Cattle aggregations at shared resources create potential parasite exposure hotspots for wildlife.

Globally rising livestock populations and declining wildlife numbers are likely to dramatically change disease risk for wildlife and livestock, especially at resources where they congregate. However, limited understanding of interspecific transmission dynamics at these hotspots hinders disease prediction or mitigation. In this study, we combined gastrointestinal nematode density and host foraging activity measurements from our prior work in an East African tropical savannah system with three estimates of parasite sharing capacity to investigate how interspecific exposures alter the relative riskiness of an important resource - water - among cattle and five dominant herbivore species. We found that due to their high parasite output, water dependence and parasite sharing capacity, cattle greatly increased potential parasite exposures at water sources for wild ruminants. When untreated for parasites, cattle accounted for over two-thirds of total potential exposures around water for wild ruminants, driving 2-23-fold increases in relative exposure levels at water sources. Simulated changes in wildlife and cattle ratios showed that water sources become increasingly important hotspots of interspecific transmission for wild ruminants when relative abundance of cattle parasites increases. These results emphasize that livestock have significant potential to alter the level and distribution of parasite exposures across the landscape for wild ruminants.

Corrigendum to "Biomedical and health informatics teaching in Portugal: Current status" [Heliyon 9(3) (March 2023) e14163].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14163.].

Predicting Mortality in COVID-19 Patients Using 6 Machine Learning Algorithms.

In late 2019, COVID-19 appeared and has since spread worldwide as the new pandemic, causing more than 6 million deaths. In dealing with this global crisis, the contribution of Artificial Intelligence was also important through the possibilities of creating predictive models through Machine Learning algorithms, which are already successfully applied to solving a multitude of problems, for many scientific fields. This work aims to find the best model for predicting the mortality of patients with COVID-19, through the comparison of 6 classification algorithms, i.e. Logistic Regression, Decision Trees, Random Forest, eXtreme Gradient Boosting, Multi-Layer Perceptrons, K-Nearest Neighbors. We used a dataset containing more than 12 million cases which was cleansed, modified, and tested for each model. The best model is XGBoost (Precision: 0.93764, Recall: 0.95472, F1-score: 0.9113, AUC_ROC: 0.97855 and Runtime: 6.67306 sec), which is recommended for the prediction and priority treatment of patients with high mortality risk.

SNA: The Optimal Nodes to Raise Nurses' Infosec Awareness.

Social Network Analysis (SNA) can promote Infosec awareness. A sample of 164 nurses selected the most trusted actors to get Infosec updates. UCINET 6 and NetDraw were used for mapping and PSPP 1.6.2 was used for data analysis. Nurses tend to trust managers, colleagues and IT professionals for retrieving Infosec updates.

The User, the Watch, and the Bestseller: Study on the Utilization of Smart Medical Wearables and Their User Manuals.

In this paper, we present a study on the utilization of smart medical wearables and the user manuals of such devices. A total of 342 individuals provided input for 18 questions that address user behavior in the investigated context and the connections between various assessments and preferences. The presented work clusters individuals based on their professional relation to user manuals and analyzes the obtained results separately for these groups.

Web and Mobile Enabled Application for Public Health Inspections.

This work aims to promote and improve Public Health practices by creating an Information System (IS) to register health inspections performed in health stores by the Public Health Inspectors of the Health Departments of Regions in Greece. The IS was implemented based on open-source programming languages and frameworks. The front end was implemented by JavaScript and Vue.js framework, and the back end by Python and Django.

A Conversational Web-Based Chatbot to Disseminate COVID-19 Advisory Information.

Chatbots are computer programs which integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies to simulate human conversation. The use of chatbots has significantly been increased during the COVID-19 pandemic to support healthcare procedures and systems. The purpose of this study is to present the design, implementation, and initial evaluation of a web-based conversational chatbot aiming at the immediate and reliable information regarding the COVID-19 disease. The implementation of the chatbot was built on IBM's Watson Assistant. The chatbot "Iris" that was created is highly developed with the ability to support dialogue, since it has a satisfactory understanding of the relevant subject matter. The system was pilot evaluated using the University of Ulster's Chatbot Usability Questionnaire (CUQ). The results confirmed its usability and that Chatbot "Iris" is a pleasant experience for users. Finally, the related study's limitations and future steps are discussed.

Digital Transformation Efforts in Greece: Evaluation of the E-Prescription System.

