux Reinhold
Published: February 2025

Open access provides an alternative opportunity of publishing research articles besides the traditional subscription-based publication model. Facilitating higher visibility, accessibility, and dissemination, among others, open access addresses modern needs of our information and communication society. Though these factors are vital, there also do exist initial problems to become prevalent. Especially, costs like article publication charges seem to have an impact on the author's decision not to publish open access. In order to gain a deeper insight on incentives for open access publishing (as well as on barriers for not publishing open access), we developed a specific survey within the scope of our Trans-O-MIM project. Conducted at HEC2016, we primarily involved participants of the Annual General Assembly of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA). As main incentives and motivation for open access publishing had been identified: article indexing, impact factor, accessibility/availability, dissemination, and visibility.
Interface Terminologies, Reference Terminologies and Aggregation Terminologies: A Strategy for Better Integration
Authors: Schulz Stefan  , Rodrigues Jean-Marie  , Rector Alan  , Chute Christopher G.
Published: February 2025

The time has come to end unproductive competitions among different types of biomedical terminology artefacts. Tools and strategies to create the foundation of a seamless environment covering clinical jargon, clinical terminologies, and classifications are necessary. Whereas language processing relies on human interface terminologies, which represent clinical jargon, their link to reference terminologies such as SNOMED CT is essential to guarantee semantic interoperability. There is also a need for interoperation between reference and aggregation terminologies. Simple mappings between nodes are not enough, because the three kinds of terminology systems represent different things: reference terminologies focus on context-free descriptions of classes of entities of a domain; aggregation terminologies contain rules that enforce the principle of single hierarchies and disjoint classes; interface terminologies represent the language used in a domain. We propose a model that aims at providing a better flow of standardized information, addressing multiple use cases in health care including clinical research, epidemiology, care management, and reimbursement.
Impact of Imputing Missing Data in Bayesian Network Structure Learning for Obstructive Sleep Apnea Diagnosis
Authors: Ferreira-Santos Daniela  , Monteiro-Soares Matilde  , Rodrigues Pedro Pereira
Published: February 2025

Numerous diagnostic decisions are made every day by healthcare professionals. Bayesian networks can provide a useful aid to the process, but learning their structure from data generally requires the absence of missing data, a common problem in medical data. We have studied missing data imputation using a step-wise nearest neighbors' algorithm, which we recommended given its limited impact on the assessed validity of structure learning Bayesian network classifiers for Obstructive Sleep Apnea diagnosis.
Electronic Health Records: From the Management of Patients to the Research Use of Clinical Data
Authors: Giannini Barbara  , Curtaz Francesco  , Del Puente Filippo  , Di Biagio Antonio  , Giacomini Mauro
Published: February 2025

Paper based medical records are still widespread in Italian hospitals and the workflow to manage outpatients' visits is critical. Too many isolated software programs coexist in hospital wards and cause confusion and disorganization. A computerized medical record that unifies all the data contained in the various applications should be of fundamental importance in supporting physician's daily activities. Moreover, with the digital clinical record, data can be re-used for research purposes. The aim of this project is to create a web application for the management of outpatient visits to the Infectious Diseases Unit of the San Martino Hospital in Genoa. In order to orchestrate all the software programs acting in the visit workflow, a client application was developed to speed up the work of the medical staff at the time of the visits, ameliorating the quantity and quality of relevant information from a clinical point of view. A further extension allows standard data exchange between the developed application and the Ligurian HIV Network, which is the main regional research platform.
A Method for Developing Standard Patient Education Program
Authors: Lura Carolina Bryne  , Hauch Sophie Misser Pallesgaard  , Gøeg Kirstine Rosenbeck  , Pape-Haugaard Louise
Published: February 2025

In Denmark, patients being treated on Haematology Outpatients Departments get instructed to self-manage their blood sample collection from Central Venous Catheter (CVC). However, this is a complex and risky procedure, which can jeopardize patient safety. The aim of the study was to suggest a method for developing standard digital patient education programs for patients in self-administration of blood samples drawn from CVC. The Design Science Research Paradigm was used to develop a digital patient education program, called PAVIOSY, to increase patient safety during execution of the blood sample collection procedure by using videos for teaching as well as procedural support. A step-by-step guide was developed and used as basis for making the videos. Quality assurance through evaluation with a nurse was conducted on both the step-by-step guide and the videos. The quality assurance evaluation of the videos showed; 1) Errors due to the order of the procedure can be determined by reviewing the videos despite that the guide was followed. 2) Videos can be used to identify errors – important for patient safety – in the procedure, which are not identifiable in a written script. To ensure correct clinical content of the educational patient system, health professionals must be engaged early in the development of content and design phase.
Geo-Distinctive Comorbidity Networks of Pediatric Asthma
Authors: Shin Eun Kyong  , Shaban-Nejad Arash
Published: February 2025

