MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'data:'. Tue, 04 May 2010 18:20:38 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3526797&cid=t_345798_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F05%2F03%2Fmental-health-statistics%2F May is Mental Health Month again, so it’s also a good time to review the mental health statistics behind mental illness. Some of the statistics going around aren’t entirely accurate, because they’re based upon outdated web pages on the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) website. This misinformation is then propagated by well-meaning people and organizations, including NAMI and others. Sadly, the NIMH website is not as accurate or up-to-date as people like to think it is (I think that because it’s a government resource, people just assume it’s accurate and correct). For instance, the NIMH Statistics page puts data into context of 2004 Census data. Well, it’s 2010, not 2004, and we have more up-to-date Census data. Also according to the more recent... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3526797 Mon, 03 May 2010 14:45:34 +0100 3526797 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3526896&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2Feh2LjAImkOU%2F Bradford Cross writes about datasets and data-driven startups. The entire post is full of nuggets, but one bit jumped out at me. Brad writes Data preprocessing, transformation, and systems engineering are normally the bulk of the work for data and research driven problems – all the more so when you are collecting data from disparate sources rather than using your own internal data When I wrote about Atul Butte’s talk at Sage Congress, this was where I was coming from. Bioinformaticians spend a lot of time dealing with data, and the transformation, etc needed to do with data coming from different sources. When you have a lot of publicly available data around, you have to be very good at the data handling and systems engineering. But once you overcome those barriers, you can star... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3526896 Sun, 02 May 2010 23:39:06 +0100 3526896 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3519624&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FAeGRxNfbGnM%2F The other day, I had the chance to see a great talk by Benjamin Black on how Cassandra handles replication and consistency. Slides by themselves do not do the talk justice, especially as there was a lot of great Q&A as well, but I think you’ll get a sense of how a good partition tolerant distributed system is set up. Introduction to Cassandra: Replication and Consistency View more presentations from benjaminblack. Related articles by Zemanta Scaling Twitter with Cassandra (slideshare.net) Cassandra reading list (spyced.blogspot.com) (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules) business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3519624 Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:31:22 +0100 3519624 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3505071&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F-qLG_UxCPrY%2F I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something is amiss. On the other hand, something tells me that we are closer to an idea of a world with tools and components that can be assembled together by smart people in various ways. You could use something like GenePattern or Galaxy as a framework to embed these tools, or use Pipeline Pilot or Taverna. To build good science data platforms, we need to leverage abstractions. What is key is making sure that every layer of abstraction can successfully read and write from the one below and with other entities in the same layer. You have the algorithm developers, the platforms, the APIs and eventually the applications and analysis tools. You need a rich ecosystem of algorithm developers, data scientists (aka bioinformaticians) and software deve... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3505071 Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:00:52 +0100 3505071 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3504954&cid=t_345798_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F04%2F26%2Ftop-25-psychiatric-drugs-in-2009%2F A few years back, we published the Top 20 Psychiatric Prescriptions for 2005. Four years later and we thought it’s about high time we updated that list with the help of the healthcare intelligence firm IMS Health, which tracks prescription data in the U.S. We published the new list this morning, Top 25 Psychiatric Prescriptions for 2009. There’s a few interesting observations we can make based upon this data and the intervening four year span between the two lists. First, anti-anxiety medications like Xanax, Valium and Ativan remain some of the most commonly prescribed psychiatric medications. And it’s no wonder — they are fast-acting and have a short half-life, meaning their effects typically wear off in a few hours. Xanax remains the most commonly prescribed psych... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3504954 Mon, 26 Apr 2010 12:35:14 +0100 3504954 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3502928&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FjqaFjwIK1Z0%2F At the Sage Congress, one of my favorite talks was one that Atul Butte gave on using publicly-available data. I have long thought that actually performing microarray gene expression experiments would go away, since there will be sufficient compendia and public data available that can be used for doing all kinds of useful science. Atul’s talk drove that point home with some authority. His premise was that there is a lot of public data out there and while it may not always be perfect, smart people can use this data to do a lot of interest things, such as identifying data-driven candidate genes. In other words, use the data to find candidates and then drill down into the science. His other example was work by Joel Dudley (who happens to be sitting next to me as I type this), creating a ... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3502928 Sat, 24 Apr 2010 19:19:39 +0100 3502928 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3490798&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovermagazine.com%2Fgnxp%2F2010%2F04%2Fdaily-data-dump-tuesday%2F Cultural innovation, Pleistocene environments and demographic change. Gene-culture coevolution gurus Peter Richerson and Robert Boyd argue that climatic fluctuations may work to the advantage of humans because of the adaptive flexibility inherent in a cultural species. Common versus rare variants, again. Some skepticism of the new exhortation to look for rare variants of large effect instead of common variants of more modest effect. This sort of posturing by biologists strikes me as similar to what happens in social science (to a great extent all of what falls under the rubric of sociology seems to be posturing with doctorates). Does this happen in the physical sciences? Sean Carroll Talks School Science and Time Travel. I wonder when he’s going to stop being asked about how he got t... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3490798 Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:05:19 +0100 3490798 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3487186&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fhow-will-web-coupons-affect-your-personal-health-information Stephanie Clifford's story in the New York Times tells how the massive, under-the-radar data mining industry just hammered the one of the last nails into the coffin of online "privacy". In case you are naïve enough to imagine you have any privacy at all online - this story proves you have none.   How will "web coupons" affect your personal health information, from prescriptions to DNA to diagnoses?   (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3487186 Tue, 20 Apr 2010 15:26:20 +0100 3487186 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3487286&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovermagazine.com%2Fgnxp%2F2010%2F04%2Fdaily-data-dump-monday%2F Why religion can lead to racism. I think the correlations are real, but am skeptical of the causation because I think think the correlation is cultural-specific. For example, my personal experience with Muslims is that those who espouse the most “Fundamentalist” world views are the least racist. The contrast with white American Protestants probably emerges from the fact that white American Protestants and Arab Muslims have had very different recent histories (if Arab Muslims want a racial ideology, they had a good candidate in secular Baathism. Some of the same applies to Turks and Persians, who got on the 20th century racial-nationalist bandwagon, as evident in the attempt by the Shah to emphasize Iran’s Aryan antecedents, while Ataturk funded research on the racial char... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3487286 Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:14:15 +0100 3487286 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3487288&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovermagazine.com%2Fgnxp%2F2010%2F04%2F1980-2000-the-age-of-death%2F Poking around the GSS for another reason I stumbled onto something weird. Something which I’d seen hints of, or seen referred to before, but never followed up myself. It seems that support for abortion-on-demand and the death penalty peaked concurrently in the span between 1980-2000. This is evident in two GSS variables, ABANY and CAPPUN, which ask if you support a woman’s right to an abortion for any reason and the death penalty for murder. Additionally, I decided to look at attitudes toward homosexuality using HOMOSEX as a reference as a point of contrast. Unlike abortion or the death penalty attitudes toward homosexuality have been changing in the same direction for the past 30 years. Additionally, the magnitude of the change seems to be much greater than in regards to the o... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3487288 Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:49:26 +0100 3487288 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3483119&cid=t_345798_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2Fn8a0zw8SdUY%2F A California assemblyman was forced to shelve a bill that would have limited the sale of patient prescription records for marketing purposes because he couldn’t muster the necessary votes, The Californian reports. Although Assemblyman Bill Monning, a Democrat from Carmel, says he may reintroduce his bill in January if he can generate enough support. “We’re going to use this time frame to build more support and do more outreach,” Monning tells the Californian. He pulled the bill just before it was to go to a vote last week in the Assembly’s Committee on Health after realizing he didn’t have enough votes lined up. “We didn’t have the time to cultivate members’ understandings of the issues. There’s some intricacies.” The bill r... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3483119 Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:52:24 +0100 3483119 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3480780&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=38272&url=http%3A%2F%2Flaikaspoetnik.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F04%2F17%2Fsilly-saturday-22-a-picture-is-worth-a-1000-words%2F This post is my submission for the Grand Rounds to be hosted at Sterile Eye. This upcoming edition has the theme VISUAL COMMUNICATION. You know I love visualizations, they are so easy to understand. No lengthy post here, because a picture is worth a 1000 words….. ————————————— I 250lbs versus 120 lbs The body scans side by side of 250 lb. woman [...] (Source: Laika's MedLibLog) Laika's MedLibLog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3480780 Sat, 17 Apr 2010 16:15:57 +0100 3480780 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3479837&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovermagazine.com%2Fgnxp%2F2010%2F04%2Fdaily-data-dump-10%2F Friday Weird Science: Smells Fishy? Check your semen. I’m not going to describe the post. You read it (though perhaps not on a full stomach). Freeing human eggs of mutant mitochondria. I’m pretty sure this would be banned by the Orange Catholic Bible. Scientists Devise Way to Link Complex Traits With Underlying Genes. At least for some model organisms, though the authors claim at the end of their paper that they could be transfered to humans. Mixed-Race People Perceived as ‘More Attractive,’ UK Study Finds. In general I think these sorts of studies are the inverse of the results of Charles Davenport on Jamaican mulattoes, scientists sometimes know what findings are congenial to the Zeitgeist, and will keep looking until they find them. I suspect there might be some ... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3479837 Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:02:32 +0100 3479837 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3475999&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovermagazine.com%2Fgnxp%2F2010%2F04%2Fdaily-data-dump-9%2F The Secret of the Banks’ Success. 35% of the domestic American profits are now in finance. This much “intermediation” in our economy is like having to service the the enormous parasitic noble class of the Ancien Régime. Bad mutations are good for you. It’s about fitness landscapes. In Narrow Roads of Gene Land W. D. Hamilton admits that his turn away from top-down eugenic policies had to do with this sort of issue. What’s good is bad and what’s bad is good, and so forth. Retail Sales increase sharply in March. The author of the Calculated Risk blog usually presents positive data by offering some skeptical pessimistic commentary. In this case it seems he left the charts to speak for themselves, which I take as a sign of optimism in this area. Though we&#8217... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3475999 Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:29:59 +0100 3475999 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3471969&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovermagazine.com%2Fgnxp%2F2010%2F04%2Freligious-people-who-dont-believe-in-god%2F In American society the connection between religion and belief in god(s) is very close. This of course is not a universal. In Indian and Chinese religion there isn’t a necessary connection, though as a matter of operational reality most religious adherents in India and China do seem to believe in god. In the Abrahamic tradition the issue seems clear cut, but both Judaism and Islam are strongly orthopraxic, and somewhat less fixed on theological orthodoxy, so there is perhaps more wiggle room than one might think. Additionally, Jews are a nation, an ethnicity, as well as a people, and so those who are not particularly religious observant or believers in the God of Abraham, the God Isaac and the God of Jacob, may still identify with Judaism as their religion. The ‘cultural’... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3471969 Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:20:20 +0100 3471969 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3471975&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnsaunders.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F04%2F15%2Fid-be-more-than-happy-with-the-unlinked-data-web%2F Visit this URL and you’ll find a perfectly-formatted CSV file containing information about recent earthquakes. A nice feature of R is the ability to slurp such a URL straight into a data frame: quakes <- read.csv("http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/gis/qed.asc", header = T) colnames(quakes) # [1] "Date" "TimeUTC" "Latitude" "Longitude" "Magnitude" "Depth" # number of recent quakes nrow(quakes) # [1] 3135 # biggest recent quake subset(quakes, quakes$Magnitude == max(quakes$Magnitude, na.rm = T)) # Date TimeUTC Latitude Longitude Magnitude Depth # 2060 2010/02/27 06:34:14.0 -35.993 -72.828 8.8 35 I hear a lot about the “web of data” and the “linked data web” but honestly, I’ll ... What You're Doing Is Rather Desperate blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3471975 Thu, 15 Apr 2010 05:02:15 +0100 3471975 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3471884&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=35744&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fe-CareManagement%2F%7E3%2Flz5D9nw2Izc%2F We concluded our last post in this series with a blunt prediction that “key physicians will sit on the sidelines” and that clinician non-adoption of EHR technology is a potential “deal-breaker for the success of HITECH”. While this might sound like a criticism of the way HITECH has been implemented, it’s not intended that way — it’s a commentary on 1) the complexity and scope of change that will be required to make HITECH successful, and 2) the level of protective entrenchment existing American health care today. Rather, we believe that the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT – Dr. David Blumenthal and his staff — have done a superb job in interpreting and defining key aspects of HITECH legislation. We’re big fans. For those of you who have been fo... e-CareManagement blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3471884 Wed, 14 Apr 2010 23:56:39 +0100 3471884 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3471970&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovermagazine.com%2Fgnxp%2F2010%2F04%2Fdaily-data-dump-8%2F The Hunt for the Prozac Gene. For the record I don’t think most peoples’ depression today is rooted in biological factors. Rather there are some biases toward over-medication in American society, and “better living through chemistry” has made a come back (I used to much more pro-SSRI before I started seeing people I knew really well who were given anti-depressants almost as a precautionary matter by their doctors). Duffy-Negative Blood Types No Longer Protected from P. Vivax Malaria. One difference between physical technology (wheel) and biological technology (domesticate breeding) is that the latter has to face the fact that “nature catches up.” In other words, biological impediments to human flourishing are adaptive thanks to evolution. In contrast, th... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3471970 Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:16:11 +0100 3471970 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3467953&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F3DvNX9dRz3w%2F Maria Hodges has a fantastic post about building (bad) biological databases, a must read. The only point I might have a little nit about is Tip #5, Totally trust your automated systems. Little because biological data does often need some curation due to the nature of the beast, but I would argue that some of the largest data systems in the world are completely, or near completely automated, so it’s possible. (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules) business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3467953 Wed, 14 Apr 2010 02:43:08 +0100 3467953 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3467945&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovermagazine.com%2Fgnxp%2F2010%2F04%2Fdaily-data-dump-7%2F Pre-Columbian agricultural landscapes, ecosystem engineers, and self-organized patchiness in Amazonia. The circumstantial evidence is building that the Amazon is not a “pristine” and “virgin” wilderness. Rather, it may have been “re-wilded” after a massive die-off of the human population due to the spread of European diseases during the “Columbian Exchange.” Charles C Mann reports on this data in 1491. How financial innovation causes crises. I’m willing to be convinced otherwise, but I strongly suspect that there’s really rapid diminishing returns to economic growth due to efficiencies of financial engineering. Even plainly useful ideas such as the joint-stock corporation aren’t necessary for economic takeoff; because of the... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3467945 Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:42:19 +0100 3467945 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3463763&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovermagazine.com%2Fgnxp%2F2010%2F04%2Fdaily-data-dump-6%2F You’re Awesome, America!. The subhead is: “Why the U.S. recovery will be bigger, faster, and stronger than economists and politicians expect.” So How’s the Economy Doing, Anyway? Guarded pessimism from Kevin Drum. I do wonder about the fuel constraint as well. Synesthesia: crossed wires or free association? Wiring the Brain is an RSS worthy blog. Literary critics scan the brain to find out why we love to read. It seems that literary types are getting on the neuroimaging bandwagon, but am I wrong to believe that the high water mark of the early neuroimaging hype is now a thing of the past? This is not to say that neuroimaging is not important, just that it didn’t change everything, and a lot of bad science slipped in under its sexy cloak. Testing Influence of T... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3463763 Mon, 12 Apr 2010 17:21:45 +0100 3463763 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3456826&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovermagazine.com%2Fgnxp%2F2010%2F04%2Fdaily-data-dump-5%2F The Closing of the Conservative Mind. Noah Millman doesn’t post often, but when he does it’s always worth reading. Close to Homo? – The announcement of Australopithecus sediba. The tendency to trump everything as the most awesome ancestor or link is perhaps analogous to the demand from the public that cosmologists know the mind of God or something. Yet Another “Missing Link”. More from Carl Zimmer. And Down the Stretch She Comes. Horses have far less sexual dimorphism than humans. Did not know that, but makes sense. Rumor of Sarkozy Infidelities Sets Off a Modern French Farce. The French are different. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3456826 Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:03:48 +0100 3456826 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3454100&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FzBI7kMzsSc0%2F Image via Wikipedia I had a chance to hear Ed Lazowska talk at the Microsoft Cloud Futures 2010 event (I followed Ed, always a tough act). Ed talked about data driven science, i.e. science driven more by data than just by compute cycles. I come from a world of simulation-oriented science, and while I still love simulations, I’ll admit that data-driven science is more broadly applicable and is going to drive science for the immediate future. That is why, even in 100% academic research environments, good software development and data management are going to be completely critical. Flat files and Excel are not going to cut it. I’ve heard the argument that biologists are always going to use Excel and that came up at the NIH meeting I was at last week as well, but IMO that’... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3454100 Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:32:11 +0100 3454100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3454099&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovermagazine.com%2Fgnxp%2F2010%2F04%2Fdaily-data-dump-4%2F “Positive” Results Increase Down the Hierarchy of the Sciences. Physics is more objective than psychology. Too bad they didn’t include even softer disciplines like history or literature, though I don’t know how they’d do that since the methodologies start to get weird. The first metazoa living in permanently anoxic conditions. Wow, even complex organisms don’t need oxygen necessarily. Small Cancer Protection From Fruits And Vegetables? There really needs to be a reformation of the publishing of correlations coming out of nutritional studies, as people are way too apt to act on provisional findings. Why Do We Dream? Trippy. Why Investors Won’t Revolt. Shareholders demand risk. More risk = more reward (and more downside). Most people can’t give you alp... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3454099 Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:28:37 +0100 3454099 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3449061&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovermagazine.com%2Fgnxp%2F2010%2F04%2Fwhat-rejecting-science-will-mean%2F I am reading that a scholar affiliated with an evangelical theological seminary has had to resign his position because of a full-throated (see here) defense of evolutionary theory. In particular, this scholar seems to have asserted that evangelical Christianity is on the way to becoming a marginalized “cult” if it keeps rejecting scientific consensus in regards to evolutionary theory. Cult, from what I know, has a very strong connotation in the evangelical subculture. Obviously I don’t have relevant opinions about whether evangelicals should, or should not, accept evolution from the perspective of an evangelical Christian. But, we can look at the type of person who accepts and rejections evolution in American society. The General Social Survey has a vocabulary test which ... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3449061 Wed, 07 Apr 2010 20:09:14 +0100 3449061 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3449062&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34995&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovermagazine.com%2Fgnxp%2F2010%2F04%2Fdaily-data-dump-3%2F The Apple Two: The iPad is Steve Jobs’ final victory over the company’s co-founder Steve Wozniak. Sounds totally plausible to me, though you can probably come to that inference just by observing 5 minutes of Woz vs. Jobs’ personal affect. Upbeat Signs Revive Consumers’ Mood for Spending. I remember reading as a kid in the early 90s about how the recession of the time was going to result in a major shift in American habits and values. That didn’t pan out, the latter half the decade saw the emergence of irrational exuberance which surpassed the 1980s. But this recession/depression has been quantitatively much deeper, so perhaps something will stick. For one, it seems that we’ve lost a lot of wealth and some of the current upsurge in spending is pent up demand ... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3449062 Wed, 07 Apr 2010 19:52:44 +0100 3449062 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3440785&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2FmuFLwT4yqTA%2F By Julie Murchinson. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded program, Project HealthDesign, is pursuing the identification, interpretation and integration of observations of daily living (ODLs). As defined by Project HealthDesign, ODLs are sensations, feelings-thoughts-attitudes, and behaviors that occur in the course of everyday life – such as sleep patterns, diet, exercise levels, pain episodes, and mood – that are not typically part of one’s clinical record, but are critical to managing an individual’s health and guiding their treatment. During the recent Project HealthDesign workshop, I was struck by the question of what ODLs have the potential to do to engage patients in their health. Will ODLs be the patient’s true representation of issues they own and manage as part ... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3440785 Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:00:30 +0100 3440785 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3412549&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FJ23P0DOEMpI%2F Image via CrunchBase I found out about Freebase Gridworks through a post by Jon Udell. In the post, Jon refers to two screencasts on this yet unreleased product. In the Freebase blog post, they quote the announcement from the mailing list. The important bits We at Metaweb strongly believe that Freebase can be helpful not only as a giant repository of heavily curated and interconnected data but also as a way to help people cleanup and integrate their own datasets by aligning their data with a shared substrate. Jon adds to this after seeing the screencasts As the open data juggernaut picks up steam, a lot of folks are going to discover what some of us have known all along. Much of the data that’s lying around is a mess. That’s partly because nobody has ever really looked at it. As a n... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3412549 Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:00:25 +0100 3412549 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3408575&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnsaunders.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F03%2F26%2Fbiomart-and-biomart%2F I’ve been vaguely aware of BioMart for a few years. Inexplicably, I’ve only recently started to use it. It’s one of the most useful applications I’ve ever used. The concept is simple. You have a set of identifiers that describe a biological object, such as a gene. These are called filters. They have values – for example, HGNC symbols. You want to retrieve other identifiers – attributes – for your objects. You can use BioMart as a web application called MartView. However, R users should check out the biomaRt package, part of the Bioconductor suite. Here’s a couple of examples. Example 1: fetch Ensembl gene identifiers given HGNC symbols Let’s start with a simple example. You have a CSV file in which one of the fields is a HGNC symbol (w... What You're Doing Is Rather Desperate blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3408575 Fri, 26 Mar 2010 07:23:18 +0100 3408575 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3386864&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=38272&url=http%3A%2F%2Flaikaspoetnik.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F03%2F21%2Finformation-is-beautiful-visualizing-the-evidence-for-health-supplements%2F In a world driven by data, we need a simple means of digesting it all. Visualization of data may help to coop with the information overload. Good visualizations enable people to look at vast quantities of data quickly. Bram Hengeveld at Geriatric Care (geriatricare.wordpress.com) told me of Snake Oil, a fantastic visualization of scientific evidence for [...] (Source: Laika's MedLibLog) Laika's MedLibLog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3386864 Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:17:54 +0100 3386864 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3387000&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FbkcTTVT2m5U%2F Image via Wikipedia In my day job, I get to see a lot of innovative geo-related software and services, and the O’Reilly Radar does a great job of tracking innovations in this space. SimpleGeo, WeoGeo, ESRI, Loki, Cloudmade, Quantum GIS, GeoCommons, etc are just some examples of companies/organizations/open source projects doing very interesting things around geospatial data of all kinds. There are a number of good open source efforts around geo-data and visualization, and I am almost certain I am missing a ton. These toolkits allow people to do interesting things. So where am I going with this? Somehow there seems to be a lack of similar interesting things with scientific data. Admittedly that is a gross generalization, but outside of things like Rich Apodaca’s many project... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3387000 Sun, 21 Mar 2010 06:50:25 +0100 3387000 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3382788&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36050&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblisstree.com%2Flive%2Fyour-baby-is-just-a-number%2F No, this isn’t a trailer for Gattaca II, it’s a commercial for IBM. from fastcompany.com Post from: BlissTree (Source: Breastfeeding 1-2-3) Breastfeeding 1-2-3 blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3382788 Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:15:47 +0100 3382788 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3374317&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2Fc1De80F8vSM%2F In a brilliant piece entitled Big Data Is Less About Size, And More About Freedom, Bradford Cross talks about about the democratization of analyzing data at scale. As he so correctly points out, the data age has a lot to do with the cool things we can do with data today. Yes data sizes are getting large, but large is relative. I heard numbers today that make the output from many genomics centers sound like a walk in the park, but for the average lab, the average startup, increasing amounts of data are still only in the range of terabytes, not petabytes as some of us (like yours truly) like to talk about. Brad talks about trends in computing and software that have allowed data-driven companies like Flightcaster to get to market faster. He breaks down these trends into three chunks Storing ... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3374317 Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:00:40 +0100 3374317 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3370603&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FTkV3ISv4aFk%2F Times change. Last week I was at a local science event and the speaker talked about their data being in Seattle and their compute literally being diagonally across the country in Florida (something that sort of happened for various reasons). That is quite the distance for data to travel. It’s even more for a lot of data to travel. As I commented when asked about solutions to that problem, my answer was “don’t move the data”. Well it’s true. Even with companies out there that help you move large quantities if data, the only good solution for data at this scale is to keep the data in one place and move the compute around. Cheaper, more efficient, and a better use of the network. IMO, the days of moving data sets over the wire are long gone. You can move slices a... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3370603 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:00:35 +0100 3370603 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3370398&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FyEAbPg2TBEY%2F By Chris EdwardsThe head of the federal Office of Personnel Management, John Berry, has become unhinged by a few recent critiques of federal worker pay. Berry is an Obama appointee who apparently views his role as being a one-sided lobbyist for worker interests, rather than a public servant balancing the interests of taxpayers and federal agencies. Here is an 11-minute audio interview with Berry on Federal News Radio on Friday, where he lashes out at USA Today, Washington Times, and the Cato Institute. Berry is defensive, emotional, and unwilling to accept that new data might indicate a possible problem with the underpaid federal worker thesis that is constantly pushed by the unions. What do I mean when I say he is unhinged? An investigation by the USA Today found that in 83 percent of 216... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3370398 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:42:09 +0100 3370398 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3363772&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F2zc50UROtzQ%2F Dan Koboldt has a great post on the state of sequencing in 2010 (can we drop “next-gen” now?), and beyond I guess. It’s certainly getting crowded out there, and it did look like that the major players were essentially fighting for the same space and share of the market, but based on what Dan says, that seems to be changing. I should add that I am not in the trenches, and my interests lie on the data management, analysis and infrastructure side of things, so can’t comment on individual technologies per se. It’s interesting to see how various players seem to be positioning themselves, although where folks end up and who survives will depend on all kinds of factors. The scientific market is fickle and quite honestly, the factors that define success are not alway... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3363772 Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:19:29 +0100 3363772 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3338404&cid=t_345798_136_f&fid=37846&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthinfoispower.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F03%2F05%2Fgog-says-continuation-of-pivotal-opaxio-maintenance-therapy-trial-gog-212-remains-high-priority%2F Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) Notifies CTI That Continuation of GOG-212 Pivotal Trial of OPAXIO Maintenance Therapy in Front Line Ovarian Cancer Remains High Priority.  GOG-218 Bevacizumab Results Do Not Influence Importance of GOG-212 Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (“CTI”) announced today that the company received a statement on March 1, 2010 from the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) leadership [...] (Source: Libby's H*O*P*E*) Libby's H*O*P*E* blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3338404 Sat, 06 Mar 2010 02:48:42 +0100 3338404 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3322508&cid=t_345798_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2010%2F03%2F02%2Fover-time-distribution-of-shot-lengths-in-movies-has-moved-closer-to-pink-noise%2F The statistics of shot durations in 150 films from 1935 to 2005 were analyzed. From about 1970 to the present, the power spectrum of shot durations in individual films has tended to become more like pink noise (power ~= 1/f). Also, autocorrelation shows that the lengths of nearby shots has become more and more correlated. The authors, Cutting, DeLong, and Nothelfer, speculate that the pink noise bit is being driven by some process that is related to attention, since there are some other results (which they cite) showing the relevance of pink noise to attention. However, IMDB ratings were not positively correlated with the pink-noise-ness of the movie (partial correlation with release date factored out). Incidentally, this guy did his PhD thesis on cognitive science explanations for film e... neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3322508 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 06:12:47 +0100 3322508 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3318545&cid=t_345798_122_f&fid=35068&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbrainwindows.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F03%2F01%2Fcompressed-sensing-in-neuroscience%2F Wired has a nice lay-person write-up of the rapidly developing field of compressed sensing. This is a technique that allows accurate reconstructions of highly undersampled sparse datasets. This field really took off in 2004 when Emmanuel J. Candès discovered that a tomography phantom image could be reconstructed exactly even with data deemed insufficient by the Nyquist-Shannon criterion. It is probably the hottest topic in imaging theory today. Modified Shepp-Logan phantom with enhanced contrast for visual perception. According to this review, Compressed Sensing MRI, its successful application requires three conditions to be met : Transform Sparsity: The desired image must have a sparse representation in a known transform domain (i.e., it must be compressible by transform coding), I... Brain Windows blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3318545 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:03:53 +0100 3318545 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3298524&cid=t_345798_134_f&fid=34841&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.diabetesmine.com%2F2010%2F02%2Fgrowing-your-own-decision-tree.html To what degree is the state of our health really in our own hands? According to author Thomas Goetz, it very largely is. In his new book The Decision Tree, published last week, Thomas argues that since we live in a world where data on anything, including personal health, is abundant, [...] (Source: Diabetes Mine) Diabetes Mine blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3298524 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:00:04 +0100 3298524 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3287880&cid=t_345798_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2010%2F02%2F18%2Fstatoolkit%2F http://neuroanalysis.org/ Octave/MATLAB toolkit for analysis of spike train data. Open source. Information theory-y. (Source: neurodudes) neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3287880 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:48:04 +0100 3287880 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3287811&cid=t_345798_112_f&fid=34971&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdoctorandpatient.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F02%2Fwebsite-for-doctors-is-finally-live-and.html . We have setup websites for ten doctors within the first month of going live, which means the idea behind the venture is a solid one. Doctors have a business to run and need to provide high quality information to their patients to give high quality service. A website is a great medium to communicate with patients – and has now become a key tool for every doctor in private practice. Why does Website for Doctors appeal to the doctors who are signing up? Because we are a specialized service, like a highly specialized clinic, serving only doctors. Since we focus on dealing only with doctors, we understand their needs and wants , so we can deliver what is best for them. Every website we have done has gone live online within 48 hours of the doctor providing us with the required information. W... The Patient's Doctor blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3287811 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:22:00 +0100 3287811 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3287723&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FTxcyRXkszBc%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonThere’s a widespread belief that public schools are homogeneous and all inclusive while private schools are bastions of the elite. This was proven to be a myth decades ago by the renowned sociologist James Coleman, and as far as I know, that pattern of findings hasn’t changed in recent years. Nevertheless, the myth continues. A new Fordham Institute paper provides a partial antidote, pointing out that quite a few public schools enroll virtually no low-income kids, making them bastions of the elite. Where the Fordham paper trips up a bit is in calling these elite public schools “private public schools.” As already noted above, private schools are, on average, better economically integrated than their government counterparts, so this phrase is exa... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3287723 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:16:13 +0100 3287723 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3259100&cid=t_345798_122_f&fid=35068&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbrainwindows.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F02%2F09%2Fmonte-carlo-calcium-spike-detection%2F I somehow missed that Josh Vogelstein’s method on action potential detection was published last summer. In Spike Inference from Calcium Imaging Using Sequential Monte Carlo Methods, the authors use a Monte Carlo approach to determine spike times from calcium imaging with superior performance to other deconvolution methods.  It does a great job on simulated and in vitro data, I’d love to see performance on real in vivo recordings.  If you are serious about calcium imaging, you should definitely get in touch with Josh and see what magic he can do with all that math.  You should also ask him about the benefits of linen pants vs. denim, he’s got strong opinions on that subject as well… Using only strongly saturating and very noisy in vitro fluorescence measuremen... Brain Windows blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3259100 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:01:42 +0100 3259100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3248663&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FTvnl_7QU6hU%2F I’ve written about the distributed self and science data platforms. A lot of the former was around the notion of pubsub, and pushing data to various places. Now imagine a scenario where you are using data from a variety of scientific repositories and you’ve built applications that use APIs to collect data. What if your data sources would update you everytime there was a change, so that your systems could automatically fetch any updates and rebuild anything that needed to be rebuilt, do any pre-computing that needed to be done. The model that Anil Dash talked about in his classic Push-Button Web post is relevant here as well. We have the tools to do this today. Real time, asynchronous messaging is part of distributed computing, and the variety of data repositories out there sho... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3248663 Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:05:03 +0100 3248663 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3246872&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FyR1bHaf3_Hc%2F By Jim HarperI wrote here a few weeks ago about the “high-value data sets” — three per agency — that the federal government would soon be releasing at Data.gov. They were released on January 22nd, and we’ve been poring over them ever since. More on that below. Tomorrow, agencies are supposed to have their “open government” sites put up — sites where they make their data feeds available and easily findable for the public. There are a couple of different sites monitoring when those sites are going up.   Data, data, data — that means more direct oversight of the government by more people. We talked about all this at our December 2008 policy forum, Just Give Us the Data! When I wrote recently about the release of agencies’ high-va... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3246872 Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:27:15 +0100 3246872 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3243776&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FRn6agnYFkmA%2F By Neal McCluskeyAs part of his ill-considered credentialing-to-compete initiative, President Obama wants to greatly increase both the size and availablity of Pell Grants. Under his proposed FY 2011 budget, the total pot of Pell aid would rise from $28.2 billion in 2009 to $34.8 billion in 2011; the maximum award would go from $5,350 to $5,710; and the number of students served would rise by around 1 million.   