In recent years, Greece has made efforts towards digital transformation. The most significant was the installation and use of eHealth systems and applications by health professionals. The purpose of this study is to investigate the views of physicians on the usefulness, ease of use and user satisfaction of the eHealth applications and especially the e-prescription system. Data were collected by using a 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire. The study indicated that the usefulness, ease of use and user satisfaction of eHealth applications: a)are rated at moderate levels and b) are not affected by characteristics such as gender, age, education, years of practicing the medical profession, the type of medical practice and the use of different electronic applications.

AI Techniques to Identify Nerve Cell Alterations in Digital Images.

Artificial intelligence (AI), utilising computing power, has managed to influence the health sector with many applications based on algorithms, tools, and automated processes. In this work, neuronbiological images acquired by an electronic microscope are assessed under appropriate image processing to identify areas of interest. The algorithmic steps identified the alterations of nerve cells that appeared as areas in the red channel of each digital image.

Health Informatics Training Programs to Strengthen Health Workforce in Montenegro.

Health informatics plays a crucial role in modern healthcare provision. Training and continuous education are essential to bolster the healthcare workforce on health informatics. In this work, we present the training events within EU-funded DigNest project. The aim of the training events, the subjects offered, and the overall evaluation of the results are described in this paper.

Train Digital Entrepreneurship on Health Informatics in Western Balkan Countries.

The BeWell@Digital project aims to improve Western Balkans' youth mental health by empowering them through digital education, peer-to-peer counselling services, and employment opportunities in the digital working arena. The Greek Biomedical Informatics and Health Informatics Association developed six teaching sessions about Health literacy and digital entrepreneurship, each comprising a teaching text, presentation, lecture video, and multiple-choice exercises, as part of this project. These sessions aim to improve counsellors' knowledge of technology and their ability to utilise it efficiently.

Montenegrin Digital Academic Innovation Hub: Supporting Digital Education, Business and Innovations in Medical Informatics.

This poster presents a Montenegrin Digital Academic Innovation Hub aimed to support education, innovations, and academia-business cooperation in medical informatics (as one of four priority areas) at national level in Montenegro. The Hub topology and its organisation in the form of two main nodes, with services established within key pillars: Digital Education; Digital Business Support; Innovations and cooperation with industry; and Employment support.

MedSecurance Project: Advanced Security-for-Safety Assurance for Medical Device IoT (IoMT).

The MedSecurance project focus on identifying new challenges in cyber security with focus on hardware and software medical devices in the context of emerging healthcare architectures. In addition, the project will review best practice and identify gaps in the guidance, particularly the guidance stipulated by the medical device regulation and directives. Finally, the project will develop comprehensive methodology and tooling for the engineering of trustworthy networks of inter-operating medical devices, that shall have security-for-safety by design, with a strategy for device certification and certifiable dynamic network composition, ensuring that patient safety is safeguarded from malicious cyber actors and technology "accidents".

InfoSec Practices - a Survey Conducted in Greek Hospitals.

Background: Langerhans The information technology is present in every aspect of private, social, and professional sphere and is constantly evolving whilst remaining vulnerable to security alerts and attacks. The healthcare sector contains sensitive information and can be compromised causing even fatal delays to healthcare delivery, loss of reputation of the organizations, and traumatic experiences for patients who might be stigmatized by the disclosure of their medical files. Infosec practices that are applied by nurses can make the difference in defending or compromising healthcare data. Objective: The aim of this research is to investigate the Infosec practices which are applied by nurses who work in Greek hospitals. Correlation between the Infosec practices, the knowledge on Infosec policies, and attitude towards Infosec policies will be further examined. Methods: The KAP model is applied and the HAIS-Q tool consisted of 45 items in five areas of interest was used. A sample of 277 nurses was collected. Confidentiality issues and consent were respected. IBM SPSS 25.0 was used for the statistical analysis. Descriptive analysis (mean, st. dev.) and inferential statistics, ANOVA, and Pearson Corerelations were conducted. The significance level was set up to 0.05. Results: A strong correlation between knowledge on Infosec policies and attitude towards Infosec policies, attitude towards Infosec policies and Infosec practices, and knowledge on Infosec policies and Infosec practices was established. Nurses apply good Infosec practices in three out of five areas of interest, while their practices concerning the report of security violations and their practices related to the Internet usage are average. Overall, nurses' Infosec awareness is good. Conclusion: The findings showed that nurses demonstrate average to good knowledge on Infosec policies, good attitude towards Infosec policies, good to average Infosec practices and good total Infosec awareness.The most vulnerable area is the Internet usage.