Most pediatric asthma cases occur in complex interdependencies, exhibiting complex manifestation of multiple symptoms. Studying asthma comorbidities can help to better understand the etiology pathway of the disease. Albeit such relations of co-expressed symptoms and their interactions have been highlighted recently, empirical investigation has not been rigorously applied to pediatric asthma cases. In this study, we use computational network modeling and analysis to reveal the links and associations between commonly co-observed diseases/conditions with asthma among children in Memphis, Tennessee. We present a novel method for geo-parsed comorbidity network analysis to show the distinctive patterns of comorbidity networks in urban and suburban areas in Memphis.
Sifting Through Chaos: Extracting Information from Unstructured Legal Opinions
Authors: Oliveira Bruno Miguel  , Guimarães Rui Vasconcellos  , Antunes Luís  , Rodrigues Pedro Pereira
Published: February 2025

Abiding to the law is, in some cases, a delicate balance between the rights of different players. Re-using health records is such a case. While the law grants reuse rights to public administration documents, in which health records produced in public health institutions are included, it also grants privacy to personal records. To safeguard a correct usage of data, public hospitals in Portugal employ jurists that are responsible for allowing or withholding access rights to health records. To help decision making, these jurists can consult the legal opinions issued by the national committee on public administration documents usage. While these legal opinions are of undeniable value, due to their doctrine contribution, they are only available in a format best suited from printing, forcing individual consultation of each document, with no option, whatsoever of clustered search, filtering or indexing, which are standard operations nowadays in a document management system. When having to decide on tens of data requests a day, it becomes unfeasible to consult the hundreds of legal opinions already available. With the objective to create a modern document management system, we devised an open, platform agnostic system that extracts and compiles the legal opinions, ex-tracts its contents and produces metadata, allowing for a fast searching and filtering of said legal opinions.
Assessing Information Needs for a Personal Multiple Sclerosis Application
Authors: Tonheim Aleksander Nygård  , Babic Ankica
Published: February 2025

This paper presents a prototype of a mobile application for patient self-management within the field of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Five study subjects provided information needs by suggesting functionalities and evaluating three existing MS applications. Prominent functionalities were to collect data about symptoms, physical activities, mood and goals in a form of a mobile diary. Collected data would be visually presented in a graph to support self-management and motivation. A low-fidelity prototype relies in first hand on four selected modules, two Diary modules, one Visualisation module and a Physical activity module. A high-fidelity prototype is being implemented and will be further evaluated by the experts.
Opportunities and Pitfalls in the Definition of Data Validity
Authors: Stausberg Jürgen  , Kuklik Nils  , Jöckel Karl-Heinz
Published: February 2025

Several dimensions of data quality are described in the literature. One overriding aspect is considered to be the extent to which data represent the truth which is captured by data validity. Unfortunately, a common terminology, well defined concepts, and approved measures are missing in regard to data validity. In particular, there is a need to discuss the gold standard as reference for the data at hand and respective measures. Ultimate gold standard would be the state of the patient which itself is subjected to human and personal interpretations. Usually, an often diverse form of source data is used as gold standard. Based on the concept of the measure, it might be inappropriate differentiating between present and absent while calculating precision and recall. Due to the complexity and uncertainty of many health care related issues, a more sophisticated comparison might be necessary in order to establish relevant and general figures of data quality. Unfortunately, a harmonization in this field is not visible. Further research is needed to establish validated standards to measure data quality.
Exploring Semantic Data Federation to Enable Malaria Surveillance Queries
Authors: Brenas Jon Haël  , Al Manir Mohammad Sadnan  , Zinszer Kate  , Baker Christopher J.O.  , Shaban-Nejad Arash
Published: February 2025

Malaria is an infectious disease affecting people across tropical countries. In order to devise efficient interventions, surveillance experts need to be able to answer increasingly complex queries integrating information coming from repositories distributed all over the globe. This, in turn, requires extraordinary coding abilities that cannot be expected from non-technical surveillance experts. In this paper, we present a deployment of Semantic Automated Discovery and Integration (SADI) Web services for the federation and querying of malaria data. More than 10 services were created to answer an example query requiring data coming from various sources. Our method assists surveillance experts in formulating their queries and gaining access to the answers they need.
Knowledge-Driven Interpretation of Multi-View Data in Medicine
Authors: Sudhir Pillai Parvathy  , Feng Lei  , Leong Tze-Yun
Published: February 2025

We propose a new approach to clinical decision support with interpretable recommendations from multi-view data. We introduce a Bayesian network structure learning method to help identify the relevant factors and their relationships. Guided by minimal domain knowledge, this method highlights the significant associations among the demography, medical and family history, lifestyle, and biomarker data to facilitate informed clinical decisions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the method for detecting mild neurocognitive disorder in the elderly from a real-life dataset in Singapore. The empirical results show that our method achieves better interpretability in addition to comparable accuracy with respect to the benchmark studies.
Quasi-Monopoly Status of a Non-for-Profit Reference Terminology Provider – An Exemplary Approach on Transparency Improvement Regarding Licensing
Authors: Dewenter Heike  , Thun Sylvia
Published: February 2025