A critical question, of course, is whether increasing Pell will ultimately make college more affordable or self-defeatingly fuel further tuition inflation. The New York Times took that up in yesterday’s Room for Debate blog. Economist Richard Vedder has long educated people about the inflationary effect of student aid, and does so again with great clarity. It’s ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3243776 Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:21:48 +0100 3243776 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3239750&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F__bk0ve1EoE%2F An Introduction to JavaScript Map/Reduce in Riak from Basho Technologies on Vimeo. Riak is a non-relational datastore with a cool API and nifty Map/Reduce features. The new features in version 0.8 are described here (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules) business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3239750 Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:09:22 +0100 3239750 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3236023&cid=t_345798_134_f&fid=34841&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.diabetesmine.com%2F2010%2F02%2Fwayback-wednesday-confounded-diabetes-statistics.html Today, another example of the more things change, the more they stay the same: In his new book Diabetes Rising, journalist Dan Hurley reports about skyrocketing numbers of children being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in a wealthy Boston suburb. Parents there are desperate for answers as to why this is happening, yet “the lack [...] (Source: Diabetes Mine) Diabetes Mine blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3236023 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:00:59 +0100 3236023 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3227699&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F02%2F01%2Fnhs-inpatient-and-outpatient-waiting-times-figures-31-december-2009%2F Title: NHS inpatient and outpatient waiting times figures, 31 December 2009 Skinny: Latest monthly national statistics on NHS inpatient and outpatient waiting times for the month ending 31 December 2009 includes data for England, Strategic Health Authorities, and NHS Trusts. Key facts: Inpatient waiting times Number of patients waiting over the 26 weeks standard at the end of December 2009 was 18. Figures for waiting over 13 weeks at the end of December 2009 was 57,600, an increase of 12,300 (27.3%) from November 2009, and a rise of 18,000 (45.3%) from December 2008. Outpatient waiting times 93 patients were waiting over the 13 weeks standard for a first outpatient appointment following GP referral. Number of patients, waiting over 8 weeks at the end of December 2009 was 74,100, an incr... Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3227699 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:30:02 +0100 3227699 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3227700&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F02%2F01%2Fannual-hpv-vaccine-uptake-in-england-20082009%2F Title: Annual HPV vaccine uptake in England: 2008/2009 Skinny: Summary of HPV vaccination uptake across England at PCT, SHA and national level for the first year of the programme. This includes additional data from Devolved Authorities and comparisons with available international equivalent programmes. Publisher: DH Size of Publication: 25p. Published: 29/01/2010 Filed under: Cancer, Cervical Cancer, Grey Literature, NHS, Statistical Data Tagged: Cervical Cancer, Grey Literature, Immunisation, Statistical Data (Source: Fade Library) Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3227700 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:01:56 +0100 3227700 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3224872&cid=t_345798_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F01%2F30%2Fwhy-crash-rates-dont-automatically-fall-with-cellphone-bans%2F Last week, the Highway Loss Data Institute released a report that examined whether collision claims had gone up, down, or stayed the same in states that have banned cellphone use while driving. Their findings should have surprised no one, but seemed to have surprised everyone — crash rates did not go down after a hand-held cellphone ban took effect. Why should this have been of little surprise? 1. A law doesn’t automatically change human behavior. Laws can be wonderful things, but they are only as effective as when people obey them. This is often done with a stick — enforcement — rather than a carrot (such as incentives for safe driving practices). The laws have, according to the New York Times reporting on this study, reduced the use of hand-held cellphones 41 to 7... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3224872 Sat, 30 Jan 2010 19:06:56 +0100 3224872 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3220508&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FyA0PmluhZ70%2F By Tad DeHavenEarlier this week I criticized the U.S. Conference of Mayors for going to Washington and groveling for more federal handouts. Let me provide some more background for my criticisms with a look at federal budget data. The first chart shows that since 1960, total federal subsidies to state and local government have increased an astounding 1,173%. Several readers have asked me what particular programs account for this large increase in state aid. The federal budget breaks down the total figures into categories. Not surprisingly, health subsidies — mainly Medicaid — account for almost half of the current total and are the driving force behind the massive overall increase: However, there have been large increases in other activities as well. Here are the changes by federal ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3220508 Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:37:21 +0100 3220508 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3220606&cid=t_345798_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F01%2Fbelated-data-privacy-day%2F Hattip FlowingData This one is too funny, my ED is just south of a bread factory and we see lots of yeast infections… When I finish the swing shift I drive home with the smell of fresh bread baking. (Source: symtym) symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3220606 Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:32:25 +0100 3220606 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3212311&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fdy9WMtnbt-o%2F By Jim HarperBetcha didn’t know that January 28th is Data Privacy Day. That’s the day on which it’s customary to give gifts of cash and money to your favorite privacy advocate. No, not really. Though Hallmark hasn’t gotten a hold of it, it is a day on which some extra attention gets paid to privacy issues. I’ll be speaking at two events coinciding with Data Privacy Day. On Wednesday, I’ll be speaking at the 2010 Internet Data Privacy Colloquium put on by a group called Dialogue on Diversity. Register here. And on Thursday I’ll be speaking at an event put on by the Future of Privacy Forum called “Online Privacy: Your Reputation is ON the LINE.” (Get it? “ON the LINE”? Online? We’re talkin’ computers, folks.) You c... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3212311 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:18:50 +0100 3212311 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3208493&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fbidmc-data-marts At BIDMC, our clinical systems are written in a hierarchical database called Cache - a very fast transactional system with great reliability and disaster recovery features. However, for population health, quality, and performance analysis, we export our clinical care data into over 80 data marts build with SQL Server 2008. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3208493 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:30:52 +0100 3208493 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3193667&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F01%2F21%2Fchildren-in-out-of-work-benefit-households%2F Title: Children in Out-of-work Benefit Households Skinny: Statistics from the Department for Work and Pensionss showing the numbers of children living in households where at least one parent or guardian claimed one or more of the following out-of-work benefits: Job Seekers’ Allowance, Income Support, Incapacity Benefit/Severe Disablement Allowance, or Pension Credit at May 2008. The key points from the latest release are: There were 2.40 million children living in an out of work benefit household at May 2008. They represented 1.27 million households. 1.9 million children lived in households claiming Income Support. 193 thousand children lived in households claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance. 699 thousand children lived in households claiming Incapacity Benefit or Severe Disablem... Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3193667 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:42:31 +0100 3193667 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3180287&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=34632&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurehealthit.com%2F2010%2F01%2Fiphone_not_the_one_1.html Use IT now to help the people of Haiti. I dismissed suggestions that I would become one. One of the spiral-eyed ring wraiths from Morden (and everywhere else) who ride the London Underground white stoppers in their ears and 6 inch square screens before their eyes through which they experience reality while reality passes by. I was excited. My telecoms provider had called me to tell me that I could renew my contract and become a proud user of iPhone. I called a friend who enthused about its apps and gave me the impression it was the coolest thing since a morning dip in the Ford of Bruinen. Almost convinced, I was passing a retail outlet and couldn’t resist taking a peek. What a shocker: the touch screen text entry system is one of the worst I have experienced. Even after a bit of pract... Future Health IT blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3180287 Sun, 17 Jan 2010 07:58:52 +0100 3180287 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3167057&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F01%2F13%2Foverarching-report-of-findings-from-the-adult-autism-strategy%2F Title: Overarching report of findings from the Adult Autism Strategy Skinny: Summary of the findings from the consultation on the future strategy for adults with autustic spectrum conditions (ASC).  It sets out the approach taken, and the key themes and priority actions identified by respondents.  These were: Raising public awareness and acceptance of ASC. Improving key professionals’ level of training. Improving local leadership. Personalising services. Taking account of sensory issues. Improving the diagnosis pathway. Ensuring adults with an ASC can access the healthcare they need. Cross cutting themese were: Awareness raising and training Data collection Exclusion and discrimination Funding and resource issues Priority areas are: Diagnosis and support Support in the community ... Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3167057 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:39:33 +0100 3167057 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3163977&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FhPNIq8hQG5Q%2F I have written about TrendingTopics before. Pete Skomoroch gave a talk on how to build a data intensive web app using Hadoop, Hive and Amazon EC2 at Hadoopworld and the video is now available Building Data Intensive Apps with Hadoop and EC2 from Cloudera on Vimeo. Please see this disclaimer (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules) business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3163977 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:52:56 +0100 3163977 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3159730&cid=t_345798_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F01%2Fhealth-information-federation%2F A health information federation (HIF) might be defined as a health informational construct where there is no need for interoperability or health information exchange (HIE). To do so requires the health information content (data) to use structure–standard(s). Structured data, conforming to a structure–standard, is data that is machine readable (computable) in its native form. To eliminate the need for HIE requires that all participants within the HIF share a common structured data infrastructure. Interoperability becomes moot because such an infrastructure is, by design, wholly–operable. Interoperability and the use of HIE may be the most significant barriers (cost and technology) to widespread availability of health information. A HIF may be further characterized by a com... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3159730 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:38:37 +0100 3159730 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3159731&cid=t_345798_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F01%2Fwhat-should-be-knowable%2F I’ve spent several days going over the recently released Electronic Health Record Incentive Program (PDF) and the Initial Set of Standards, Implementation Specifications, and Certification Criteria for Electronic Health Record Technology (PDF). Took notes and recreated some tables: Meaningful Use Stage 1 Objectives/Measures and Interim Final Rule. After taking a high–level cruise through 692 pages—I’m impressed. Meaningful Use Stage 1, MU–1 (2011) The Stage 1 meaningful use criteria focuses on electronically capturing health information in a coded format; using that information to track key clinical conditions and communicating that information for care coordination purposes (whether that information is structured or unstructured, but in structured format when... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3159731 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:44:39 +0100 3159731 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3157623&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FYk77IaRONdw%2F In a recent editorial (sub might be required) talking about next-gen sequencing and cloud computing, Nature Biotech makes an all to familiar error. It remains unclear, however, whether the cost of routinely renting time on the cloud would be cost effective in the long term, particularly if a user intends to analyze billions of base pairs of genome sequence on a regular basis. What’s more, if the wide uptake of sequence analysis on clouds depends on the availability of user-friendly, debugged software, bioinformaticians might not be willing to spend the time to familiarize themselves with hadoop, the open source program needed to process large data sets on a cloud—especially when their jobs focus on developing algorithms for their own local computer clusters. The context for that... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3157623 Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:09:35 +0100 3157623 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3156614&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FqmRZhyipCJ0%2F In an article on TechFlash, a VC, talking about trends in 2010, had this to say while talking about increased IT needs in cleantech and biotech Both areas are generating terabytes of data and it is no longer just about science — it is about digesting mountains of data. For some reason that statement scared me. Digesting mountains of data is all about the science. If we forget that, we are in big trouble. Yes, from a pure technology perspective it is about digesting mountains of data, but (a) that has to be looked at in the context of science (sense-making?), and (b) the digesting is a necessary pre-requisite to getting to the science. You really don’t have much of a choice, but if you forget about the science, you will end up with noise, a whole lot of it. My advice to all ... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3156614 Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:16:39 +0100 3156614 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3139028&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fufbk6EMGFkw%2F By Jim HarperJohn Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, made the rounds of the Sunday political shows this weekend. He’ll be reviewing the attempted bombing of Northwest flight 253 for the president.  