One of the primary challenges faced by telehealth systems is the accurate transmission of patient information to remote doctors. In this context, portable medical sensors deployed at the remote patients' end play a crucial role in measuring vital information. There are many sensors available in the market. However, the accuracy of the sensors has been always a concern. The objective of this study is to verify different sensors and create awareness for using accurate sensors to avoid misdiagnosis for the patients’ safety.
This study considered the test result of a Japanese clinical pathology laboratory as the reference gold standard. The clinical pathology laboratory uses 1) Hexokinase UV method for blood glucose, 2) Enzymatic Determination method for cholesterol, 3) Automatic Analyzer (EDTA-2 K) of Hemoglobin, and 4) Uricase POD method for uric acid. To assess the performance of a medical sensor, its test results were compared to the gold standard test results obtained from the laboratory using the same sample. A Normalized Root Mean Square Error (NRMSE) threshold of less than 0.2 was established as the criterion for determining whether the medical sensor's performance fell within an acceptable range.
Among the eight most commonly used blood glucose devices in the Asian market, only one device was deemed acceptable with NRMSE less than 0.2. However, all four devices found in the Japanese market showed their acceptability. In the case of cholesterol, hemoglobin, and uric acid devices, only a limited number of items were available in Asian markets. Some of the hemoglobin and uric acid devices were found to be somewhat acceptable, while all the cholesterol sensors were found erroneous.
This study has clearly shown the issues with the portable medical sensors and recommends the device approval authority of each country to approve sales of the quality sensors only for patients’ safety.
Several therapeutic combinations are available for the treatment of advanced gastric cancer (AGC). It is unclear which combinations are most beneficial to the patients. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of Tegafur/ gimeracil/ oteracil (S-1) plus oxaliplatin (S-1OX) with capecitabine plus oxaliplatin (CAPOX) in patients with AGC.
Relevant randomized controlled trials were searched in MEDLINE, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library (CENTRAL), two major Chinese biomedical databases (CBM, CNKI), and registry centers until July 22, 2019, with no language restrictions. Data were extracted for overall response rate (ORR), time to progression (TTP), overall survival time (OST), and toxicity. The systematic review was performed according to the recommendations of the Cochrane collaboration. RevMan 5.3.1 was used for statistical analysis.
A total of 6 randomized controlled trials involving 911 patients were included. The quality of the trials was less than 3 points. All the trials demonstrated a significantly improved toxicity (hand-foot syndrome and neuropathy) in the S-1OX trials (p < 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) between S-1OX versus CAPOX in terms of ORR, OST, TTP. Any of the subgroup analyses did not exhibit heterogeneity, so the fixed-effects model be used to execute the subgroup meta-analysis.
Both S-1OX and CAPOX showed similar efficacy for treatment of AGC. However, S1-OX appeared to present less toxicity in terms of hand-foot syndrome and neuropathy as compared to CAPOX.
Shear wave (SW) elastography is an ultrasound imaging modality that provides quantitative viscoelastic measurements of tissue. The phase difference method allows for local estimation of viscoelasticity by computing the dispersion curve using phases from two laterally-spaced pixels. However, this method is sensitive to measurement noise in the estimated SW particle velocities. Hence, we propose the delayed matrix pencil method to investigate this problem, and validated its feasibility both in-silico and in-vitro. The performance was compared with the original phase difference method and other two alternative techniques based on lowpass filtering and discrete wavelet transform denoising. The estimated viscoelastic values are summarized in box plots and followed by statistical analysis. Results from both studies show the proposed method to be more robust to noise with the smallest interquartile range in both elasticity and viscosity.
Public health surveillance systems play a crucial role in detecting and responding to disease outbreaks. Visualizations of surveillance data are important for decision-making, but little attention has been paid to the usability and interaction of such systems. In this paper, we developed a set of 10 heuristics to assess the visualization and usability of public health surveillance systems. The heuristics cover aspects of perception, cognition, and interaction. The perception deals with how the system looks in the first glance and whether it has pleasant effect on the user or otherwise. Cognition deals with the question of whether enough information is provided to use the system, while usability and interaction deal with whether the system is user-friendly in terms of the tools provided for interaction and use. We recruited a panel of experts to evaluate a set of systems using our heuristics. Results showed that there was variation in the scores of the experts' assessments, indicating the importance of multiple expert evaluations. Our heuristics provide a practical and comprehensive tool for assessing the visualization and usability of public health surveillance systems, which can lead to improved decision-making and ultimately better public health outcomes. The results suggest that the heuristic based evaluation through a panel of experts can provide meaningful results and insights into the usability aspects of public health systems. The results suggest that for some systems there can be agreement in terms of evaluation while for some other systems the experts’ opinions can vary based on the weightage and importance each expert gives to a particular aspect.
Clinical prediction is integral to modern healthcare, leveraging current and historical medical data to forecast health outcomes. The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in this field significantly enhances diagnostic accuracy, treatment planning, disease prevention, and personalised care leading to better patient outcomes and healthcare efficiency.
This systematic review implemented a structured four-step methodology, including an extensive literature search in academic databases (PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar), applying specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, data extraction focusing on AI techniques and their applications in clinical prediction, and a thorough analysis of the collected information to understand AI's roles in enhancing clinical prediction.
Through the analysis of 74 experimental studies, eight key domains, where AI significantly enhances clinical prediction, were identified: (1) Diagnosis and early detection of disease; (2) Prognosis of disease course and outcomes; (3) Risk assessment of future disease; (4) Treatment response for personalised medicine; (5) Disease progression; (6) Readmission risks; (7) Complication risks; and (8) Mortality prediction. Oncology and radiology come on top of the specialties benefiting from AI in clinical prediction.
The review highlights AI's transformative impact across various clinical prediction domains, including its role in revolutionising diagnostics, improving prognosis accuracy, aiding in personalised medicine, and enhancing patient safety. AI-driven tools contribute significantly to the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare delivery.
AI's integration in clinical prediction marks a substantial advancement in healthcare. Recommendations include enhancing data quality and accessibility, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, focusing on ethical AI practices, investing in AI education, expanding clinical trials, developing regulatory oversight, involving patients in the AI integration process, and continuous monitoring and improvement of AI systems.