As the reference terminology SNOMED CT is gaining in significance and seems without alternative in interoperable Electronic Health Records, the holder of its intellectual property, the non-for-profit organization SNOMED International has achieved a quasi-monopoly status as a provider. We examine the current dealing with corporate transparency regarding SNOMED CT licensing together with policy recommendations derived from the research project ASSESS CT, in the context of collaboration with Standardization Organizations. In addition, transparency improvement is proposed based on the economic Principal-Agent-Theory, assuming SNOMED CT Licensees as principals. In this paper we introduce improvement measures with regard to increase transparency in the licensing process addressing to the reference terminology users and especially the terminology provider. The aim is to present strategies towards transparency, with the intent to remove barriers concerning indecisive organization stakeholders and users of a license and fee-based terminology solutions, as well as to overcome resentments connected to the quasi-monopoly status of the provider.
Front-Line Physicians' Satisfaction with Information Systems in Hospitals
Authors: Peltonen Laura-Maria  , Junttila Kristiina  , Salanterä Sanna
Published: February 2025

Day-to-day operations management in hospital units is difficult due to continuously varying situations, several actors involved and a vast number of information systems in use. The aim of this study was to describe front-line physicians' satisfaction with existing information systems needed to support the day-to-day operations management in hospitals. A cross-sectional survey was used and data chosen with stratified random sampling were collected in nine hospitals. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The response rate was 65 % (n = 111). The physicians reported that information systems support their decision making to some extent, but they do not improve access to information nor are they tailored for physicians. The respondents also reported that they need to use several information systems to support decision making and that they would prefer one information system to access important information. Improved information access would better support physicians' decision making and has the potential to improve the quality of decisions and speed up the decision making process.
Implementing Pharmacogenomic Clinical Decision Support into German Hospitals
Authors: Hinderer Marc  , Boerries Melanie  , Boeker Martin  , Neumaier Michael  , Loubal Frank-Peter  , Acker Till  , Brunner Manfred  , Prokosch Hans-Ulrich  , Christoph Jan
Published: February 2025

Background: Pharmacogenomic Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) are considered to be the most feasible tool for adopting pharmacogenomic testing into clinical routine.
Towards an IMU Evaluation Framework for Human Body Tracking
Authors: Venek Verena  , Kremser Wolfgang  , Schneider Cornelia
Published: February 2025

Existing full-body tracking systems, which use Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) as sensing unit, require expert knowledge for setup and data collection. Thus, the daily application for human body tracking is difficult. In particular, in the field of active and assisted living (AAL), tracking human movements would enable novel insights not only into the quantity but also into the quality of human movement, for example by monitoring functional training. While the current market offers a wide range of products with vastly different properties, literature lacks guidelines for choosing IMUs for body tracking applications. Therefore, this paper introduces developments towards an IMU evaluation framework for human body tracking which compares IMUs against five requirement areas that consider device features and data quality. The data quality is assessed by conducting a static and a dynamic error analysis. In a first application to four IMUs of different component consumption, the IMU evaluation framework convinced as promising tool for IMU selection.
Committee I.2: Loads
Authors: Ogawa Yoshitaka  , Bai Wei  , de Hauteclocque Guillaume  , Dhavalikar Sharad  , Fang Chih-Chung  , Fonseca Nuno  , Hänninen Satu  , Johannessen Thomas B.  , Lien Van  , Morooka Celso  , Mumm Holger  , Prpic-Orsic Jasna  , Song Kang Hyun  , Tian Chao  , Uğurlu Bahadır  , Wang Sue
Published: February 2025

Concern for the environmental and operational loads from waves, wind, current, ice, slamming, sloshing, green water, weight distribution and any other operational factors. Consideration shall be given to deterministic and statistical load predictions based on model experiments, full-scale measurements and theoretical methods. Uncertainties in load estimations shall be highlighted. The committee is encouraged to cooperate with the corresponding ITTC committee.
Committee III.1: Ultimate Strength
Authors: Czujko J.  , Bayatfar A.  , Smith M.  , Xu M.C.  , Wang D.  , Lützen M.  , Saad-Eldeen S.  , Yanagihara D.  , Notaro G.  , Qian X.  , Park J.S.  , Broekhuijsen J.  , Benson S.  , Pahos S.J.  , Boulares J.
Published: February 2025

Concern for the ductile behaviour of ships and offshore structures and their structural components under ultimate conditions. Attention shall be given to the influence of fabrication imperfections and in-service damage and degradation on reserve strength. Uncertainties in strength models for design shall be highlighted. Consideration shall be given to the practical application of methods.
Committee V.6: Arctic Technology
Authors: Ehlers S.  , Polojärvi A.  , Vredeveldt A.  , Quinton B.  , Kim E.  , Ralph F.  , Sirkar J.  , Moslet P.O.  , Fukui T.  , Kuehnlein W.  , Wan Z.
Published: February 2025

