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Fulltext The Role of Neural Network for the Detection of Parkinson's Disease: A Scoping Review

Alzubaidi MS, Shah U, Dhia Zubaydi H, Dolaat K, Abd-Alrazaq AA, Ahmed A, et al.

Healthcare (Basel), 2021 Jun 16;9(6).
PMID: 34208654 DOI: 10.3390/healthcare9060740

Background: Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder that has been ranked second after Alzheimer's disease worldwide. Early diagnosis of PD is crucial to combat against PD to allow patients to deal with it properly. However, there is no medical test(s) available to diagnose PD conclusively. Therefore, computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems offered a better solution to make the necessary data-driven decisions and assist the physician. Numerous studies were conducted to propose CAD to diagnose PD in the early stages. No comprehensive reviews have been conducted to summarize the role of AI tools to combat PD. Objective: The study aimed to explore and summarize the applications of neural networks to diagnose PD. Methods: PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) was followed to conduct this scoping review. To identify the relevant studies, both medical databases (e.g., PubMed) and technical databases (IEEE) were searched. Three reviewers carried out the study selection and extracted the data from the included studies independently. Then, the narrative approach was adopted to synthesis the extracted data. Results: Out of 1061 studies, 91 studies satisfied the eligibility criteria in this review. About half of the included studies have implemented artificial neural networks to diagnose PD. Numerous studies included focused on the freezing of gait (FoG). Biomedical voice and signal datasets were the most commonly used data types to develop and validate these models. However, MRI- and CT-scan images were also utilized in the included studies. Conclusion: Neural networks play an integral and substantial role in combating PD. Many possible applications of neural networks were identified in this review, however, most of them are limited up to research purposes.
Fulltext Role of deep learning in early detection of COVID-19: Scoping review

Alzubaidi M, Zubaydi HD, Bin-Salem AA, Abd-Alrazaq AA, Ahmed A, Househ M

Comput Methods Programs Biomed Update, 2021;1:100025.
PMID: 34345877 DOI: 10.1016/j.cmpbup.2021.100025

BACKGROUND: Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world witnessed disruption on an unprecedented scale affecting our daily lives including but not limited to healthcare, business, education, and transportation. Deep Learning (DL) is a branch of Artificial intelligence (AI) applications, the recent growth of DL includes features that could be helpful in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing such features could support public health efforts.
OBJECTIVE: Investigate the literature available in the use of DL technology to support dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. We summarize the literature that uses DL features to analyze datasets for the purpose of a quick COVID-19 detection.
METHODS: This review follows PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). We have scanned the most two commonly used databases (IEEE, ACM). Search terms were identified based on the target intervention (DL) and the target population (COVID-19). Two authors independently handled study selection and one author assigned for data extraction. A narrative approach is used to synthesize the extracted data.
RESULTS: We retrieved 53 studies and after passing through PRISMA excluding criteria, only 17 studies are considered in this review. All studies used deep learning for detection of COVID-19 cases in early stage based on different diagnostic modalities. Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Transfer Learning (TL) were the most commonly used techniques.
CONCLUSION: The included studies showed that DL techniques has significant impact on early detection of COVID-19 with high accuracy rate. However, most of the proposed methods are still in development and not tested in a clinical setting. Further investigation and collaboration are required from the research community and healthcare professionals in order to develop and standardize guidelines for use of DL in the healthcare domain.
Unlocking the eHealth professionals' career pathways: A case of Gulf Cooperation Council countries

Zakaria N, Zakaria N, Alnobani O, AlMalki M, El-Hassan O, Alhefzi MI, et al.

Int J Med Inform, 2023 Feb;170:104914.
PMID: 36521421 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2022.104914

