Health Informatics via Machine Learning for the Clinical Management of Patients.

OBJECTIVES: To review how health informatics systems based on machine learning methods have impacted the clinical management of patients, by affecting clinical practice. METHODS: We reviewed literature from 2010-2015 from databases such as Pubmed, IEEE xplore, and INSPEC, in which methods based on machine learning are likely to be reported. We bring together a broad body of literature, aiming to identify those leading examples of health informatics that have advanced the methodology of machine learning. While individual methods may have further examples that might be added, we have chosen some of the most representative, informative exemplars in each case. RESULTS: Our survey highlights that, while much research is taking place in this high-profile field, examples of those that affect the clinical management of patients are seldom found. We show that substantial progress is being made in terms of methodology, often by data scientists working in close collaboration with clinical groups. CONCLUSIONS: Health informatics systems based on machine learning are in their infancy and the translation of such systems into clinical management has yet to be performed at scale.

Sodium-dependent relaxation in arterial smooth muscle.

1. The effects of isosmotic substitution of choline for sodium on resting tension and on relaxation after noradrenaline-induced contraction was studied in rabbit isolated aortic strips immersed in Hepes-buffered physiologic salt solution (PSS) warmed to 37 degrees C and gassed with 100% O2. 2. Isosmotic substitution of choline for sodium produced a sustained increase in resting tension which effectively prevented any evaluation of the influence of sodium on relaxation. The increase in resting tension was insensitive to 10(-8) mol/l atropine but was abolished by 10 min exposure to calcium-free PSS prior to replacement of sodium. 3. Under sodium-calcium free conditions which eliminated the increase in resting tension observed in sodium-free PSS, stimulation with 10(-5) mol/l noradrenaline initiated contractions that were 55 +/- 7.5% of the control response in normal PSS. Washout of noradrenaline with sodium-calcium-free PSS failed to produce any decrement in tension. However, restoration of the normal sodium resulted in gradual relaxation. 4. These results suggest that sodium is required for relaxation after noradrenaline-induce contraction of arterial smooth muscle.