Concern for development of technology of particular relevance for the safety of ships and offshore structures in Arctic regions and ice-covered waters. This includes the assessment of methods for calculating loads from sea ice and icebergs, and mitigation of their effects. On this basis, principles and methods for the safety design of ships and fixed and floating structures shall be considered. Recommendations shall also be made regarding priorities for research programmes and efficient implementation of new knowledge and tools.
Committee V.7: Structural Longevity
Authors: Hess P.  , Aksu S.  , Vaz M.  , Feng G.  , Li L.  , Jurisic P.  , Andersen M.R.  , Caridis P.  , Boote D.  , Murayama H.  , Amila N.  , Leira B.  , Tammer M.  , Blake J.  , Chen N.  , Egorov A.
Published: February 2025

Concern for the structural longevity of ship, offshore and other marine structures. This shall include diagnosis and prognosis of structural health, prevention of structural failures such as corrosion and fatigue, and structural rehabilitation. The focus shall be on methodologies translating monitoring data into operational and life-cycle management advice. The research and development in passive, latent and active systems including their sensors and actuators shall be addressed.
Big Data in Brazilian Cancer Surveillance
Authors: Gonçalves Antônio Augusto  , Pereira Barbosa José Geraldo  , Freire de Castro Silva Sandro Luís  , Fernandes Martins Carlos Henrique  , Cheng Cezar
Published: February 2025

Cancer research has a great importance across the world. It is responsible for data analysis of cancer incidence by region, ethnicity, gender, age, social and economic issues, and contributes to the assessment of population health necessities. Nowadays, Brazil has a complex cancer care scenario. There are nearly 600.000 new cancer cases each year. Cancer surveillance in Brazil is carried out by a network of cancer registries which together feed the data warehouse of cancer incidence across the country. The analysis of cancer data warehouses using Data Mining techniques may discover hidden relations among patients' data, cancer treatment, and disease surveillance. This paper presents the development of a Big Data project with the purpose to analyze the cancer incidence and mortality patterns within the different regions and population groups in Brazil.
Designing a Novel Technical Infrastructure for Chronic Pain Self-Management
Authors: Kondylakis Haridimos  , Kouroubali Angelina  , Koumakis Lefteris  , Rivero-Rodriguez Alejandro  , Hors-Fraile Santiago  , Katehakis Dimitrios G.
Published: February 2025

Chronic pain is one of the most common health problems affecting daily activity, employment, relationships and emotional functioning. Unfortunately, limited access to pain experts, the high heterogeneity in terms of clinical manifestation and treatment results, contribute in failure to manage efficiently and effectively pain. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be a valuable tool, enabling better self-management and self-empowerment of pain. To this direction, this paper reports on the design of a novel technical infrastructure for chronic pain self-management based on an Intelligent Personal Health Record (PHR) platform. The designed platform targets, among others, at improving the knowledge on the patient data, effectiveness and adherence to treatment and providing effective communication channels between patients and clinicians.
Quality Index Analysis on Camera-Based R-Peak Identification Considering Movements and Light Illumination
Authors: Ahmed Mobyen Uddin  , Rahman Hamidur  , Begum Shahina
Published: February 2025

This paper presents a quality index (QI) analysis on R-peak extracted by a camera system considering movements and light illumination. Here, the proposed camera system is compared with a reference system named Shimmer PPG sensor. The study considers five test subjects with a 15 minutes measurement protocol, where the protocol consists of several conditions. The conditions are: normal sittings, head movements i.e., up/down/left/right/forward/backword, with light on/off and with moving flash on/off. A percentage of corrected R-peaks are calculated based on time difference in milliseconds (MS) between the R-peaks extracted both from camera-based and sensor-based systems. A comparison results between normal, movements, and lighting condition is presented as individual and group wise. Furthermore, the comparison is extended considering gender and origin of the subjects. According to the results, more than 90% R-peaks are correctly identified by the camera system with ±200 MS time differences, however, it decreases with while there is no light than when it is on. At the same time, the camera system shows more 95% accuracy for European than Asian men.
Airborne Noise Prediction of a Ro/Ro Pax Ferry in the Port of Naples
Authors: Coppola Tommaso  , Mocerino Luigia  , Rizzuto Enrico  , Viscardi Massimo  , Siano Daniela
Published: February 2025

