A global perspective on data powering responsible AI solutions in health applications.

Healthcare AI solutions have the potential to transform access, quality of care, and improve outcomes for patients globally. This review suggests consideration of a more global perspective, with a particular focus on marginalized communities, during the development of healthcare AI solutions. The review focuses on one aspect (medical applications) to allow technologists to build solutions in today's environment with an understanding of the challenges they face. The following sections explore and discuss the current challenges in the underlying data and AI technology design on healthcare solutions for global deployment. We highlight some of the factors that lead to gaps in data, gaps around regulations for the healthcare sector, and infrastructural challenges in power and network connectivity, as well as lack of social systems for healthcare and education, which pose challenges to the potential universal impacts of such technologies. We recommend using these considerations in developing prototype healthcare AI solutions to better capture the needs of a global population.

Prepregnancy Protein Source and BCAA Intake Are Associated with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus in the CARDIA Study.

Diet quality and protein source are associated with type 2 diabetes, however relationships with GDM are less clear. This study aimed to determine whether prepregnancy diet quality and protein source are associated with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Participants were 1314 Black and White women without diabetes, who had at least one birth during 25 years of follow-up in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) cohort study. The CARDIA A Priori Diet Quality Score (APDQS) was assessed in the overall cohort at enrollment and again at Year 7. Protein source and branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) intake were assessed only at the Year 7 exam (n = 565). Logistic regression analysis was used to determine associations between prepregnancy dietary factors and GDM. Women who developed GDM (n = 161) were more likely to have prepregnancy obesity and a family history of diabetes (p < 0.05). GDM was not associated with prepregnancy diet quality at enrollment (Year 0) (odds ratio [OR]: 1.01; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.99, 1.02) or Year 7 (odds ratio [OR]: 0.97; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.94, 1.00) in an adjusted model. Conversely, BCAA intake (OR:1.59, 95% CI 1.03, 2.43) and animal protein intake (OR: 1.06, 95% CI 1.02, 1.10) as a proportion of total protein intake, were associated with increased odds of GDM, while proportion of plant protein was associated with decreased odds of GDM (OR: 0.95, 95% CI 0.91, 0.99). In conclusion, GDM is strongly associated with source of prepregnancy dietary protein intake but not APDQS in the CARDIA study.

Effectiveness of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination Against Penile HPV Infection in Men Who Have Sex With Men and Transgender Women.

BACKGROUND: In the United States, human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination has been recommended since 2011 for boys aged 11-12 years, with catch-up vaccination recommended through age 26 years for previously unvaccinated men who have sex with men (MSM). METHODS: During 2016-2018, a cross-sectional study enrolled MSM and transgender women aged 18-26 years in Seattle, Washington. Participants submitted self-collected penile swab specimens for HPV genotyping. HPV vaccination history was self-reported. We compared HPV prevalence among vaccinated participants with that in participants with no or unknown vaccination history, using log-binomial regression to estimate adjusted prevalence ratios and confidence intervals. RESULTS: Among 687 participants, 348 (50.7%) self-reported ever receiving ≥1 HPV vaccine dose; the median age at first HPV vaccination was 21 years, and the median age at first sex, 17 years. Overall, the prevalence of penile quadrivalent HPV vaccine (4vHPV)-type HPV was similar in vaccinated participants (12.1%) and participants with no or unknown vaccination (15.6%) (adjusted prevalence ratio, 0.69 [95% confidence interval, .47-1.01]). However, the prevalence was significantly lower in participants vaccinated at age ≤18 years than in those with no of unknown vaccination (0.15 [.04-.62]), corresponding to a vaccine effectiveness of 85% against 4vHPV-type HPV. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that HPV vaccination is effective in preventing penile HPV infections in young MSM when administered at age ≤18 years.

Event loading drives distribution of the organochlorine pesticide metabolite DDE in a sub-tropical river system, Brisbane River, Australia.

Past catchment practices can contribute to environmental impacts for decades following their cessation. We examine the distribution of the prevalent organochlorine pesticide, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its metabolites (DDE, DDD) in the sediments of a sub-tropical river system (Brisbane River, Australia). This study aimed to identify sources of DDT, DDE, DDD into the lower reaches of the Brisbane River. Annual sediment sampling of the lower Brisbane River over a period of 15 years (2001-2015) revealed a significant increase in sediment DDT, DDE and DDD content following major floods. A regional survey detected elevated sediment DDT, DDE and DDD content at 32 of 79 sites sampled; however, these were generally below guideline trigger values. DDE was the sole fraction at all but one site with creek systems dominated by intensive cropping practices identified as legacy sources and major flood events as a driver of elevated sediment DDE content in the lower reaches.

Basking shark sub-surface behaviour revealed by animal-towed cameras.

