RESUMO
Background: Standard ontologies are critical for interoperability and multisite analyses of health data. Nevertheless, mapping concepts to ontologies is often done with generic tools and is labor-intensive. Contextualizing candidate concepts within source data is also done in an ad hoc manner. Methods and Results: We present AnnoDash, a flexible dashboard to support annotation of concepts with terms from a given ontology. Text-based similarity is used to identify likely matches, and large language models are used to improve ontology ranking. A convenient interface is provided to visualize observations associated with a concept, supporting the disambiguation of vague concept descriptions. Time-series plots contrast the concept with known clinical measurements. We evaluated the dashboard qualitatively against several ontologies (SNOMED CT, LOINC, etc.) by using MIMIC-IV measurements. The dashboard is web-based and step-by-step instructions for deployment are provided, simplifying usage for nontechnical audiences. The modular code structure enables users to extend upon components, including improving similarity scoring, constructing new plots, or configuring new ontologies. Conclusion: AnnoDash, an improved clinical terminology annotation tool, can facilitate data harmonizing by promoting mapping of clinical data. AnnoDash is freely available at https://github.com/justin13601/AnnoDash (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8043943).
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: In July 2021, Vermont removed all criminal penalties for possessing 224mg or less of buprenorphine. METHODS: Vermont residents (N=474) who used illicit opioid drugs or received treatment for opioid use disorder in the past 90 days were recruited for a mixed-methods survey on the health and criminal legal effects of decriminalization. Topics assessed included: motivations for using non-prescribed buprenorphine, awareness of and support for decriminalization, and criminal legal system experiences involving buprenorphine. We examined the frequencies of quantitative measures and qualitatively summarized themes from free-response questions. RESULTS: Three-quarters of respondents (76%) reported lifetime use of non-prescribed buprenorphine. 80% supported decriminalization, but only 28% were aware buprenorphine was decriminalized in Vermont. Respondents described using non-prescribed buprenorphine to alleviate withdrawal symptoms and avoid use of other illicit drugs. 18% had been arrested while in buprenorphine, with non-White respondents significantly more likely to report such arrests (15% v 33%, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Decriminalization of buprenorphine may reduce unnecessary criminal legal system involvement, but its health impact was limited by low awareness at the time of our study.