Noise emissions from various transportation modes became in recent years a major concern for environmental and governmental agencies due to their impact on the community. As a result, experimental campaigns and studies have been directed towards the analysis and control of the main noise sources. Only a few analyses, however, have regarded noise exposure due to port activities. In this paper, the focus is on airborne noise emissions from a ferry ship. At first, the main onboard noise sources were identified in terms of their nature and location. Secondly, sources data on the main sources were derived, based on onboard measurements of the ferry berthed in the port of Naples. A geometrical 3D model was created, including all bodies present in the acoustic field of the surrounding area. Finally, by post processing, the consistency between actual acoustic field and numerical model results was checked.
A Numerical Way for a Stepped Planing Hull Design and Optimization
Authors: Di Caterino Flavio  , Niazmand Bilandi Rasul  , Mancini Simone  , Dashtimanesh Abbas  , De Carlini Maria
Published: February 2025

Stepped planing hulls enable the feasibility of running at a relatively low drag-lift ratio by means of achieving more optimal trim angle at high speeds than a similar non-stepped hull. Furthermore, stepped planing hulls ensure good dynamic stability and seakeeping qualities at high speeds. However, there is no precise method to analyze these hulls over the full range of operating speeds. For the above-mentioned reason, in this study, a CFD-based design was presented, starting from a non-stepped hull configuration, a multiple step solution was developed and an optimization of the unwetted aft body area behind the steps was performed. The goal of the optimization is the drag reduction and a dynamic stability. The CFD results were compared with the well-known empirical approach and a novel 2D+T analytical method.
Innovative Material Design for Marine Engine Non-Structural Components
Authors: Bertagna Serena  , Laurini Erik  , Marinò Alberto  , Pricl Sabrina  , Bucci Vittorio
Published: February 2025

Marine engine industry is in the quest for continuous improvement of efficiency and performance. Currently, all components involved in marine engine construction are made in metallic alloys. In order to reduce costs and weight, new materials for non-structural components must be identified. The introduction of new materials, e.g., nano-engineered thermoplastic polymers (NETP), will allow additional benefits due to drastic weight reduction and simplified maintenance and inspection operations. Advancements in NETP design and application in marine engine industry relies on computer-assisted multiscale material design (CAMMD). Indeed, by advanced CAMMD techniques, the structure of NEPT materials can be tailor-fitted to achieve the expected performances required by specific, advanced applications. Since the introduction of plastic materials in the construction of non-structural components for marine engines constitutes an element of great innovation, a specific rule framework must be defined yet. In this paper, starting from the analysis of the regulatory context currently used for metallic alloys a certification procedure is proposed and applied to a case study related to the cylinder head cover of a four-stroke marine engine. In particular, the mechanical properties of a new NETP material designed by CAMMD have been verified trough a finite element simulation carried out on the relevant model.
Survey Procedures and Class Notation Harmonization for an Effective Quantification of Passenger Comfort
Authors: Scarinzi Giulia  , Bregant Luigi  , Biot Marco
Published: February 2025

In order to assess passenger comfort on board of cruise ships, Classification Societies recommend that specific aspects of ship design and layout should comply with a set of suitable criteria, aiming at passengers' well-being improvement during the journey. Rule requirements take into account several environmental aspects such as whole-body vibrations, noise, indoor climate and lighting. However, among Societies and requirements, there is little harmonization with respect to both the environmental aspects which are considered and the breakdown into several comfort classes. Furthermore, the Classification Society, allow for the assessment of the different disturbing factors, very data short acquisitions times. This reduces the possibility of understanding the time evolution of the disturbances and the averaging effect of longer acquisition on the transient and variable ships operation and activities. The lack of stationarity in the acquired signals may have deleterious effect on the comfort assessment and the ship cabin classification.
Technical and Economic and Environmental Feasibility of an Innovative Integrated System of Management and Treatment of Waste on Board
Authors: Iannello Alessandro  , Bertagna Serena  , Pozzetto Dario  , Toneatti Luca  , Zamarini Riccardo  , Bucci Vittorio
Published: February 2025

The cruise passenger ship market is one of the most developing sectors globally. In order to satisfy the ever increasing demand from tourism, the number of ships and their size have been exponentially growing. As a result, the impact on environment caused by the increased marine traffic represents one of the most current problem worldwide. The necessity of developing new eco-friendly and sustainable technologies has led to study the technical, economic and environmental feasibility of an innovative integrated waste management and treatment system on modern cruise passenger ships. The benefits of the new configuration compared to the traditional one have been identified by analysing the entire waste chain, from on board production to final disposal, through the various energy recovery and treatment phases. Consideration has been given to the potentiality of waste addressed to treatment, flows, mass and energy balances, and operation of the system, defining technologically advanced and innovative systems and their application scenarios, with particular attention to safety and hygiene in rooms on board involved in the process. Finally, the environmental sustainability, referring to the existing regulations both in IMO and in existing mooring ports involved in the disposal of residual waste, and the economic outcomes of the innovative configuration have been analysed and evaluated.
Alternative Fuels: Present and Future of Containment Technologies and Impact on Shipbuilding
Authors: Cadenaro Fabrizio  , Fort Ed
Published: February 2025