While biologging tags have answered a wealth of ecological questions, the drivers and consequences of movement and activity often remain difficult to ascertain, particularly marine vertebrates which are difficult to observe directly. Basking sharks, the second largest shark species in the world, aggregate in the summer in key foraging sites but despite advances in biologging technologies, little is known about their breeding ecology and sub-surface behaviour. Advances in camera technologies holds potential for filling in these knowledge gaps by providing environmental context and validating behaviours recorded with conventional telemetry. Six basking sharks were tagged at their feeding site in the Sea of Hebrides, Scotland, with towed cameras combined with time-depth recorders and satellite telemetry. Cameras recorded a cumulative 123 hours of video data over an average 64-hour deployment and confirmed the position of the sharks within the water column. Feeding events only occurred within a metre depth and made up ¾ of the time spent swimming near the surface. Sharks maintained similar tail beat frequencies regardless of whether feeding, swimming near the surface or the seabed, where they spent surprisingly up to 88% of daylight hours. This study reported the first complete breaching event and the first sub-surface putative courtship display, with nose-to-tail chasing, parallel swimming as well as the first observation of grouping behaviour near the seabed. Social groups of sharks are thought to be very short term and sporadic, and may play a role in finding breeding partners, particularly in solitary sharks which may use aggregations as an opportunity to breed. In situ observation of basking sharks at their seasonal aggregation site through animal borne cameras revealed unprecedented insight into the social and environmental context of basking shark behaviour which were previously limited to surface observations.

Rotavirus Vaccination Likely to Be Cost Saving to Society in the United States.

BACKGROUND: Following the introduction of rotavirus immunization in 2006 in the United States, there were substantial declines in the domestic rotavirus disease burden. In this study, we assess the value for money achieved by the program in the decade following vaccine introduction. METHODS: We applied an age-specific, static, multicohort compartmental model to examine the impact and cost-effectiveness of the US rotavirus immunization program in children <5 years of age using healthcare utilization data from 2001 to 2015 inclusive. We calculated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained from both a healthcare system and societal perspective. RESULTS: Declines in healthcare use associated with the rotavirus and acute gastroenteritis occurred from 2006 and continued to grow before stabilizing from 2010 through 2011. From 2011 to 2015, an estimated annual average of approximately 118 000 hospitalizations, 86 000 emergency department presentations, and 460 000 outpatient and physician office visits were prevented. From a societal perspective during this same period, the program was estimated to be cost saving in the base case model and in >90% of probabilistic sensitivity analysis simulations and from a healthcare system perspective >98% of simulations found an ICER below $100 000 per QALY gained. CONCLUSIONS: After the program stabilized, we found the rotavirus immunization in the United States was likely to have been cost saving to society. The greater than expected healthcare and productivity savings reflect the success of the rotavirus immunization program in the United States.

Characterizing managing physicians by claims sequences in episodes of care.

Value-based healthcare in the US is a payment structure that ties reimbursement to quality rather than volume alone. One model of value-based care is the Tennessee Division of TennCare's Episodes of Care program, which groups common health conditions into episodes using specified time windows, medical code sets and quality metrics as defined in each episode's Detailed Business Requirements [1,2]. Tennessee's program assigns responsibility for an episode to a managing physician, presenting a unique opportunity to study physician variability in cost and quality within these structured episodes. This paper proposes a pipeline for analysis demonstrated using a cohort of 599 Outpatient and Non-Acute Inpatient Cholecystectomy episodes managed by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee in 2016. We sorted episode claims by date of service, then calculated the pairwise Levenshtein distance between all episodes. Next, we adjusted the resulting matrix by cost dissimilarity and performed agglomerative clustering. We then examined the lowest and highest average episode cost clusters for patterns in cost and quality. Our results indicate that the facility type where the surgery takes place is important: outpatient ambulatory care center for the lowest cost cluster, and hospital operating room for the highest cost cluster. Average patient risk scores were higher in the highest cost cluster than the lowest cost cluster. Readmission rate (a quality metric tied to managing physician performance) was low for the whole cohort. Lastly, we explain how our analytical pipeline can be generalized and extended to domains beyond Episodes of Care.

High resolution biologging of breaching by the world's second largest shark species.

Basking sharks, the world's second largest fish, are endangered globally following two centuries of large-scale exploitation for their oily livers. In the northeast Atlantic, they seasonally gather in key sites, including the western Scottish Isles, where they feed on plankton, but their breeding grounds are currently completely unknown. Using high-resolution three-axis accelerometry and depth logging, we present the first direct records of breaching by basking sharks over 41 days. We show that basking sharks breach both during the night and day, starting at approximately 20 m depth and can breach multiple times in short succession. We also present early evidence of potential lateralisation in basking sharks. Given the energetic nature of breaching, it should have an important biological function, but this remains unclear.

Burden of Norovirus in the United States, as Estimated Based on Administrative Data: Updates for Medically Attended Illness and Mortality, 2001-2015.