His appearance on ABC’s This Week program revealed his struggle with the limitations on data mining for counterterrorism purposes. His interviewer, Terry Moran, betrayed even less awareness of the challenge. Their conversation is revealing: Moran: Who dropped the ball here? Where did the system fail? Brennan: Well, first of all, there was no single piece of intelligence or “smoking gun,” if you will, that said that Mr. Abdulmutallab was going to carry out this attack against that aircraft. What we had, looking back on it now,... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3139028 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:54:26 +0100 3139028 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3136674&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F01%2Festimating-black-white-racial-tension.php As a New Year's gift, here is a free copy of an entry I put up on my data blog (details on that here). It's a quantitative look at the history of race and culture in America, together with qualitative examples that illustrate the story that the numbers tell. Enjoy.Previously I looked at how much attention elite whites have given to blacks since the 1870s by measuring the percent of all Harvard Crimson articles that contained the word "negro." That word stopped being used in any context after 1970, which doesn't allow us to see what's happened since then. Also, it is emotionally neutral, so while it tells us how much blacks were on the radar screen of whites, it doesn't suggest what emotions colored their conversations about race.When tensions flare, people will start using more charged wor... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3136674 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 04:59:00 +0100 3136674 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3129463&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F12%2F30%2Fguidance-on-the-completion-of-the-deprivation-of-liberty-safeguards-data-collation-sheet-24-december-2009%2F Title: MCA DOLS Data Collation Sheet User Guide – version 1.4 Skinny: Replaces previous guidance on completion of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards data collation sheet as the result of an additional data item added for the third quarter data collection period. Publisher: DH Size of Publication: 18p. Published: 29/12/2009 Posted in Grey Literature, Mental Capacity Act 2005, Mental Health, NHS Tagged: Deprivation of Liberrty Safeguards, Grey Literature, Guidance, Mental Capacity, Mental Capacity Act 2005, Mental Health, Statistical Data (Source: Fade Library) Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3129463 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 08:30:03 +0100 3129463 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3129503&cid=t_345798_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F12%2Frebooting-information%2F You need a Data Asset—not a Data Warehouse—Family Health Guy A data asset is a collection of all the information relevant to an organization, regardless of source and of type. We call it an “asset” because this data, not the systems that created it or that are used on any given day to interact with it, represents the true long-term capability of an organization to thrive. The potential of that organization to measure itself, to learn, to adapt to new situations and technologies, to predict future outcomes and improve operations, all rely on its ability to find, use and re-use data. This is what Amalga does – it captures all the information, and stores it in data atomic form. “Data atomic” means that rather than try to selectively normalize incomin... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3129503 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:16:44 +0100 3129503 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3126743&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F12%2Fone-year-after-financial-collapse.php Actually, not really. New York on Track for Fewest Homicides on Record. I assume that those who project long term fiscal problems due to a contraction in the financial sector in New York City are probably correct (assuming that the financial sector actually doesn't expand back to its pre-2009 size). But the assumption that the economic fallout would lead to 1970s levels of anomie doesn't seem to be panning out. As I indicated earlier I found suggestions of such a reversion plausible at the time because I had a rather economistic mental model of the "root causes" of crime. But that seems less plausible when you look over the arc of the past century. Another model of course is that in fact it was financial sector workers who were driving much of the crime directly by subsidizing illicit acti... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3126743 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:59:00 +0100 3126743 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3126747&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FK2eBlK77BAc%2F Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat have an updated MapReduce paper (doi) in the Communications of the ACM. The paper is a pretty strong rebuttal to some claims by Mike Stonebraker and others on the value of the MapReduce model. I am going to let you read the paper (as well as the original papers). What I wanted to talk about were some of the key aspects of the MapReduce model and how this way of thinking is relevant to the life sciences. The first point that Dean and Ghemawat talk about is heterogenous systems. The way I see it, the entire field of bioinformatics is full of heterogenous systems. Even data we generate in internal systems needs to be combined with data from other systems. In fact, I am pretty sure that as we improve delivery models and APIs for life science data resources, we wil... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3126747 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 06:15:08 +0100 3126747 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3126607&cid=t_345798_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F12%2Fstructuring-and-focusing-information%2F A few weeks ago I saw a 40 year old male patient in the ER for chest pain, episodic over 2 days. He had diabetes for 15 years, hypertension for 20 years, and hyperlipidemia for 7 years. Four months prior he had a NSTEMI, 5–way coronary bypass, and 2 stents placed. Since that hospitalization he has had one followup with a cardiologist (unknown name), continues to smoke in excess of one pack of cigarettes a day, continues to drink vodka daily, and ran out of “some” medicines last week. He received his heart surgery and stents in one health system in our community, sees a cardiologist within another health system, and comes to the ER of a third health system. This is not an uncommon presentation for the ER, and not an uncommon problem where health information is spread acros... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3126607 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:38:43 +0100 3126607 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3142661&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2F9kNOhVgzN8k%2F Another interesting story from EMRUpdate talking about how one EMR vendor, Medtuity EMR, took 3 locations and tied their EMRs together. However, they didn’t just do one centralized database accessed from each location. Instead, they essentially built patient data interoperability between the 3 locations. Check it out: We just linked 3 sites in October. The docs described what they wanted, including the speed of a separate SQL Server in each facility. They also had a billing office (as the center or hub). They previously used a single server with Remote Desktop as the means of communicating with a central server. They were not entirely happy with that arrangement and so wanted to embark on a SQL Server in each facility. Additionally, they did not want all encounters synched to all fac... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3142661 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:33:47 +0100 3142661 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3126684&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F12%2F28%2Femr-patient-data-interoperability-between-3-locations%2F Another interesting story from EMRUpdate talking about how one EMR vendor, Medtuity EMR, took 3 locations and tied their EMRs together. However, they didn’t just do one centralized database accessed from each location. Instead, they essentially built patient data interoperability between the 3 locations. Check it out: We just linked 3 sites in October. The docs described what they wanted, including the speed of a separate SQL Server in each facility. They also had a billing office (as the center or hub). They previously used a single server with Remote Desktop as the means of communicating with a central server. They were not entirely happy with that arrangement and so wanted to embark on a SQL Server in each facility. Additionally, they did not want all encounters synched to all fac... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3126684 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:33:47 +0100 3126684 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3111590&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F12%2Fcrime-way-down-who-exactly-knows-stuff.php Despite recession, crime keeps falling:In times of recession, property crimes, in particular, are expected to rise.They haven't.Overall, property crimes fell by 6.1 percent, and violent crimes by 4.4 percent, according to the six-month data collected by the FBI. Crime rates haven't been this low since the 1960's, and are nowhere near the peak reached in the early 1990's.Who expected crime to increase? Did you? I did. But I didn't know anything about crime statistics over time so I was working off naive intuition. Did social scientists expect this? I recall a lot of worry in the media about a year ago that the crime drop which started in the 1990s would be reversed, and I shared the worry. Here's Matt Yglesias worrying last January:I think this is worth worrying about. One thing we know abo... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3111590 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:19:00 +0100 3111590 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3108315&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F12%2F21%2Fah1n1-swine-influenza-soccon-end-to-national-collection%2F Title: A(H1N1) Swine Influenza: SocCon – end to national collection Skinny: Letter from Roy Taylor ending the national collection of SocCon data as a result of the slow down in infection rates with swine flu. Publisher: DH Size of Publication: 2p. Published: 18/12/2009 Posted in Grey Literature, Influenza, Local Authorities, Pandemic, Social Services, Statistical Data Tagged: Epidemiology, Grey Literature, H1N1, Influenza, Social Services, Statistical Data (Source: Fade Library) Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3108315 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:32:50 +0100 3108315 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3096834&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FkoW2Ldme7gM%2F By Andrei IllarionovYesterday, the Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA), of which I am President, issued a study (in Russian), “How Warming Is Being Made: The Case of Russia.” The report, prepared by IEA director Natalya Pivovarova, suggests that the Hadley Center for Climate Change based at the headquarters of the British Meteorological Office in Exeter (Devon, England) and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia (CRU) in Norwich (England) apparently cherry-picked Russian climate data. The IEA report shows that Russian meteorological-station data in the last 130 years did not substantiate the rate of warming on Russian territory suggested by the Hadley Climate Research Unit Temperature (HadCRUT) database, which has now been partially released. IEA analy... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3096834 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:47:47 +0100 3096834 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3096997&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F12%2Fsocial-science-data-sets.php At the Inter-University Consortium for Political & Social Research. Registration is free. (Source: Gene Expression) Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3096997 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:11:00 +0100 3096997 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3092677&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FE3STVBOfkkI%2F By Julian SanchezPolice hoping to rummage through a suspect’s cell phone after an arrest must apply for a warrant, the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled. That apparently makes it the first court to address a question I first wrote about two years ago, after Adam Gershowitz broached it in a law review article. Normally, when police arrest someone—and recall that even trivial offenses may provide formal grounds for arrest—they’re entitled to conduct an incidental search of the person and their immediate vicinity, nominally for the purpose of uncovering any weapons and preventing the destruction of contraband.  The new wrinkle as Gershowitz noted, is that we’ve begun routinely carrying vast stores of personal data around with us in our pockets: photos, correspondence, music ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3092677 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:17:15 +0100 3092677 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3083020&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F12%2F13%2Fswine-influenza-guidance-on-vaccination-programme-payment-data-collection-and-communications%2F Title: Swine Influenza: Guidance on vaccination programme payment, data collection and communications Skinny: Dear Colleague letter to all directors of adult social services. It contains important information for social care workers on the vaccination programme payment, data collection and a communications toolkit. Publisher: DH Size of Publication:9p. Published: 11/11/2009 Posted in Grey Literature, Influenza, Local Authorities, Pandemic, Social Services Tagged: Financial Management, Grey Literature, H1N1, Immunisation, Pandemic, Social Services, Stakeholder Engagement, Statistical Data (Source: Fade Library) Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3083020 Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:30:31 +0100 3083020 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3083021&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F12%2F13%2Fstroke-2009-10-q2-and%2F Title: Stroke 2009-10 Q2, TIA 2009-10 Q2 Skinny: Excel spreadsheets detailing the number of people who were admitted to hospital following a stroke, who then spent 90% of their time on a stroke unit. The number of Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) cases with a higher risk of stroke who are then subsequently treated within 24 hours in an outpatient setting Publisher: DH Published: 13/11/2009 Posted in Grey Literature, Statistical Data, Stroke Tagged: Grey Literature, Statistical Data, Stroke (Source: Fade Library) Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3083021 Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:00:57 +0100 3083021 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3079582&cid=t_345798_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FFHcG_n-SOf4%2F An amendment to the Senate health care bill would effectively ban data mining which, as you know, involves the practice of buying prescription records to target sales pitches to doctors, the Associated Press reports. Democrats Herb Kohl of Wisconsin and Dick Durbin of Illinois say their measure will combat “harassing sales practices” and “restrain undue influence” of sales reps. The move comes amid tremendous controversy over data mining. Vermont, for instance, passed a law restricting the sale of prescription drug info that identifies prescribers and patients for commercial marketing purposes. The effort is being challenged by IMS Health, Wolters Kluwer Health and SDI, with support from PhRMA, which contend the law hurts public access to healthcare info (back story... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3079582 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:30:17 +0100 3079582 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3079323&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FUKClRcE7WKw%2F By Chris EdwardsThe expansion in government and poor state of the economy got me thinking about how government growth is reflected in measured gross domestic product. So here is a wonky look at the treatment of government in the Bureau of Economic Analysis GDP data. Data notes: By “government,” I mean total federal, state, and local. For 2009, I’m using the average of second and third quarter data. All data from BEA Tables here. GDP measures total production. In 2009, government production was 20.7 percent of U.S. GDP.  Government production is roughly the sum of government value-added (the stuff it produces itself) and government purchases. The first item, government value-added, was 12.4 percent of GDP and mainly consists of employee compensation. For exampl... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3079323 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:37:11 +0100 3079323 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3075453&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F12%2F10%2Fhealth-statistics-quarterly-2009-no-44%2F Title: Social inequalities in female mortality by region and be selected causes of death, England and Wales, 2001-03 Skinny: Fifth in a series of articles reporting mortality using the final version of the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC). Reports on social inequalities in female mortality and is the first official compilation of detailed mortality statistics for women based on the NS-SEC. The results demonstrate a strong socio-economic effect on the mortality of women in all regions. (Print subscription held at Fade Library) Posted in Adults, Health Economics, Journals, Mortality, Public Health, Statistical Data Tagged: Mortality, National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC), Social Inequality, Statistics, Women (Source: Fade Library) Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3075453 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:09:54 +0100 3075453 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3075709&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F4w3p-VKmQbg%2F Image by dullhunk via Flickr In a great blog post at Code for Life, Grant Jacobs writes By contrast, early bioinformatics work was almost invariably founded on biological concepts from the onset. A biological issue was raised and then a technique to address that issue was presented. That is, theoretical biology was the foundation on which [early] bioinformatics was built. I fear this is being lost in the mass-data and technology-hype driven bioinformatics. It seems to me that unless companies and research groups are careful many will waste time and money “stamp collecting and cataloging”. Certainly the organized data is useful, but only if it is applied with biological principles Grant writes this in the context of the early days of bioinformatics, a time when there was a lot of the... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3075709 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:43:17 +0100 3075709 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3075607&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FeJD71yCt0Nw%2F “The ideal circumstance would be the use of EMR smart cards that would be updated with every patient encounter and that can be read electronically by every medical provider treating the patient, regardless of the providers’ medical network or health plan affiliation.” – Jim Lott, Executive Vice President, Hospital Council of Southern California, Los Angeles source I’ll admit to not being an expert on smart cards, but does anyone really think that smart cards are going to get widespread acceptance? The only thing we’ve ever gotten people to consistently carry around with them is their drivers license and even those go missing all the time. How many patients forget their insurance card? Can you imagine the front desk nightmare trying to get people to remem... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3075607 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:21:11 +0100 3075607 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3071261&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F12%2F09%2Fsmart-cards-and-emr%2F “The ideal circumstance would be the use of EMR smart cards that would be updated with every patient encounter and that can be read electronically by every medical provider treating the patient, regardless of the providers’ medical network or health plan affiliation.” – Jim Lott, Executive Vice President, Hospital Council of Southern California, Los Angeles source I’ll admit to not being an expert on smart cards, but does anyone really think that smart cards are going to get widespread acceptance? The only thing we’ve ever gotten people to consistently carry around with them is their drivers license and even those go missing all the time. How many patients forget their insurance card? Can you imagine the front desk nightmare trying to get people to remem... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3071261 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:21:11 +0100 3071261 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3071412&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F12%2Ffood-stamps-unemployment-go-together.php Derek Thompson at The Atlantic has a post Are America's Fattest States Also the Most Jobless?. The county-level data on unemployment only goes back to 2008 (at least that I can find online). But I do have data on obesity at the county-level too. What's the correlation? 0.32. Pretty modest. If I correlate for white obesity it goes down a little, 0.23 (though remember that I estimated white obesity, so be cautious about this). Since I also have food stamp utilization data I looked at that. Correlation is 0.56. If you think of this as r-squared, how much of variance of Y can be explained by X by squaring the correlation, it's a much stronger association. I constructed a quick regression where % unemployed on the county-level was the dependent variable, and % black, obese, median household inc... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3071412 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:41:00 +0100 3071412 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3067048&cid=t_345798_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F12%2Fexploring-privacy-use-cases%2F —PDF Medical Prescriptions Social Networking Mobile Phones Online Behavioral Advertising Retail Loyalty Card (Source: quanta vie) quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3067048 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:02:31 +0100 3067048 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3067049&cid=t_345798_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F12%2Fexploring-privacy-personal-data-ecosystem%2F Exploring Privacy: Data flow chart (personal data ecosystem)—PDF Data Users Data Brokers Data Collectors (Source: quanta vie) quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3067049 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:51:15 +0100 3067049 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3067013&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FyefUWEV1P1c%2F By Patrick J. Michaels25,000 bureaucrats, factota, hangers on, and representatives of various environmental organizations have just converged on Copehagen for the UN’s latest “Conference of the Parties (COP) to its infamous 1992 climate treaty. Expect a lot of heat, not much light, and a punt right into our next election. President Obama says that the US will agree to a “politically binding” reduction of our emissions of carbon dioxide to a mere 17% of 2005 levels by 2050. This will allow the average American the carbon dioxide emission of the average citizen in 1867. Obama’s pronouncement has stepped all over the toes of the US Senate, which really doesn’t want to vote on similar legislation this election year. Jim Webb, a democrat heretofore very loyal to the President recent... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3067013 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:01:37 +0100 3067013 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3063474&cid=t_345798_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FHjCrS3U1brs%2F Welcome to the working week. We hope your weekend was pleasant and invigorating. Now, though, the routine returns. And with it come the usual onslaught of meetings, deadlines and projects. So grab a cup of stimulation and get ready. To help you along, here are a few items of interest. Hope your day is tolerable… Celgene To Buy Gloucester In $640M Deal (Associated Press/nj.com) Glaxo Launches $15M Ad Campaign For Nicorette (Forbes) Roche Family Holdings Decline (MPT Online) Rexahn Pharma Looks For A Big-Pharma Deal (Washington Business Journal) Drugmakers Propose Plan To Curb Opioid Misuse (Associated Press) Data Exclusivity Causes Debate In India (The Business Standard) (Source: Pharmalot) Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3063474 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:05:47 +0100 3063474 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3056878&cid=t_345798_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FH3-o6wZoH3o%2F In a long-promised move, New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram released a report from the state’s Division of Consumer Affairs recommending new regs to curtail the potential for conflicts of interest between docs, and drug and device makers. The move comes two years after Milgram formed a task force (see here and interview with Milgram here). “It is critical to minimize the potential for conflicts and it is critical that patients are made aware of any financial relationship between a physician and a pharmaceutical company or medical device manufacturer. Such relationships could bias medical decision-making,” she says in a statement. The report addresses a host of familiar issues - data mining, CME, payments to docs, food and other freebies. On gifts, the AG wants the state&#82... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3056878 Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:07:49 +0100 3056878 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3052119&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F2CynooRpvFo%2F The invaluable Chris Soghoian has posted some illuminating—and sobering—information on the scope of surveillance being carried out with the assistance of telecommunications providers.  The entire panel discussion from this year’s ISS World surveillance conference is well worth listening to in full, but surely the most striking item is a direct quotation from Sprint’s head of electronic surveillance: [M]y major concern is the volume of requests. We have a lot of things that are automated but that’s just scratching the surface. One of the things, like with our GPS tool. We turned it on the web interface for law enforcement about one year ago last month, and we just passed 8 million requests. So there is no way on earth my team could have handled 8 million requests from... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3052119 Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:14:25 +0100 3052119 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3048289&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnsaunders.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F12%2F02%2Fhas-our-quest-for-completeness-made-things-too-complicated%2F In my opinion, yes. Let me elaborate. My current job is very much focused on “data integration”. What this means is that we have a large amount of diverse data from different “-omics” experiments: microarrays, protein mass spectrometry, DNA sequencing – really, whatever you like, but it’s all aimed at answering the same question. Namely: which of these biological entities (transcripts, proteins, metabolites) are markers for various human disease states? Somehow, we have to pull all of these data into a common framework so that it can be analysed using statistics. The problem: whilst a lot of effort has gone into designing schema and ontologies that describe the individual data types, less effort has been applied to the question: what do all these things... What You're Doing Is Rather Desperate blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3048289 Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:38:06 +0100 3048289 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3056736&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F12%2F01%2Finteresting-emr-data-conversion-story%2F Discussion between client and [EMR vendor] revolves around whether they are talking about [either of the 2 methods this EMR vendor uses]. It is finally decided that more fields are needed in the original spreadsheet. Which field should be used for “race”? Are patient names going to be converted in all upper case or upper/lower? They’ll check with another programmer – that might be a conversion parameter. More background discussion about the “autoflow” phone call scheduled for later that day. Call concludes that a new spreadsheet defining the fields will be sent out. Observations: This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of time and space that will be required as sites migrate to EMR. It will take lots of TIME – you’ve made this point repe... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3056736 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:07:40 +0100 3056736 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3044841&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FHqEkji3GKHE%2F Discussion between client and [EMR vendor] revolves around whether they are talking about [either of the 2 methods this EMR vendor uses]. It is finally decided that more fields are needed in the original spreadsheet. Which field should be used for “race”? Are patient names going to be converted in all upper case or upper/lower? They’ll check with another programmer – that might be a conversion parameter. More background discussion about the “autoflow” phone call scheduled for later that day. Call concludes that a new spreadsheet defining the fields will be sent out. Observations: This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of time and space that will be required as sites migrate to EMR. It will take lots of TIME – you’ve made this point repe... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3044841 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:07:40 +0100 3044841 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3044681&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F12%2F01%2Fnhs-cancelled-operations-quarter-ending-30-september-2009%2F Title: NHS cancelled operations, quarter ending 30 September 2009 Skinny: Latest quarterly national statistics on NHS cancelled operations produced by the Department of Health.  Key findings are: During the quarter ending 30 September 2009, 13,577 operations were cancelled at the last minute for non-clinical reasons. In the same period in 2008, there were 13,144 cancelled operations. Cancelled operations during the quarter represented 0.8% of all elective activity, the same figure as the same period in 2008/09. Of these cancellations, 344 (2.5%) of patients were not treated within 28 days of a cancellation.  