BACKGROUND: During the past two decades, various sectors and industries have undergone digital transformation. Healthcare is poised to make a full transformation in the near future. Although steps have been taken toward creating an infrastructure for digital health in the Middle East, as it stands, digital health is still an emerging field here. The current global health care crisis has underscoredthe need for digitization of the healthcare sector to provide high-value, high-quality care and knowledge generation. With the advent of digital transformation in countries around the globe, there is a rising demand for investment and innovation in health information technology. With the demand for health informatics (HI) graduates in different disciplines (e.g., healthcare professions, information technology, etc.), there is an urgent need to determine and regulate clear career pathways and the core competencies necessary for digital health professional to practice effectively and to allow technology to add value to the healthcare systems. Given the changing landscape of the profession, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are experiencing a rising demand to produce digital health professionals who can meet the needs of all the stakeholders involved, including patients, healthcare professionals, managers, and policymakers. However, despite the number of region-wide initiatives in the form of training programs, there remains a knowledge-practice gap and unclear job roles within the HI community. In recent years, regional digital health workforce initiatives have been put forward, such as the GCC Taskforce on Workforce Development in Digital Healthcare. The taskforce initiated a survey and several workshops to identify and classify HI disciplines according to the needs of the job market and through comparisons with similar efforts developed across the globe, such as the TIGER project and the EU*US eHealth Work project. Digital health implementation has been flourishing in the Middle East for the past 15 years. During this period, while digital health professions have been thriving in the industry to deliver tools and technologies, academic institutions have offered some amount of training and education in digital health; however, the career pathway for digital health professionals is not clear due to mismatch about the qualifications, skills, competencies and experience needed by the healthcare industry.
OBJECTIVES: Due to this discrepancy between the academic curriculum and the skills needed in the healthcare industry, the objectives of this study are to define the career pathway for eHealth professions and identify the challenges experienced by academic institutions and the industry in describing digital health professionals.
METHODS: We elicited qualitative data by conducting six focus groups with individuals from different professional backgrounds, including healthcare workers, information managers, computer sciences professionals, and workers in the revenue cycle who participated in a workshop on November 2-3, 2019, in Dubai. All focus group sessions were audio-recorded and transcribed, and participants were de-identified before analysis. An exploratory method was used to identify themes and subthemes. Saturation was reached when similar responses were found during the analysis. In this study, we found that respondents clearly defined eHealth career pathways based on criteria that included qualifications, experience, job scope, and competency. We also explored the challenges that the respondents encountered, including differences in the required skill sets and training and the need to standardize the academic curriculum across the GCC region, to recognize the various career pathways, and to develop local training programs. Additionally, country-specific projects have been initiated, such as the competency-based Digital Health framework, which was developed by the Saudi Commission of Healthcare Specialties (SCFHS) in 2018. Competency-based digital health frameworks generally include relevant job definitions, roles, and recommended competencies. Both the GCC taskforce and the Saudi studies capitalized on previous efforts by professional organizations, including Canada's Digital Health formerly known as (COACH), the U.S. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), and the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
RESULTS: In this study, we found that respondents defined eHealth career pathways based on different criteria such as: qualifications; various background of health and IT in the HI field; work experiences; job scope and competency. We also further explore the challenges that the respondents encountered which delineates four key aspects such as need of hybrid skills to manage the digital transformation, need of standardization of academic curriculum across GCC, recognition of the career pathways by the industry in order to open up career opportunity and career advancement, and availability of local training programs for up-skilling the current health workforce.
CONCLUSION: We believe that successful health digital transformation is not limited to technology advancement but requires an adaptive change in: the related competency-based frameworks, the organisation of work and career paths for eHealth professionals, and the development of educational programmes and joint degrees to equip clinicians with understanding of technology, and informaticians with understanding of healthcare. We anticipate that this work will be expanded and adopted by relevant professional and scientific bodies in the GCC region.
Burden of Transport-Related Injuries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

GBD 2017 EMR Transport Injuries Collaborators, Safiri S, Sullman MJM, Lajunen T, Hill T, Almasi-Hashiani A, et al.

Arch Iran Med, 2021 07 01;24(7):512-525.
PMID: 34488316 DOI: 10.34172/aim.2021.74

BACKGROUND: Transport-related injuries (TIs) are a substantial public health concern for all regions of the world. The present study quantified the burden of TIs and deaths in the Eastern Mediterranean region (EMR) in 2017 by sex and age.
METHODS: TIs and deaths were estimated by age, sex, country, and year using Cause of Death Ensemble modelling (CODEm) and DisMod-MR 2.1. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), which quantify the total burden of years lost due to premature death or disability, were also estimated per 100000 population. All estimates were reported along with their corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs).
RESULTS: In 2017, there were 5.5 million (UI 4.9-6.2) transport-related incident cases in the EMR - a substantial increase from 1990 (2.8 million; UI 2.5-3.1). The age-standardized incidence rate for the EMR in 2017 was 787 (UI 705.5-876.2) per 100000, which has not changed significantly since 1990 (-0.9%; UI -4.7 to 3). These rates differed remarkably between countries, such that Oman (1303.9; UI 1167.3-1441.5) and Palestine (486.5; UI 434.5-545.9) had the highest and lowest age-standardized incidence rates per 100000, respectively. In 2017, there were 185.3 thousand (UI 170.8-200.6) transport-related fatalities in the EMR - a substantial increase since 1990 (140.4 thousand; UI 118.7-156.9). The age-standardized death rate for the EMR in 2017 was 29.5 (UI 27.1-31.9) per 100000, which was 30.5% lower than that found in 1990 (42.5; UI 36.8-47.3). In 2017, Somalia (54; UI 30-77.4) and Lebanon (7.1; UI 4.8-8.6) had the highest and lowest age-standardized death rates per 100,000, respectively. The age-standardised DALY rate for the EMR in 2017 was 1,528.8 (UI 1412.5-1651.3) per 100000, which was 34.4% lower than that found in 1990 (2,331.3; UI 1,993.1-2,589.9). In 2017, the highest DALY rate was found in Pakistan (3454121; UI 2297890- 4342908) and the lowest was found in Bahrain (8616; UI 7670-9751).
CONCLUSION: The present study shows that while road traffic has become relatively safer (measured by deaths and DALYs per 100000 population), the number of transport-related fatalities in the EMR is growing and needs to be addressed urgently.
Fulltext Predicting the environmental suitability for onchocerciasis in Africa as an aid to elimination planning