BACKGROUND: Up-to-date estimates of the burden of norovirus, a leading cause of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in the United States, are needed to assess the potential value of norovirus vaccines in development. We aimed to estimate the rates, annual counts, and healthcare charges of norovirus-associated ambulatory clinic encounters, emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalizations, and deaths in the United States. METHODS: We analyzed administrative data on AGE outcomes from 1 July 2001 through 30 June 2015. Data were sourced from IBM MarketScan Commercial and Medicare Supplemental Databases (ambulatory clinic and ED visits), the Healthcare Utilization Project National Inpatient Sample (hospitalizations), and the National Center for Health Statistics multiple-cause-of-mortality data (deaths). Outcome data (ambulatory clinic and ED visits, hospitalizations, or deaths) were summarized by month, age group, and setting. Healthcare charges were estimated based on insurance claims. Monthly counts of cause-unspecified gastroenteritis-associated outcomes were modeled as functions of cause-specified outcomes, and model residuals were analyzed to estimate norovirus-associated outcomes. Healthcare charges were estimated by applying average charges per cause-unspecified gastroenteritis encounter to the estimated number of norovirus encounters. RESULTS: We estimate 900 deaths (95% confidence interval [CI], 650-1100), 109 000 hospitalizations (95% CI, 80 000-145 000), 465 000 ED visits (95% CI, 348 000-610 000), and 2.3 million ambulatory clinic encounters (95% CI, 1.7-2.9 million) annually due to norovirus, with an associated $430-$740 million in healthcare charges. CONCLUSIONS: Norovirus causes a substantial health burden in the United States each year, and an effective vaccine could have important public health impact.

Vaccine Effectiveness Against Prevalent Anal and Oral Human Papillomavirus Infection Among Men Who Have Sex With Men-United States, 2016-2018.

BACKGROUND: In the United States, human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination has been recommended for young adult men who have sex with men (MSM) since 2011. METHODS: The Vaccine Impact in Men study surveyed MSM and transgender women aged 18-26 years in 3 US cities during 2016-2018. Self-collected anal swab and oral rinse specimens were assessed for 37 types of HPV. We compared HPV prevalence among vaccinated and unvaccinated participants and determined adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Among 1767 participants, 704 (39.8%) self-reported receiving HPV vaccine. Median age at vaccination (18.7 years) was older than age at first sex (15.7 years). Quadrivalent vaccine-type HPV was detected in anal or oral specimens from 475 (26.9%) participants. Vaccine-type HPV prevalence was lower among vaccinated (22.9%) compared with unvaccinated (31.6%) participants; aPR for those who initiated vaccination at age ≤18 years was 0.41 (CI, 0.24-0.57) and at age >18 years was 0.82 (CI, 0.67-0.98). Vaccine effectiveness of at least 1 HPV vaccine dose at age ≤18 years or >18 years was 59% and 18%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest real-world effectiveness of HPV vaccination among young adult MSM. This effect was stronger with younger age at vaccination.

Estimation of Severe Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Cases in the Middle East, 2012-2016.

Using data from travelers to 4 countries in the Middle East, we estimated 3,250 (95% CI 1,300-6,600) severe cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome occurred in this region during September 2012-January 2016. This number is 2.3-fold higher than the number of laboratory-confirmed cases recorded in these countries.

Multifacility Outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in Taif, Saudi Arabia.

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a novel respiratory pathogen first reported in 2012. During September 2014-January 2015, an outbreak of 38 cases of MERS was reported from 4 healthcare facilities in Taif, Saudi Arabia; 21 of the 38 case-patients died. Clinical and public health records showed that 13 patients were healthcare personnel (HCP). Fifteen patients, including 4 HCP, were associated with 1 dialysis unit. Three additional HCP in this dialysis unit had serologic evidence of MERS-CoV infection. Viral RNA was amplified from acute-phase serum specimens of 15 patients, and full spike gene-coding sequencing was obtained from 10 patients who formed a discrete cluster; sequences from specimens of 9 patients were closely related. Similar gene sequences among patients unlinked by time or location suggest unrecognized viral transmission. Circulation persisted in multiple healthcare settings over an extended period, underscoring the importance of strengthening MERS-CoV surveillance and infection-control practices.

Evaluation of Patients under Investigation for MERS-CoV Infection, United States, January 2013-October 2014.

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) cases continue to be reported from the Middle East. Evaluation and testing of patients under investigation (PUIs) for MERS are recommended. In 2013-2014, two imported cases were detected among 490 US PUIs. Continued awareness is needed for early case detection and implementation of infection control measures.

Update on the epidemiology of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection, and guidance for the public, clinicians, and public health authorities - January 2015.

CDC continues to work with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners to closely monitor Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infections globally and to better understand the risks to public health. The purpose of this report is to provide a brief update on MERS-CoV epidemiology and to notify health care providers, public health officials, and others to maintain awareness of the need to consider MERS-CoV infection in persons who have recently traveled from countries in or near the Arabian Peninsula.