In recent years there has been a growing move toward the adoption of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as marine fuel and consideration of other fuels as alternatives to the traditional marine fuel oils, driven by the introduction of new environmental regulations. Such fuels have different properties and as a result different storage requirements to those associated with current marine fuels and are pushing the industry toward both the introduction of containment technologies already established within other sectors of industry and, where necessary, the development of new ones. Existing containment technologies are typically physical, based on storage at ambient temperature, storage at ambient pressure, storage at high pressure (compressed) or storage at low temperature (cryogenic) or a combination of such. Future containment technologies however may well include material based storage, exploiting chemical processes to absorb and release fuels carried in liquid or solid matrices. This paper provides an overview of such alternative fuels, the corresponding containment technologies and the implications for ships design and construction, based on the knowledge and experience gained by Lloyd's Register through collaboration with the industry in a wide variety of conceptual and demonstration projects involving the use of LNG, Ethane, Methanol and Hydrogen fuels and ultimately in assuring their design and construction and entry into Class.
A Qualitative Study of Internet Informational Support for Neck Cancer Patients
Authors: Li Ying  , Li Jin  , Zhan Qian  , He Qing
Published: February 2025

Objective To gain insight into neck cancer patients' supportive needs, explore patients' acceptability and preference of function toward an eHealth application, and provide the reference of content formulation of neck cancer application. Methods According to the phenomenological research methods, this study using semi-structured in-depth interview. There were 20 participants, among whom were 8 neck cancer patients, 5 family members and 7 care persons. According to Giorgi data analysis, meaningful content and summarizing the eHealth application module were extracted. Results Data were analyzed for 3 categories of needs (information, management of somatic symptoms, management of psychosocial symptoms) and 4 application functional modules (login, personal center, information support, health online community). Conclusion There are some unmet needs in the supportive care of neck cancer patients. Most survivors were positive towards the proposed eHealth application and expressed that eHealth application can become an assistive tool providing supportive care services for neck cancer patients.
Patient Progression: A Hospital-Wide, Multi-Disciplinary, Data-Driven Approach to Moving Patients Safely, Timely & Efficiently
Authors: Odom Nancia T.  , Babb Mitch  , Velez Laurie  , Cockerham Zachary
Published: February 2025

High emergency department length of stays (ED LOS), emergency department (ED) crowding and inefficient management of hospital patient throughput can negatively impact patient safety, patient care, and patient satisfaction [1]. In addition, patients who leave an ED without being seen by a medical provider can lead to potentially harmful outcomes. Duke Regional Hospital (DRH) set a strategic priority to improve hospital-wide patient progression. Our goals were to provide safe, efficient and timely movement of patients from admission to discharge. Our additional goal was to decrease patient wait times at transition points. DRH used a multi-disciplinary, data-driven approach to improve hospital-wide patient progression. Hospital staff in multiple departments across various disciplines impacts the moving of patients within a hospital during an admission, from Care Management, to Environmental Service, registered nurses and physicians.
A Study of the Feasibility of the Scoring System of the Nursing Clinical Skills Developed by Nursing Staff
Authors: Lily Wang  , Zhenxian Shi  , Chang Polun  , Lin Li  , Jianfen Wang  , Hua He  , Liya Gao  , Lixue Wang  , Leijin Li
Published: February 2025

Objective: To analyze the process of a nursing clinical skills assessment in a hospital in China, design the scoring system of the nursing clinical skills(SSNCK), and discuss its clinical application effects.
Dx-Care: A Device to Help in the Diagnosis of Care Problems
Authors: González Aguña Alexandra  , Díaz Teruel Virginia  , Satamaría Pérez Adrián  , Gómez González Jorge Luis  , Jiménez Rodríguez Ma Lourdes  , Santamaría García José Ma  , Ramírez Sánchez Sylvia Claudine  , Vialart Vidal Niurka  , Condor Camara Daniel Flavio
Published: February 2025

The diagnosis of care problems is a complex process that involves many variables and inferences. This competence begins to acquire during the student stage, but matures later. The qualified professional continues to settle and perfect this judgment ability. Expert Systems are technologies that can help in making decisions such as diagnosis. The objective of this study is to build an Expert System in order to help in diagnosis of care problems by means of taxonomic triangulation technique. The deductive method follows three phases that result in the representation of expert knowledge through an associative network, the construction of a verified and validated prototype and, finally, the design of an app through a document of requirements specification in IEEE standard.
Digital Game-Based Learning: A Didactic Experience in the Pre-Degree Nursing Career
Authors: Solís de Ovando A.  , Rodríguez A.  , Hullin C.
Published: February 2025

Nowadays we are faced with a society immersed in globalization and native technology, causing a great challenge in the university teaching staff. The gamification, as teaching-learning didactic methodology, gathers the characteristics that allow to motivate and achieve an active and significant learning. The objective of this work is to show the experience of the nursing career, which combines the learning based on games and the use of digital applications.
Decision Support Systems in Cancer Treatment: A Case Study at Brazilian National Cancer Institute
Authors: Gonçalves Antônio Augusto  , de Castro Silva Sandro Luís Freire  , Martins Carlos Henrique Fernandes  , Cheng Cezar  , Barbosa José Geraldo Pereira  , de Oliveira Saulo Barbará
Published: February 2025

