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Visit-to-visit (VVV) blood pressure variability (BPV) is associated with cardiovascular disease. However, in practice, BPV at sequential clinic visits is often regarded as mere random fluctuations and frequently under-appreciated by the clinicians. Therefore, this meta-analysis aims to compare the effect size of VVV BPV on cardiovascular outcome, by comparing studies that have used the electronic health record (EHR) and non-EHR data. The pooled hazard ratio for VVV BPV is comparable between studies using EHR and non-EHR data. Studies using EHR reported a pooled hazard ratio (HR) for VVV systolic BPV of 1.22 (95% CI: 1.07-1.38), while non-EHR studies had a HR of 1.16 (95% CI: 1.10-1.22). The pooled HR for VVV diastolic BPV in EHR studies was 1.09 (95% CI: 0.86-1.39), whereas non-EHR studies showed a HR of 1.10 (95% CI: 1.04-1.17). EHR data is a reliable source for assessing BPV, which in turn can predict the CVD outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statin is a group of lipid/cholesterol-lowering medications that is commonly used for primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). In Australia, this is the first line of pharmacological therapy for CVD risk management. High-risk patients who do not adhere to lipid-modifying medicines have an increased risk of CVD mortality, hospitalization, and revascularization. However, studies show that 67% of patients are non-adherent to statins. As such, improving statin adherence through various strategies is very important. This literature review delves into the studies from the past 10 years to identify the various strategies used and their effectiveness to improve statin adherence. The initial search results on PubMed showed 157 articles and based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 7 articles were finally used for this review. The patients in the studies were identified through electronic health records. The findings suggest that education, counselling and motivation through face-to-face interaction, phone calls or text messages, reminder messages and frequent follow-up visits are good strategies to improve statin adherence. Alongside these, simplifying regimens, switching combinations of medicines, or using alternate dosing have also been shown to improve statin adherence. In summary, counselling and face-to-face interaction are effective methods for improving statin adherence. The use of electronic health record (EHR) systems combined with targeted interventions delivered to patients identified to be non-adherent to statin may further improve statin adherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visit-to-visit blood pressure variability (BPV) is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD), independently of mean blood pressure (BP). However, in real world clinical practice, this phenomenon is frequently considered as random fluctuation. This review aimed to investigate the differences among studies investigating visit-to-visit BPV and CVD using electronic health record (EHR) and clinical trial data. Our review suggests that BP values in clinical trial data are derived using a stricter protocol compared to EHR data. Furthermore, there was no consensus on metrics used in estimation of BPV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unstructured electronic health records are valuable resources for research. Before they are shared with researchers, protected health information needs to be removed from these unstructured documents to protect patient privacy. The main steps involved in removing protected health information are accurately identifying sensitive information in the documents and removing the identified information. To keep the documents as realistic as possible, the step of omitting sensitive information is often followed by replacement of identified sensitive information with surrogates. In this study, we present an algorithm to generate surrogates for unstructured electronic health records. We used this algorithm to generate realistic surrogates on a Health Science Alliance corpus, which is constructed specifically for the use of development of automated de-identification systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unstructured electronic health records are valuable resources for research. Before they are shared with researchers, protected health information needs to be removed from these unstructured documents to protect patient privacy. The main steps involved in removing protected health information are accurately identifying sensitive information in the documents and removing the identified information. To keep the documents as realistic as possible, the step of omitting sensitive information is often followed by replacement of identified sensitive information with surrogates. In this study, we present an algorithm to generate surrogates for unstructured electronic health records. We used this algorithm to generate realistic surrogates on a Health Science Alliance corpus, which is constructed specifically for the use of development of automated de-identification systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UNSW WHO Collaborating Centre (WHOCC) in eHealth was established in 2013. Its designated activities are: mHealth and evidence-based evaluation, including use case analyses. The UNSW Yunus Social Business Health Hub (YSBHH), established in 2015 to build on the Yunus Centre/Grameen Bank eHealth initiatives, added social business and community participation dimensions to the UNSW global eHealth program. The Grameen Bank is a social business built around microcredit, which are small loans to poor people to enable them to "produce something, sell something, earn something to develop self-reliance and a life of dignity". The vision revolves around global partnerships for development, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The scope includes mHealth implementation and evaluation in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT), with a growing focus on social business and citizen engagement approaches. This paper summarises a critical case study of the UNSW WHOCC (eHealth) designated activities in collaboration with Bangladesh institutions (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDRB) and Yunus Centre). Issues and challenges are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the world, bodies representing health informatics or promoting health informatics are either societies of common interest or universities with health informatics courses/departments. Professional colleges in Health Informatics (similar to the idea of professional colleges in other health fields) are few and far between. The Australasian College of Health Informatics has been in existence since 2001, and has an increasing membership of nearly 100 fellows and members, acting as a national focal point for the promotion of Health Informatics in Australasia. Describing the activities of the college, this article demonstrates a need for increasing professionalization of Health informatics beyond the current structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disease registries derived from Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are widely used for chronic disease management. We approached registries from the perspective of integrated care in a health neighbourhood, considering data quality issues such as semantic interoperability (consistency), accuracy, completeness and duplication. Our proposition is that a realist ontological approach is required to accurately identify patients in an EHR or data repository, assess data quality and fitness for use by the multidisciplinary integrated care team. We report on this approach with routinely collected data in a practice based research network in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data quality plays a very important role in predicting clinical outcomes. Data quality is multi dimensional and most relevant studies consider just one or two dimensions. In this study a systematic data quality assessment is performed using four data dimensions. The results demonstrate that performance of predictive models improves when the quality of the data is assessed and addressed systematically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]