Linguistic analysis of large-scale medical incident reports for patient safety.

The analysis of medical incident reports is indispensable for patient safety. The cycles between analysis of incident reports and proposals to medical staffs are a key point for improving the patient safety in the hospital. Most incident reports are composed from freely written descriptions, but an analysis of such free descriptions is not sufficient in the medical field. In this study, we aim to accumulate and reinterpret findings using structured incident information, to clarify improvements that should be made to solve the root cause of the accident, and to ensure safe medical treatment through such improvements. We employ natural language processing (NLP) and network analysis to identify effective categories of medical incident reports. Network analysis can find various relationships that are not only direct but also indirect. In addition, we compare bottom-up results obtained by NLP with existing categories based on experts' judgment. By the bottom-up analysis, the class of patient managements regarding patients' fallings and medicines in top-down analysis is created clearly. Finally, we present new perspectives on ways of improving patient safety.

The 6th Asia cancer forum: what should we do to place cancer on the global health agenda? Sharing information leads to human security.

This forum discussed issues relating to the inclusion of cancer on the global health agenda, with the ultimate aim of achieving human security for all people. The forum discussed what methods are available to the cancer community in attempts to create a common data system for the rapidly growing Asian region. Discussions also focused on the preparations that can be made to consider and respond to the obstacles to the creation of an Asia-wide data and information network. It was also noted that in order to create a cancer information network, support would need to be provided to low- and middle-income countries and efforts made to ensure that data are comparable.

Analysis of data captured by barcode medication administration system using a PDA; aiming at reducing medication errors at point of care in Japanese Red Cross Kochi Hospital.

Preventing medication errors by using a barcode administration system has become prevalent in patient safety. Analyses of data captured by bar code systems provide opportunities to understand the actual situation at the point of care. Our study aims at understanding issues of medication safety as well as investigating measures taken to prevent medication accidents, by analyzing data captured by a bar code system and a personal digital assistant (PDA). The barcode administration system named Point-of-Act-System implemented in Japanese Red Cross Kochi Hospital was designed to capture every activity at the bedside. Complete activity data captured by the system, which included injections, treatment and other nursing activity, as well as injection warning data, were used for our analyses. We describe the data and analyze them statistically to find potentially times of risk and to ascertain the relation between busyness and error. The injection warning rate as a whole was 6.1% on average. The results showed there was a negative correlation between the number of injections given and the injection warning rate (-0.48, p<0.05). The warning rate was low during the hours when a large number of injections were administered. The data also showed that a variation in activities being performed has a negative effect on medication safety. A bar code administration system is quite an effective way not only to prevent medication error at point of care, but also to improve patient safety through analyses of data captured by such a system.

Risk management and measuring productivity with POAS--point of act system.

The concept of our system is not only to manage material flows, but also to provide an integrated management resource, a means of correcting errors in medical treatment, and applications to EBM through the data mining of medical records. Prior to the development of this system, electronic processing systems in hospitals did a poor job of accurately grasping medical practice and medical material flows. With POAS (Point of Act System), hospital managers can solve the so-called, "man, money, material, and information" issues inherent in the costs of healthcare. The POAS system synchronizes with each department system, from finance and accounting, to pharmacy, to imaging, and allows information exchange. We can manage Man, Material, Money and Information completely by this system. Our analysis has shown that this system has a remarkable investment effect - saving over four million dollars per year - through cost savings in logistics and business process efficiencies. In addition, the quality of care has been improved dramatically while error rates have been reduced - nearly to zero in some cases.

New potent accelerator of neurite outgrowth from Lawsonia inermis flower under non-fasting condition.

The methanolic extract of Lawsonia inermis L. (henna) showed accelerative effects on nerve growth factor-induced neurite outgrowth in PC12 cells under non-fasting conditions. To elucidate the active constituents responsible for the neuronal differentiation, we conducted a search of the constituents and examined their accelerative effects on neurite outgrowth in PC12 cells. We isolated a new acetophenone glycoside, inermioside A, which exerted a significant accelerative effect on neurite outgrowth. We also confirmed the activities of nine known compounds, including quercetin and lalioside. In addition, we found that quercetin, one of the active constituents, increased Vav3 mRNA expression.