Nowadays Brazil has a complex cancer care scenario. There are nearly 600.000 new cancer cases each year in Brazil, and the huge majority of patients have some contact with hospital services. However, long waiting queues for diagnostics and treatments have become common. One of the critical success factors in a cancer treatment is early diagnosis. The reduction of waiting time to start therapeutic procedures is one of the main issues for improvement of patient's quality of life and possibilities of cure. The objective of this work is to describe the development of a decision support system that improves the identification of access alternatives, appointment scheduling and employment of available resources. The Theory of Constraints was used to identify bottlenecks in patient treatment flow and a Discrete Events Simulation model was used to reduce patients' waiting time to start cancer treatment.
Designing and Developing a Multi-Center/Multi-Device National Registry for Implantable Medical Devices
Authors: Baig Mansoor Ali  , Househ Mowafa  , Shagathrh Fahad Al  , Zahrani Somayah Al  , Alanazi Abdulrahman  , Saab Yassir Al  , Afzal Jawad
Published: February 2025

Designing, developing, and establishing the multi-device/multi-center Comprehensive Implantable Medical Device Registry (CIMDR) for Saudi Arabia is a strategic objective of the Saudi Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). The goal of the CIMDR is to capture all related clinical data along with device related information for implantable medical devices and study population-related outcomes. There is an immediate need in Saudi Arabia to establish the CIMDR to carryout device surveillance, gauge the efficiency and efficacy of various implantable medical devices, and track and recall implantable medical devices.In this work, we report on the development of the SFDA's CIMDR. We specifically focus on the project organization, five primary modules of the CIMDR, and development of the CIMDR through dynamic forms. We anticipate that the collected information in the CIMDR will be used by hospitals and the SFDA to improve patient safety relating to implantable medical devices in Saudi Arabia. Future development of the CIMDR will include a wide range of reporting and embedded analytical tools that will help researchers improve clinical standards and contribute to the research and development of implantable medical device technology.
Identifying Biomedical and Health Informatics Competencies in Higher Education Curricula
Authors: Ahonen Outi  , Kinnunen Ulla-Mari  , Lejonqvist Gun-Britt  , Apkalna Baiba  , Viitkar Kersti  , Saranto Kaija
Published: February 2025

This study describes the knowledge, skills and competencies found in bachelor's degree curricula for health and social care, engineering and business. The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) biomedicine and health information (BMHI) management recommendations was used as a framework to analyse bachelor's degree curricula (n=14). The results showed that the curricula contained a variety of subjects related to competencies in the IMIA's BMHI. The information technology (IT) engineering curriculum included the highest number of competencies and the business curricula the fewest. The nursing curricula included more competencies than any other health care curricula. When educating students in various professions, their diverse backgrounds and expertise must be considered. As future eHealth developers, students will learn to work as multidisciplinary teams.
Usability of Telerehabilitation System Supporting Multipronged Exercise in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis
Authors: Finkelstein Joseph  , Liu Jiazhen
Published: February 2025

Multipronged exercise interventions comprising aerobic, resistance and corrective therapeutic components were shown to result in endurance and strength improvement and reduction of fatigue and spasticity in patients with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). Telerehabilitation systems may have significant potential in improving patient access to multipronged exercise, however it is not clear whether PwMS can successfully use a multipronged exercise system at home without assistance. The goal of this project was to assess usability and acceptance of a multipronged exercise system in PwMS. Usability assessment was based on evaluation of patient ability to successfully carry out a standardized list of common tasks necessary to operate the system. For each task, time to completion, perceived difficulty and satisfaction were documented. Our results indicated high level of acceptance of the system by these patients. On average, it took about 1–2 minutes for the patients to complete the study tasks essential for the system operation. They were able to successfully use the system and follow their individualized exercise prescription. The resulting system is warranted for a definitive systematic evaluation in a randomized controlled trial to demonstrate its clinical impact in PwMS.
A Computer-Based Speech Sound Disorder Screening System Architecture
Authors: Mahmut Emilian Erman  , Nicola Stelian  , Stoicu-Tivadar Vasile
Published: February 2025

This paper reviews several architectures of Computer-Based Speech Therapy (CBST) systems and solutions and describes an architecture for an Entropy-Based Sound Speech Disorder (SSD) Screening System aimed at by our research project. The proposed architecture and data flow scenario aim to provide a fully-automated Entropy-based SSD Screening System, to be connected with CBSTs and to be used as a research infrastructure for further refinement of the objectives of our research project.
Hand Rehabilitation Using a 3D Environment and Leap Motion Device
Authors: Nicola Stelian  , Stoicu-Tivadar Lacramioara
Published: February 2025