Biomedical and health informatics teaching in Portugal: Current status.

Background: The domain of Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI) lies in the intersection of multiple disciplines, making it difficult to define and, consequently, characterise the workforce, training needs and requirements in this domain. Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, there isn't any aggregated information about the higher education programmes in BMHI currently being delivered in Portugal, and which knowledge, skills, and competencies these programmes aim to develop. Aim: Our aim is to map BMHI teaching in Portugal. More specifically, our objective is to identify and characterise the: a.) programmes delivering relevant BMHI teaching; b.) geographical distribution and chronological evolution of such programmes; and c.) credit distribution and weight. Methods: We conducted a descriptive, cross-sectional study to systematically identify all programmes currently delivering any core BMHI modules in Portugal. Our population included all graduate-level programmes being delivered in the 2021/2022 academic year in any Portuguese higher education institution. Results: We identified 23 programmes delivering relevant teaching in BMHI in Portugal. Of these, eight (35%) were classified as dedicated educational programmes in BMHI, mostly delivered in polytechnic institutes at a master's level (5; 63%) and located preferentially in the northern part of the country (7). Currently, there are four programmes with potential for accreditation but still requiring some workload increase in certain areas in order to be eligible.

Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on Education in Biomedical and Health Informatics: Second Revision.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of educational recommendations is to assist in establishing courses and programs in a discipline, to further develop existing educational activities in the various nations, and to support international initiatives for collaboration and sharing of courseware. The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) has published two versions of its international recommendations in biomedical and health informatics (BMHI) education, initially in 2000 and revised in 2010. Given the recent changes to the science, technology, the needs of the healthcare systems, and the workforce of BMHI, a revision of the recommendations is necessary. OBJECTIVE: The aim of these updated recommendations is to support educators in developing BMHI curricula at different education levels, to identify essential skills and competencies for certification of healthcare professionals and those working in the field of BMHI, to provide a tool for evaluators of academic BMHI programs to compare and accredit the quality of delivered programs, and to motivate universities, organizations, and health authorities to recognize the need for establishing and further developing BMHI educational programs. METHOD: An IMIA taskforce, established in 2017, updated the recommendations. The taskforce included representatives from all IMIA regions, with several having been involved in the development of the previous version. Workshops were held at different IMIA conferences, and an international Delphi study was performed to collect expert input on new and revised competencies. RESULTS: Recommendations are provided for courses/course tracks in BMHI as part of educational programs in biomedical and health sciences, health information management, and informatics/computer science, as well as for dedicated programs in BMHI (leading to bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree). The educational needs are described for the roles of BMHI user, BMHI generalist, and BMHI specialist across six domain areas - BMHI core principles; health sciences and services; computer, data and information sciences; social and behavioral sciences; management science; and BMHI specialization. Furthermore, recommendations are provided for dedicated educational programs in BMHI at the level of bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. These are the mainstream academic programs in BMHI. In addition, recommendations for continuing education, certification, and accreditation procedures are provided. CONCLUSION: The IMIA recommendations reflect societal changes related to globalization, digitalization, and digital transformation in general and in healthcare specifically, and center on educational needs for the healthcare workforce, computer scientists, and decision makers to acquire BMHI knowledge and skills at various levels. To support education in BMHI, IMIA offers accreditation of quality BMHI education programs. It supports information exchange on programs and courses in BMHI through its Working Group on Health and Medical Informatics Education.

A Personal Odyssey in Health Informatics: The Journey to Ithaca.

The aim of this paper is to share knowledge and experiences of a professional lifetime in the field of Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI), almost from the time of the initiation of the domain until today. The achievements and the milestones reached are not personal, but they just indicate the progress of the field as it was experienced by the observer. The challenges are still there waiting to be tackled for the benefit of healthcare. The paper is based on a systematic review of the author's published contributions across the professional timeline. For organizing the presentation of the results, the timeline is subdivided into five phases. In the discussion an aggregation of the achievements, milestones, and the challenges is presented.

The Development and Evaluation of an Anti-Phishing E-Learning Intervention for Nurses.

Interactive games can be included in e-learning and train users to avoid web phishing. A multimodal educational intervention consisted of a serious game was developed in order to train nurses about phishing on Internet and was evaluated by experts and end users. The system was considered acceptable and can be used as an interesting learning resource for self-regulated learning. Future research will focus on evaluating the effectiveness of the educational intervention.