Cromwell EA, Osborne JCP, Unnasch TR, Basáñez MG, Gass KM, Barbre KA, et al.

PLoS Negl Trop Dis, 2021 07;15(7):e0008824.
PMID: 34319976 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008824

Recent evidence suggests that, in some foci, elimination of onchocerciasis from Africa may be feasible with mass drug administration (MDA) of ivermectin. To achieve continental elimination of transmission, mapping surveys will need to be conducted across all implementation units (IUs) for which endemicity status is currently unknown. Using boosted regression tree models with optimised hyperparameter selection, we estimated environmental suitability for onchocerciasis at the 5 × 5-km resolution across Africa. In order to classify IUs that include locations that are environmentally suitable, we used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to identify an optimal threshold for suitability concordant with locations where onchocerciasis has been previously detected. This threshold value was then used to classify IUs (more suitable or less suitable) based on the location within the IU with the largest mean prediction. Mean estimates of environmental suitability suggest large areas across West and Central Africa, as well as focal areas of East Africa, are suitable for onchocerciasis transmission, consistent with the presence of current control and elimination of transmission efforts. The ROC analysis identified a mean environmental suitability index of 0·71 as a threshold to classify based on the location with the largest mean prediction within the IU. Of the IUs considered for mapping surveys, 50·2% exceed this threshold for suitability in at least one 5 × 5-km location. The formidable scale of data collection required to map onchocerciasis endemicity across the African continent presents an opportunity to use spatial data to identify areas likely to be suitable for onchocerciasis transmission. National onchocerciasis elimination programmes may wish to consider prioritising these IUs for mapping surveys as human resources, laboratory capacity, and programmatic schedules may constrain survey implementation, and possibly delaying MDA initiation in areas that would ultimately qualify.
Fulltext Mapping 123 million neonatal, infant and child deaths between 2000 and 2017

Burstein R, Henry NJ, Collison ML, Marczak LB, Sligar A, Watson S, et al.

Nature, 2019 Oct;574(7778):353-358.
PMID: 31619795 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1545-0

Since 2000, many countries have achieved considerable success in improving child survival, but localized progress remains unclear. To inform efforts towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.2-to end preventable child deaths by 2030-we need consistently estimated data at the subnational level regarding child mortality rates and trends. Here we quantified, for the period 2000-2017, the subnational variation in mortality rates and number of deaths of neonates, infants and children under 5 years of age within 99 low- and middle-income countries using a geostatistical survival model. We estimated that 32% of children under 5 in these countries lived in districts that had attained rates of 25 or fewer child deaths per 1,000 live births by 2017, and that 58% of child deaths between 2000 and 2017 in these countries could have been averted in the absence of geographical inequality. This study enables the identification of high-mortality clusters, patterns of progress and geographical inequalities to inform appropriate investments and implementations that will help to improve the health of all populations.
Fulltext Cancer Incidence, Mortality, Years of Life Lost, Years Lived With Disability, and Disability-Adjusted Life Years for 29 Cancer Groups From 2010 to 2019: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Global Burden of Disease 2019 Cancer Collaboration, Kocarnik JM, Compton K, Dean FE, Fu W, Gaw BL, et al.

