Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2002
Performance evaluation of artificial intelligence classifiers for the medical domain.
The application of artificial intelligence systems is still not widespread in the medical field, however there is an increasing necessity for these to handle the surfeit of information available. One drawback to their implementation is the lack of criteria or guidelines for the evaluation of these systems. ⋯ This paper shows evidence that the most prevalent form of intelligent system, neural networks, is generally not being evaluated rigorously regarding classification precision. A taxonomy of the types of evaluation tests that can be carried out, to gauge inherent performance of the outputs of intelligent systems has been assembled, and the results of this presented in a clear and concise form, which should be applicable to all intelligent classifiers for medicine.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2002
The incidence of idiopathic scoliosis in Greece--analyais of domestic school screening programs.
The aim of the study is the documentation of the national incidence of idiopathic scoliosis (IS) based on the School Screening programs performed at the various geographical departments of the country, and the estimation of the probable number of children who will need to be conservatively or surgically treated. ⋯ From data of 1998 national census, the population of children aged 8 to 14 years old was approximately 751000. With the above -mentioned datum and with a national mean scoliosis incidence of 2.9%, (Cobb angle > or = 10 degrees), 21781 children will be found with scoliosis. 980 will need conservative treatment using a brace while 41 children will need surgical treatment.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2001
3D visualization and stereographic techniques for medical research and education.
While computers have been able to work with true 3D models for a long time, the same does not apply to the users in common. Over the years, a number of 3D visualization techniques have been developed to enable a scientist or a student, to see not only a flat representation of an object, but also an approximation of its Z-axis. In addition to the traditional flat image representation of a 3D object, at least four established methodologies exist: Stereo pairs. ⋯ While the system requires very expensive hardware, it solves some of the more important problems mentioned above, such as the capacity to use higher frame rates and the ability to display images to a large audience. Mednet has instigated a research project which uses reconstructed models from the central nervous system (human brain and basal ganglia, cortex, dendrites and dendritic spines) and peripheral nervous system (nodes of Ranvier and axoplasmic areas). The aim is to modify the models to fit the different visualization techniques mentioned above and compare a group of users perceived degree of 3D for each technique.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2001
Sharable computer-based clinical practice guidelines: rationale, obstacles, approaches, and prospects.
Clinical practice guideline automation at the point of care is of growing interest, yet most guidelines are authored in unstructured narrative form. Computer-based execution depends on a formal structured representation, and also faces a number of other challenges at all stages of the guideline lifecycle: modeling, authoring, dissemination, implementation, and update. This is because of the multiplicity of conceptual models, authoring tools, authoring approaches, intended applications, implementation platforms, and local interface requirements and operational constraints. ⋯ Because of limitations in what can be done by a single team with finite resources, however, and the variety of additional perspectives that need to be accommodated, the InterMed team has determined that further development of a shared representation would be best served as an open process in which the world community is engaged. Under the auspices of the HL7 Decision Support Technical Committee, a GLIF Special Interest Group has been established, which is intended to be a forum for collaborative refinement and extension of a standard representation that can support the needs of the guideline lifecycle. Significant areas for future work will need to include demonstrations of effective means for incorporating guide-lines at point of care, reconciliation of functional requirements of different models and identification of those most important for supporting practical implementation, im-proved means for authoring and management of complexity, and methods for automatically analyzing and validating syntax, semantics, and logical consistency of guidelines.