JMIR research protocols
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JMIR research protocols · Aug 2017
Automating Construction of Machine Learning Models With Clinical Big Data: Proposal Rationale and Methods.
To improve health outcomes and cut health care costs, we often need to conduct prediction/classification using large clinical datasets (aka, clinical big data), for example, to identify high-risk patients for preventive interventions. Machine learning has been proposed as a key technology for doing this. Machine learning has won most data science competitions and could support many clinical activities, yet only 15% of hospitals use it for even limited purposes. Despite familiarity with data, health care researchers often lack machine learning expertise to directly use clinical big data, creating a hurdle in realizing value from their data. Health care researchers can work with data scientists with deep machine learning knowledge, but it takes time and effort for both parties to communicate effectively. Facing a shortage in the United States of data scientists and hiring competition from companies with deep pockets, health care systems have difficulty recruiting data scientists. Building and generalizing a machine learning model often requires hundreds to thousands of manual iterations by data scientists to select the following: (1) hyper-parameter values and complex algorithms that greatly affect model accuracy and (2) operators and periods for temporally aggregating clinical attributes (eg, whether a patient's weight kept rising in the past year). This process becomes infeasible with limited budgets. ⋯ Auto-ML will generalize to various clinical prediction/classification problems. With minimal help from data scientists, health care researchers can use Auto-ML to quickly build high-quality models. This will boost wider use of machine learning in health care and improve patient outcomes.
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JMIR research protocols · Aug 2017
A Mobile Device App to Reduce Medication Errors and Time to Drug Delivery During Pediatric Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: Study Protocol of a Multicenter Randomized Controlled Crossover Trial.
During pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), vasoactive drug preparation for continuous infusions is complex and time-consuming. The need for individual specific weight-based drug dose calculation and preparation places children at higher risk than adults for medication errors. Following an evidence-based and ergonomic driven approach, we developed a mobile device app called Pediatric Accurate Medication in Emergency Situations (PedAMINES), intended to guide caregivers step-by-step from preparation to delivery of drugs requiring continuous infusion. In a prior single center randomized controlled trial, medication errors were reduced from 70% to 0% by using PedAMINES when compared with conventional preparation methods. ⋯ This paper describes the protocol used for a clinical trial assessing the impact of a mobile device app to reduce the rate of medication errors, time to drug preparation, and time to drug delivery during pediatric resuscitation. As research in this area is scarce, results generated from this study will be of great importance and might be sufficient to change and improve the pediatric emergency care practice.
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JMIR research protocols · Aug 2017
mHealth Technologies for Palliative Care Patients at the Interface of In-Patient to Outpatient Care: Protocol of Feasibility Study Aiming to Early Predict Deterioration of Patient's Health Status.
Palliative care patients are a particularly vulnerable population and one of the critical phases in patients' trajectories is discharge from specialized in-patient palliative care into outpatient care, where availability of a palliative care infrastructure is highly variable. A relevant number of potentially avoidable readmissions and emergency visits of palliative patients is observed due to rapid exacerbation of symptoms indicating the need for a closer patient monitoring. In the last years, different mHealth technology applications have been evaluated in many different patient groups. ⋯ Our project will deliver relevant data on patients' acceptance of activity and social tracking and test the correlation between subjective symptom assessment and objective activity in the vulnerable population of palliative care patients. The proposed study is meant to be preparatory work for an intervention study to test the effect of wireless monitoring of palliative care patients on symptom control and quality of life.
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JMIR research protocols · Aug 2017
Opening the Black Box of Electronic Health: Collecting, Analyzing, and Interpreting Log Data.
In electronic health (eHealth) research, limited insight has been obtained on process outcomes or how the use of technology has contributed to the users' ability to have a healthier life, improved well-being, or activate new attitudes in their daily tasks. As a result, eHealth is often perceived as a black box. To open this black box of eHealth, methodologies must extend beyond the classic effect evaluations. ⋯ Finally, we describe methods for data analysis and draw a conclusion regarding the importance of the results for both scientific and practical applications. The analysis of log data can be of great value for opening the black box of eHealth. A deliberate log data analysis can give new insights into how the usage of the technology contributes to found effects and can thereby help to improve the persuasiveness and effectiveness of eHealth technology and the underpinning behavioral models.
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JMIR research protocols · Aug 2017
Combination Analgesic Development for Enhanced Clinical Efficacy (CADENCE Trial): Study Protocol for a Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Crossover Trial of an Alpha-Lipoic Acid - Pregabalin Combination for the Treatment of Fibromyalgia Pain.
Fibromyalgia is a clinical disorder commonly presenting with chronic widespread pain as well as sleep disturbance, fatigue, depression, and cognitive dysfunction. There is an urgent need for treatment strategies that provide better pain relief and fewer adverse effects (AEs). Efforts to develop rational combinations of specific fibromyalgia treatments have demonstrated potential for measurable improvements in pain relief, quality of life, and health care utilization. More than half of fibromyalgia patients receive 2 or more analgesics but current combination use is based on limited evidence. As an early proof-of-concept project from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research-Strategy on Patient-Oriented Research Chronic Pain Network, this trial protocol is expected to advance the field by rigorously evaluating a new treatment combination for fibromyalgia. ⋯ This trial will provide rigorous evidence comparing the efficacy of a PGB-ALA combination to PGB alone and ALA alone in the treatment of fibromyalgia.