Complete genome sequence of the first isolate of genotype C bovine parainfluenza virus type 3 in Japan.

Bovine parainfluenza virus type 3 (BPIV3) isolates are classified into three genotypes (BPIV3a to -c). Here, we report the complete genome sequence of the BPIV3c isolate for the first time in Japan. Our results indicate that new primer sets will be required to detect all genotypes of BPIV3 strains.

Statistical text classifier to detect specific type of medical incidents.

WHO Patient Safety has put focus to increase the coherence and expressiveness of patient safety classification with the foundation of International Classification for Patient Safety (ICPS). Text classification and statistical approaches has showed to be successful to identifysafety problems in the Aviation industryusing incident text information. It has been challenging to comprehend the taxonomy of medical incidents in a structured manner. Independent reporting mechanisms for patient safety incidents have been established in the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong etc. This research demonstrates the potential to construct statistical text classifiers to detect specific type of medical incidents using incident text data. An illustrative example for classifying look-alike sound-alike (LASA) medication incidents using structured text from 227 advisories related to medication errors from Global Patient Safety Alerts (GPSA) is shown in this poster presentation. The classifier was built using logistic regression model. ROC curve and the AUC value indicated that this is a satisfactory good model.

Detecting effective classes of medical incident reports based on linguistic analysis for common reporting system in Japan.

The analysis of medical incident reports is indispensable for patient safety. Most incident reports are composed from freely written descriptions, but an analysis of such free descriptions is not sufficient in the medical field. In this study, we aim to conduct new findings using incident information, to clarify improvements that should be made to solve the root cause of an accident, and to ensure safe medical treatment through such improvements. We employed natural language processing (NLP) and network analysis to identify effective classes of medical incident reports. Network analysis can find various relationships that are not only direct but also indirect. After that, we compared the clustering results between Jichi Medical University and Osaka City University Hospital. By finding the common and different parts in medical incident report' s classes, we could show new perspectives on proposing a common reporting systems in Japan for improving patient safety.

Information technology for patient safety.

BACKGROUND: Research on patient care has identified substantial variations in the quality and safety of healthcare and the considerable risks of iatrogenic harm as significant issues. These failings contribute to the high rates of potentially avoidable morbidity and mortality and to the rising levels of healthcare expenditure seen in many health systems. There have been substantial developments in information technology in recent decades and there is now real potential to apply these technological developments to improve the provision of healthcare universally. Of particular international interest is the use of eHealth applications. There is, however, a large gap between the theoretical and empirically demonstrated benefits of eHealth applications. While these applications typically have the technical capability to help professionals in the delivery of healthcare, inadequate attention to the socio-technical dimensions of their use can result in new avoidable risks to patients. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Given the current lack of evidence on quality and safety improvements and on the cost-benefits associated with the introduction of eHealth applications, there should be a focus on implementing more mature technologies; it is also important that eHealth applications should be evaluated against a comprehensive and rigorous set of measures, ideally at all stages of their application life cycle.

Making existing technology safer in healthcare.

BACKGROUND: Technology, equipment and medical devices are vital for effective healthcare throughout the world but are associated with risks. These risks include device failure, inappropriate use, insufficient user-training and inadequate inspection and maintenance. Further risks within the developing world include challenging conditions of temperature and humidity, poor infrastructure, poorly trained service providers, limited resources and supervision, and inappropriately complex equipment being supplied without backup training for its use or maintenance. METHODS: This document is the product of an expert working group established by WHO Patient Safety to define the measures being taken to reduce these risks. It considers how the provision of safer technology services worldwide is being enhanced in three ways: through non-punitive and open reporting systems of technology-related adverse events and near-misses, with classification and investigation; through healthcare quality assessment, accreditation and certification; and by the investigation of how appropriate design and an understanding of the conditions of use and associated human factors can improve patient safety. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Many aspects of these steps remain aspirational for developing countries, where highly disparate needs and a vast range of technology-related problems exist. Here, much greater emphasis must be placed on failsafe, durable and user-friendly design--examples of which are described.