Chatting Beyond ChatGPT: Advancing Equity Through AI-Driven Language Interpretation.

Medical interpretation is an underutilized resource, despite its legal mandate and proven efficacy in improving health outcomes for populations with low English proficiency. This disconnect can often be attributed to the costs and wait-times associated with traditional means of interpretation, making the service inaccessible and burdensome. Technology has improved access to translation through phone and video interpretation; with the acceleration of artificial intelligence (AI) large language models, we have an opportunity to further improve interpreter access through real-time, automated translation. The impetus to utilize this burgeoning tool for improved health equity must be combined with a critical view of the safety, privacy, and clinical decision-making risks involved. Physicians must be active participants and collaborators in both the mobilization of AI tools to improve clinical care and the development of regulations to mitigate harm.

The Consortium on Vulnerability to Externalizing Disorders and Addictions (c-VEDA): an accelerated longitudinal cohort of children and adolescents in India.

The global burden of disease attributable to externalizing disorders such as alcohol misuse calls urgently for effective prevention and intervention. As our current knowledge is mainly derived from high-income countries such in Europe and North-America, it is difficult to address the wider socio-cultural, psychosocial context, and genetic factors in which risk and resilience are embedded in low- and medium-income countries. c-VEDA was established as the first and largest India-based multi-site cohort investigating the vulnerabilities for the development of externalizing disorders, addictions, and other mental health problems. Using a harmonised data collection plan coordinated with multiple cohorts in China, USA, and Europe, baseline data were collected from seven study sites between November 2016 and May 2019. Nine thousand and ten participants between the ages of 6 and 23 were assessed during this time, amongst which 1278 participants underwent more intensive assessments including MRI scans. Both waves of follow-ups have started according to the accelerated cohort structure with planned missingness design. Here, we present descriptive statistics on several key domains of assessments, and the full baseline dataset will be made accessible for researchers outside the consortium in September 2019. More details can be found on our website [cveda.org].

Mapping movement, mood, motivation and mentation in the subthalamic nucleus.

The anatomical connections of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) have driven hypotheses about its functional anatomy, including the hypothesis that the precise anatomical location of STN deep brain stimulation (DBS) contributes to the variability of motor and non-motor responses across patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). We previously tested the hypothesis using a three-dimensional (3D) statistical method to interpret the acute effects of unilateral DBS at each patient's clinically optimized DBS settings and active contact. Here, we report a similar analysis from a new study in which DBS parameters were standardized and DBS locations were chosen blind to clinical response. In 74 individuals with PD and STN DBS, STN contacts were selected near the dorsal and ventral borders of the STN contralateral to the more affected side of the body. Participants were tested off PD medications in each of three unilateral DBS conditions (ventral STN DBS, dorsal STN DBS and DBS off) for acute effects on mood, apathy, working memory, response inhibition and motor function. Voltage, frequency and pulse width were standardized, and participants and raters were blind to condition. In a categorical analysis, both dorsal and ventral STN DBS improved mean motor function without affecting cognitive measures. Ventral STN DBS induced greater improvement in rigidity and anxiety than dorsal STN DBS. In the 3D analysis, contact location was significant for body hypokinesia, rigidity and resting tremor, with the greatest improvement occurring with DBS in dorsal STN and zona incerta. The 3D results provide new, direct functional evidence for the anatomically derived model of STN, in which motor function is best represented in dorsal STN. However, our data suggest that functional segregation between motor and non-motor areas of the STN is limited, because locations that induced improvements in motor function and mood overlapped substantially.