JAMA Oncol, 2022 Mar 01;8(3):420-444.
PMID: 34967848 DOI: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2021.6987

IMPORTANCE: The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019 (GBD 2019) provided systematic estimates of incidence, morbidity, and mortality to inform local and international efforts toward reducing cancer burden.
OBJECTIVE: To estimate cancer burden and trends globally for 204 countries and territories and by Sociodemographic Index (SDI) quintiles from 2010 to 2019.
EVIDENCE REVIEW: The GBD 2019 estimation methods were used to describe cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in 2019 and over the past decade. Estimates are also provided by quintiles of the SDI, a composite measure of educational attainment, income per capita, and total fertility rate for those younger than 25 years. Estimates include 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs).
FINDINGS: In 2019, there were an estimated 23.6 million (95% UI, 22.2-24.9 million) new cancer cases (17.2 million when excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer) and 10.0 million (95% UI, 9.36-10.6 million) cancer deaths globally, with an estimated 250 million (235-264 million) DALYs due to cancer. Since 2010, these represented a 26.3% (95% UI, 20.3%-32.3%) increase in new cases, a 20.9% (95% UI, 14.2%-27.6%) increase in deaths, and a 16.0% (95% UI, 9.3%-22.8%) increase in DALYs. Among 22 groups of diseases and injuries in the GBD 2019 study, cancer was second only to cardiovascular diseases for the number of deaths, years of life lost, and DALYs globally in 2019. Cancer burden differed across SDI quintiles. The proportion of years lived with disability that contributed to DALYs increased with SDI, ranging from 1.4% (1.1%-1.8%) in the low SDI quintile to 5.7% (4.2%-7.1%) in the high SDI quintile. While the high SDI quintile had the highest number of new cases in 2019, the middle SDI quintile had the highest number of cancer deaths and DALYs. From 2010 to 2019, the largest percentage increase in the numbers of cases and deaths occurred in the low and low-middle SDI quintiles.
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The results of this systematic analysis suggest that the global burden of cancer is substantial and growing, with burden differing by SDI. These results provide comprehensive and comparable estimates that can potentially inform efforts toward equitable cancer control around the world.
Fulltext Global, Regional, and National Cancer Incidence, Mortality, Years of Life Lost, Years Lived With Disability, and Disability-Adjusted Life-Years for 29 Cancer Groups, 1990 to 2017: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study

Global Burden of Disease Cancer Collaboration, Fitzmaurice C, Abate D, Abbasi N, Abbastabar H, Abd-Allah F, et al.

JAMA Oncol, 2019 Dec 01;5(12):1749-1768.
PMID: 31560378 DOI: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2019.2996

IMPORTANCE: Cancer and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are now widely recognized as a threat to global development. The latest United Nations high-level meeting on NCDs reaffirmed this observation and also highlighted the slow progress in meeting the 2011 Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases and the third Sustainable Development Goal. Lack of situational analyses, priority setting, and budgeting have been identified as major obstacles in achieving these goals. All of these have in common that they require information on the local cancer epidemiology. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study is uniquely poised to provide these crucial data.
OBJECTIVE: To describe cancer burden for 29 cancer groups in 195 countries from 1990 through 2017 to provide data needed for cancer control planning.
EVIDENCE REVIEW: We used the GBD study estimation methods to describe cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs). Results are presented at the national level as well as by Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income, educational attainment, and total fertility rate. We also analyzed the influence of the epidemiological vs the demographic transition on cancer incidence.
FINDINGS: In 2017, there were 24.5 million incident cancer cases worldwide (16.8 million without nonmelanoma skin cancer [NMSC]) and 9.6 million cancer deaths. The majority of cancer DALYs came from years of life lost (97%), and only 3% came from years lived with disability. The odds of developing cancer were the lowest in the low SDI quintile (1 in 7) and the highest in the high SDI quintile (1 in 2) for both sexes. In 2017, the most common incident cancers in men were NMSC (4.3 million incident cases); tracheal, bronchus, and lung (TBL) cancer (1.5 million incident cases); and prostate cancer (1.3 million incident cases). The most common causes of cancer deaths and DALYs for men were TBL cancer (1.3 million deaths and 28.4 million DALYs), liver cancer (572 000 deaths and 15.2 million DALYs), and stomach cancer (542 000 deaths and 12.2 million DALYs). For women in 2017, the most common incident cancers were NMSC (3.3 million incident cases), breast cancer (1.9 million incident cases), and colorectal cancer (819 000 incident cases). The leading causes of cancer deaths and DALYs for women were breast cancer (601 000 deaths and 17.4 million DALYs), TBL cancer (596 000 deaths and 12.6 million DALYs), and colorectal cancer (414 000 deaths and 8.3 million DALYs).
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The national epidemiological profiles of cancer burden in the GBD study show large heterogeneities, which are a reflection of different exposures to risk factors, economic settings, lifestyles, and access to care and screening. The GBD study can be used by policy makers and other stakeholders to develop and improve national and local cancer control in order to achieve the global targets and improve equity in cancer care.