The paper presents a 3D healthcare informatics support for Hand Rehabilitation after injury. As a novelty, the application uses the Leap Motion sensor for patient's gestures recognition, and videos to illustrate to the users the hand exercise to perform. The implemented application provides feedback to users regarding the correctness of the performed recovery gestures/exercises. The data related to hand rehabilitation is saved in a database and offers to the Medical Rehabilitation Experts the possibility to monitor the patients in a more consistent manner. To assess the efficiency and accuracy of the application the application will be tested following a usability plan.
Structuring Clinical Decision Support Rules for Drug Safety Using Natural Language Processing
Authors: Despotou George  , Korkontzelos Ioannis  , Matragkas Nicholas  , Bilici Eda  , Arvanitis Theodoros N.
Published: February 2025

Drug safety is an important aspect in healthcare, resulting in a number of inadvertent events, which may harm the patients. IT based Clinical Decision Support (CDS), integrated in electronic-prescription or Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems, can provide a means for checking prescriptions for errors. This requires expressing prescription guidelines in a way that can be interpreted by IT systems. The paper uses Natural Language Processing (NLP), to interpret drug guidelines by the UK NICE BNF offered in free text. The employed NLP component, MetaMap, identifies the concepts in the instructions and interprets their semantic meaning. The UMLS semantic types that correspond to these concepts are then processed, in order to understand the concepts that are needed to be implemented in software engineering for a CDS engine.
Telehealth: A Game Changer – Closing the Gap in Remote Indigenous Health in Three Remote Homeland Communities in the Laynhapuy Homelands, East Arnhem, Northern Australia
Authors: St Clair Marianne  , Murtagh David  , Kelly John  , Ford Payi Linda  , Wallace Ruth
Published: February 2025

Benefits of telehealth have been demonstrated both internationally and through local assessments. Early diagnosis and treatment, reduced costs associated with patient travel, minimized time spent away from community and providing improved patient and staff satisfaction are key drivers for using telehealth. Uptake of telehealth in the NT has been limited, for a variety of reasons including inadequate broadband access. Through collaboration between stakeholders, high-end satellites have been deployed in three very remote clinics, uncontended internet provided and telehealth successfully implemented. Face-to-face consultation via video-conferencing, direct supervision and observation of patient examinations, showing patients and families pictures and videos from the internet allowing the supervising GP to demonstrate clearly what the problem is and the treatment required and the use of remote diagnostic systems for patient assessment in acute care is a “game changer” in remote Indigenous health service delivery. Early identification and decision making of malignancies can facilitate earlier intervention with better prognosis for the patient. Through collaboration, this program has demonstrated the value of uncontended and unlimited internet access in implementing telehealth. The question was: Is high quality internet required to improve service delivery? The service recognises the value and now relies heavily on this service and is committed to improving connectivity and implementing telehealth in more of their communities.
Evaluation of Visualisation Techniques for Meaningful Representation of Clinical Classification Data Sets
Authors: Tran Michael  , Ginige Jeewani Anupama  , Boulamatsis Christos
Published: February 2025

In the field of clinical classifications, such as ICD-10 (International Classification of Disease, version 10), there is a transition from paper-based books towards digital systems to have an open process, powered by collaboration. Most clinical classification systems contain massive volume of terms that are hierarchically organised. There are variety of approaches to visualise hierarchical data, in digital systems. In this paper, a selected set of technologies, such as tree views, tree view diagrams, force-directed graphs are investigated to evaluate the suitability of those to accommodate a large clinical classification data sets. Our findings suggest that tree view diagram is the most appropriate technique, due to its ability to accommodate the multi-parent structure of some clinical classifications, and represent large amounts of data in a visually appealing manner.
Learning Health Systems and Laboratory Medicine
Authors: Bietenbeck Andreas  , Prasser Fabian
Published: February 2025

Health systems worldwide struggle to provide the optimal treatment amid the rapid pace of scientific progress and frequent structural changes. Learning health systems (LHS) that continuously analyze their data to generate evidence and to enable informed decisions have been proposed as a possible solution. This paper investigates the involvement of laboratory medicine in LHS and evaluates relevant systems according to their scope, enabling technologies, architecture for evidence generation, data-action latency, and social aspects. While laboratory medicine provides a central source of information in many large-scale LHS, there are also systems with a particular focus on laboratories. For example, external quality assessments are performed by sending samples with known quantities to laboratories worldwide to verify their analytical methods. This data are also analyzed for other purposes, such as post-market surveillance of devices. These schemes have operated successfully over several decades. Newer, innovative tools harvest the possibilities of wearable devices and increased connectivity. LHS in laboratory medicine need to be recognized and incorporated into systems of systems to generate better evidence. Further research on the roles of other stakeholders will identify opportunities and obstacles for building and maintaining successful LHS.