In the same period in 2008, 424 (3.2%) of patients were not treated within 28 days. Publisher: DH Published: 13/11/2009 Posted in Grey Literature, Hospitals, Statistical Data Tagg... Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3044681 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:18:34 +0100 3044681 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3044687&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F12%2F01%2Fmortality-target-monitoring-life-expectancy-and-all-age-all-cause-mortality-overall-and-inequalities-update-to-include-data-for-2008%2F Title: Mortality target monitoring (life expectancy and all-age all-cause mortality, overall and inequalities): update to include data for 2008 Skinny: Key findings are: The overall life expectancy and all age all cause mortality (AAACM) trends for both males and females are broadly on course to deliver the target of 78.6 years for men and 82.5 years for women by 2010 (2009-11). In 2006-08, life expectancy at birth in England continued to increase for both males and females, and reached its highest level on record at 77.7 years for males and 81.9 years for females. Three-year average AAACM rates for England have fallen in each period since 1995-97. In 2006-08, average life expectancy at birth in the Spearhead Group was 75.8 years for males and 80.4 years for females, having increased in... Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3044687 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:29:39 +0100 3044687 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3045067&cid=t_345798_180_f&fid=38610&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.productivity501.com%2Ftuesdays-tip-effective-backups%2F207%2F There are few things that can ruin your productivity like losing the hard drive on your computer. Here are a few tips that work well for me when it comes to backing up my computer. Take some time to imagine the worst case scenario and how you would handle it. For example, what would you do if your laptop were dropped? What would you need to do if it were stolen? Make sure you have some type of off-site backup. I put a copy of important files on a DVD and put it in a bank lockbox. I only do this once or twice a year, but it gives me something to go back to, if necessary. Use an external hard drive for backup. This is usually a lot faster than backing up to DVDs or CDs. The easier a backup is to do, the more often you’ll do it. Create a bootable backup. My primary backup is done by c... Productivity501 blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3045067 Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:00:00 +0100 3045067 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3039872&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=36504&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FMedicalRecordShow%2F%7E3%2Fz-DuNwHBvNU%2F It’s not quite the world’s oldest profession. More like civilization’s. It predates EHRs, paper, papyrus…even clay. So long as there has been writing, even on stone tablets, there have been scribes. Folks who were trained to commit words or ideas to a more durable medium than fallible memory. Folks who did nothing else besides that special act of translation. Because the movers and shakers who were actually talking, doing, or thinking the important stuff were busy with the important stuff — and were unable to scribe simultaneously, and too busy to learn. Sound familiar? It Sounded Like A Bad Joke, Actually The idea first came to my attention from one of The EHR/EMR Show’s readers in 2008. At the time, I thought it was a step backwards: another layer bet... The EMR/EHR Show: Making Your Electronic Medical Records Really Work blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3039872 Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:00:05 +0100 3039872 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3039950&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F11%2Fare-over-leveraged-counties-seeing.php Since The New York Times put up the csv file which they used to generate their maps of food stamp usage, I thought I'd look at the data a little closer. In particular, look at this graphic of change in food stamp usage by county (dark equals more usage): I was curious about this part from the story below::While use is greatest where poverty runs deep, the growth has been especially swift in once-prosperous places hit by the housing bust. There are about 50 small counties and a dozen sizable ones where the rolls have doubled in the last two years. In another 205 counties, they have risen by at least two-thirds. These places with soaring rolls include populous Riverside County, Calif., most of greater Phoenix and Las Vegas, a ring of affluent Atlanta suburbs, and a 150-mile stretch of southw... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3039950 Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:33:00 +0100 3039950 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3037050&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F11%2Fwhite-vote-for-obama-by-county.php A friend of mine who was looking at the distributions on obesity and diabetes wondered about their political correlations. To do that and add anything new it seems that it would be best to estimate the white vote for Barack Obama in 2008 by county. This is how I did it:1) I looked at the exit polls for each state, which has breakdowns by race for each candidate.2) Since the white vote probably varies more county-by-county than the minority vote, especially the back, I used the state level exit polls and assumed that the minority vote in every county could be predicted by the state level exit poll. So for example, in New York the exit poll suggest that 100% of blacks voted for Obama. So I would weight appropriately.3) I also weighted by national turnout numbers. In other words, whites were ... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3037050 Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:01:00 +0100 3037050 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3036990&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FeXeiCoqQKS0%2F Everyone seems to love talking about RHIO, HIE and all of the other various initiatives happening around sharing patient health information amongst doctors. This weekend, I want to open it up to you the readers to get an idea of what type of participation you’ve had in an RHIO, HIE or other clinical data exchange. Are you participating in one now? Do you like it? Do you hate it? In fact, what do you like and what do you hate? Do you use an EMR to interface with the exchange? What’s the interface like? How much work is it to manage the interface? I’d also be interested in hearing about people who are working through the process now. Where are you at in the process? What’s holding you up from making this happen? Let’s help educate each other on what’s happ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3036990 Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:11:30 +0100 3036990 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3035947&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F11%2F28%2Freal-participation-rhio-and-hie%2F Everyone seems to love talking about RHIO, HIE and all of the other various initiatives happening around sharing patient health information amongst doctors. This weekend, I want to open it up to you the readers to get an idea of what type of participation you’ve had in an RHIO, HIE or other clinical data exchange. Are you participating in one now? Do you like it? Do you hate it? In fact, what do you like and what do you hate? Do you use an EMR to interface with the exchange? What’s the interface like? How much work is it to manage the interface? I’d also be interested in hearing about people who are working through the process now. Where are you at in the process? What’s holding you up from making this happen? Let’s help educate each other on what’s happ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3035947 Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:11:30 +0100 3035947 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3035994&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F-Qsax7tnpv8%2F At SC09, in my Systems Biology talk, I spoke about platforms for data. The idea is hardly original, since I’ve written about this before, and my ideas borrow heavily from Jeff Hammerbacher and Matt Wood among others. But I wanted to add some more meat to it in writing. Today we live in a world where we generate data from instruments, various experiments or simulations. These data can be used to provide us insights, and we want to add these insights to our data, capture those insights in the context of the data they represent and then keep track of the data and metadata for future changes. We do this in a world where data is generated by different people, different people care about different pieces of the follow on insights and information and perhaps a third set try and put this all... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3035994 Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:12:58 +0100 3035994 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3033732&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F11%2Fwhere-fat-folks-live.php Since it's after Thanksgiving and I'm feeling bloated, I figure a follow up to the post on obesity and diabetes might be apropos. I want to focus on obesity. I have the raw county-by-county data, but obviously it isn't broken down by race. But, I do have the proportions for reach race by county, and, the CDC provides state-by-state breakdowns of the proportion of obese by race. So I decided to "estimate" the proportion of whites obese by county.1) By "white," I mean "Non-Hispanic white." I'm going to say "white" from now on exclusive of Hispanics. 2) Some states, such as Vermont, do not have a large enough sample to estimate the obesity proportion of blacks. I just used a neighboring state to fill in the numbers. This guesstimate is really not much of an issue because the proportion of bla... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3033732 Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:44:00 +0100 3033732 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3017178&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F11%2Fdata-and-social-networks.php Does anyone know of a free source of county level presidential results going back to the 19th century? I want to compare correlations in voting across time. I did find some data from Pennsylvania, and noted that the Great Flip seems not to be evident in that state for the 1856 or 1860 election (that is, the correlation between Democrat and Republican voting patterns by county between 2008 and those years is around zero). Here's a map of the 1960 presidential election results by county, red for Nixon and blue for Kennedy:The Yankee dominated regions of northern New England remained Republican strongholds in 1960, just as they were during the ascendancy of Franklin Roosevelt. In Albion's Seed David Hackett Fischer argues for a "First Settler Effect" which echoes down across the centuries. Th... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3017178 Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:19:00 +0100 3017178 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3012564&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2Fq88HQWLeZ2I%2F Up on slideshare Talk given at "Cloud Computing for Systems Biology" workshop View more documents from Deepak Singh. Masterworks talk on Big Data and the implications of petascale science View more documents from Deepak Singh. All talks can be found here (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules) business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3012564 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:53:19 +0100 3012564 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3008401&cid=t_345798_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FnauR90jH7zA%2F Who? Julie Brill, who was Vermont’s assistant attorney general for consumer protection and antitrust, where she spearheaded efforts to publicize pharma payments to docs and reign in some marketing practices, The Pink Sheet writes*. She championed, for instance, a controversial data mining law (see here). Brill worked in Vermont from 1988 to 2009 before moving earlier this year to North Carolina, where she is senior deputy attorney general in charge of the consumer protection division. If she makes the cut, she will become one of five FTC commissioners. Full disclosure: Ed Silverman is an editor at The Pink Sheet (* - subscription required) (Source: Pharmalot) Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3008401 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:41:10 +0100 3008401 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2993727&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F11%2F15%2Fnothing-but-the-truth%2F Title: Nothing but the truth? Skinny: Sets out important issues as the basis for discussion on how to ensure data about local public services is fit for purpose. It asks if citizens, along with frontline staff, managers, politicians, central government and local public service regulators, can have confidence in the data they rely on. And if not, what needs to be done about it? Publisher: Audit Commission Size of Publication: 40p Published: 05/11/2009 Posted in Clinical Governance, Ethics, Grey Literature, Public Sector, Quality Tagged: Clinical Governance, Ethics, Grey Literature, Information Systems, Public Sector, Quality, Statistical Data (Source: Fade Library) Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2993727 Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:53:09 +0100 2993727 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2993728&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F11%2F15%2Fdental-commissioning-data-for-quarter-ending-september-2009%2F Title: Dental commissioning data for quarter ending September 2009 Skinny: Information about the number of new NHS dental contracts signed and rejected and the approximate service value of these contracts expressed in units of dental activity. Also data on dental services commissioned. From June 2008 only the dental commissioning data has been collected. Key findings this quarter: All 152 Commissioners (PCTs and Care Trusts) returned data. 86.9 million UDAs have been commissioned as at 30th September 2009. This represents an increase of 2.5 million (2.9 %) on the UDAs commissioned as at 30th June 2009. Publisher: DH Size of Publication: 17p Published: 05/11/2009 Posted in Dental Health, Grey Literature, NHS, Statistical Data Tagged: Commissioning, Dental Health, Grey Literature, Statist... Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2993728 Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:42:07 +0100 2993728 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2984777&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FODpp6kuKYzg%2F Commentary on the Fort Hood incident can be categorized three ways: reaction, response, and rejoinder (commentary on the commentary). Reactions generally consist of pundits pouring their preconceptions over what is known of the facts. These are the least worthy of our time, and rejoinders like this one from Stephen M. Walt of Harvard University in the Fort Hood section of The Politico’s Arena blog dispense with them well: Of course [Fort Hood] is being politicized; there is no issue that is immune to exploitation by politicians and media commentators. The problem is that there are an infinite number of “lessons” one can draw from a tragic event like this — the strain on our troops from a foolish war, the impact of hateful ideas from the fringe of a great religion... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2984777 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:39:46 +0100 2984777 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2963078&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fx0Xb3dRA9ys%2F Via Secrecy News, “JASON”—a unit of defense contractor the MITRE Corporation—has reported to the Department of Defense on the weakness of data mining for predicting or discovering inchoate terrorist attacks. “[I]t is simply not possible to validate (evaluate) predictive models of rare events that have not occurred, and unvalidated models cannot be relied upon,” says the report. In December 2006, Jeff Jonas and I published a paper making the case that predictive modeling won’t discover rare events like terrorism. The paper, Effective Counterterrorism and the Limited Role of Predictive Data Mining, was featured prominently in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing early the next year. Privacy gives way to appropriate security measures, as the Fourth Am... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2963078 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:24:23 +0100 2963078 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2950685&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F11%2F02%2Fnhs-inpatient-and-outpatient-waiting-times-figures-30-september-2009%2F Title: NHS inpatient and outpatient waiting times figures, 30 September 2009 Skinny: Latest waiting times statistics.  Key details are: Inpatient waiting times The number of patients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over the 26 weeks standard at the end of September 2009 was 47. The number of patients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over 13 weeks at the end of September 2009 was 49,500, an increase of 4,300 (9.6%) from August 2009, and a rise of 6,600 (15.3%) from September 2008. Outpatient waiting times The number of patients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over the 13 weeks standard for a first outpatient appointment following GP referral at the end of September 2009 was 101. The number of patients, for whom En... Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2950685 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:01:58 +0100 2950685 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2943764&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fc_AVM17vP68%2F The bad news this morning on the impact of both the federal stimulus and the Cash for Clunkers program should not come as a surprise to anyone who has paid attention to the history of government intervention in the economy. New data that the jobs created by the stimulus have been overstated by thousands is compelling, but it’s really a secondary issue. The primary issue is that the government cannot “create” anything without hurting something else. To “create” jobs, the government must first extract wealth from the economy via taxation, or raise the money by issuing debt. Regardless of whether the burden is borne by present or future taxpayers, the result is the same: job creation and economic growth are inhibited. At the same time the government is taking und... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2943764 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:05:37 +0100 2943764 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2939486&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F0G7cq8m61qs%2F There are a select few people whose every word I try and absorb and chew on because I have great respect for their thinking and intelligence. Matt Wood is one of those people, and today he decided to tweet a manifesto. The whole series started with I’m starting a manifesto. There are no technical, political or funding reasons why an open data platform for science couldn’t excel He then followed that up with five tweets (Matt’s Twitter stream). I don’t know if that’s the entire manifesto, but I reproduce those tweets below, a series entitled Towards a science data platform Easy, flexible retrieval and reuse above all else A laser sharp focus on scientific productivity and progress Scalability and speed are not mutually exclusive Well designed, high quality pro... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2939486 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:37:13 +0100 2939486 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2934894&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F10%2Fmany-nations-are-getting-more-religious.php One thing that has bothered me, or at least piqued my interest, are two seemingly contradictory facts:1) Many regions & nations have seen a resurgence of religion in the past generation (i.e., 1980s to 2010). The post-Communist and Islamic world most prominently. There is quantitative data for the post-Communist world, while for the Islamic world it is more impressionistic (e.g., the shift toward more stark outward "conservatism" in dress among the young).2) But The World Values Survey does not show a skew toward religiosity among the young for most nations. Very few in fact. This is a bit curious in light of some plausible background assumptions. For example, religious people have more children the world over within each nation (though religiosity at the national level may have a more unp... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2934894 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:13:00 +0100 2934894 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2927249&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2Fclinics-medical-files-vanish.html At "Data Malpractice on T-Mobile Sidekick: But Don't Worry, Your Medical Data is Safe", on Oct. 16 I wrote:One of the promises made about healthcare IT is that your medical data is "safer" in electronic form than in paper form. The Hurricane Katrina example of paper records being destroyed is often used as a poster example of the dangers of paper records.However, the risk of electronic storage of information, especially the talk of national EMR's stored on the "cloud" (an amorphous term meaning distributed storage "out there" whose physical sites and boundaries are supposedly irrelevant from the user's perspective) has also been under-reported.Personal customer data had been "lost" from many of T-Mobile USA's Sidekick devices due to a computer malfunction, although the data was apparently ... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2927249 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:20:00 +0100 2927249 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2924783&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F10%2F24%2Fmortality-target-monitoring-2008%2F Title: Mortality target monitoring 2008 Skinny: Latest annual update on mortality rates, with data updated to 2006-08, which are used to monitor progress against Department of Health mortality targets for cancer, circulatory diseases, suicide and injury of undetermined intent, and accidents in England, were released on 14 October 2009 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority. Key findings: Three-year average mortality rates for cancer (ages under 75) for England have fallen by 19.3% since the baseline.  If the trend of the last ten years were to continue, the target for a 20% reduction by 2009-11 would be met. The absolute gap in mortality rates for cancer (ages under 75) between the Spearhead Group and England as a whole has reduced by 10.5% since the basel... Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2924783 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:05:19 +0100 2924783 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2912376&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F10%2Fobese-regions-do-vote-for-mccain-but.php A friend pointed me to this article in Slate which noted:This size bias may ultimately play out along party lines. The last presidential election revealed a startling overlap between statewide obesity figures and support for the GOP. Despite losing in a landslide, John McCain carried all nine of the fattest states in the union and 16 of the top 20. (Obama prevailed in 17 of the 20 thinnest states, including New Jersey.) In the race for governor of a very blue state, Christie's girth marks him as an outsider-a member of the chunky-monkey Fox News demographic, the kind of guy who rides around in an SUV and eats Double Down sandwiches. If Christie stands in for America's boorish consumer culture, then Corzine-slender, bearded, and bespectacled-represents the cosmopolitan elite.The issue thoug... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2912376 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:09:00 +0100 2912376 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2908596&cid=t_345798_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquantavie.net%2F2009%2F10%2Fpatients-data-markets%2F When 2+2 Equals a Privacy Question—NYTimes The idea of an entirely paperless medical system holds the promise of more efficient and cost-effective care. And, with the incentive of stimulus package money, many companies are rushing to sell clinical information systems to streamline services like patient scheduling, sample tracking, and billing at hospitals and clinics. In some cases, the same companies that sell data management systems to hospitals and physicians also store that information and then repackage it to make money on other services. Transforming healthcare through secondary use of health data—PricewaterhouseCoopers US The data that could be mined from the US health system can be re-used to improve patient care, predict public health trends, reduce healthcare costs... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2908596 Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:34:05 +0100 2908596 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2901607&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2Fdata-malpractice-on-t-mobile-sidekick.html One of the promises made about healthcare IT is that your medical data is "safer" in electronic form than in paper form. The Hurricane Katrina example of paper records being destroyed is often used as a poster example of the dangers of paper records.However, the risk of electronic storage of information, especially the talk of national EMR's stored on the "cloud" (an amorphous term meaning distributed storage "out there" whose physical sites and boundaries are supposedly irrelevant from the user's perspective) has also been under-reported. Excluding frequent reports of data confidentiality breaches, we also have this:Wall Street Journal, Oct. 15, 2009Microsoft Recovers Lost Sidekick DataBy ROGER CHENGMicrosoft Corp. said Thursday that it has been able to recover the personal customer data... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2901607 Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:28:00 +0100 2901607 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2890941&cid=t_345798_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FiQEWWXzg-tk%2F The groundbreaking legal spat pitting Vermont against drug makers and data providers is being argued in a federal court in New York and, so far, the toughest questions have been directed at Vermont’s Assistant Attorney General, according to The Pink Sheet. You may recall that Vermont passed a law restricting the sale of prescription drug info that identifies prescribers and patients for commercial marketing purposes. The effort is being challenged by IMS Health, Wolters Kluwer Health and SDI, with support from PhRMA, which contend the law hurts public access to healthcare info (back story). During oral arguments, a lawyer for PhRMA contended that Vermont’s law is an “attempt to correct the balance of ideas” and “to shape the message of pharmaceutical companies... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2890941 Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:45:39 +0100 2890941 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2882971&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F10%2F12%2Fthe-human-fertilisation-embryology-act-1990-disclosure-of-identifying-information-for-research-regulations-for-consultation%2F Title: The Human Fertilisation & Embryology Act 1990: disclosure of identifying information for research: regulations for consultation Skinny: Second consultation on the regulations to establish a procedure for authorising the disclosure of identifying information held by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, for research purposes, where it is not practicable to obtain consent to the disclosure from the persons to whom the information relates. Publisher: DH Size of Publication: 26p Published: 08/10/2009 Posted in Data Protection, Grey Literature, Human Rights, NHS Tagged: Consent, Data Protection, Grey Literature, Human Fertility, Identification, Regulations (Source: Fade Library) Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2882971 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:29:04 +0100 2882971 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2883078&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F10%2F11%2Fhhs-connect-program-for-healthcare-data-interoperability%2F I’ll admit to not being the most expert person on HIE, RHIO, NHIN, and all of the other acronyms associated what really is just creating systems and structures for sharing healthcare data between various doctors and systems. However, I do have some knowledge in the area since I believe all of these things will be important for those using an EMR. So, I was surprised when I’d never heard of HHS’ health connect software. Here’s a short bit from Government Health IT of the government’s connect software’s latest update: The Health & Human Services Department (HHS) has updated the government’s Connect software to improve information security and enterprise services for organizations that want to use it to exchange health data, said its senior architect... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2883078 Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:15:16 +0100 2883078 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2881226&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FWQQKD1NljAw%2F I’ll admit to not being the most expert person on HIE, RHIO, NHIN, and all of the other acronyms associated what really is just creating systems and structures for sharing healthcare data between various doctors and systems. However, I do have some knowledge in the area since I believe all of these things will be important for those using an EMR. So, I was surprised when I’d never heard of HHS’ health connect software. Here’s a short bit from Government Health IT of the government’s connect software’s latest update: The Health & Human Services Department (HHS) has updated the government’s Connect software to improve information security and enterprise services for organizations that want to use it to exchange health data, said its senior architect... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2881226 Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:15:16 +0100 2881226 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3524059&cid=t_345798_85_f&fid=39183&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdrbobbs.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F10%2F10%2Fdata-breach%2F BlueCross BlueShield data breach affects 850,000 doctors: Physicians’ names addresses, federal tax ID numbers and national provider numbers were contained in an unencrypted file on the laptop. The data breach presents the possibility of massive medical insurance fraud, but the 187,000 doctors who used their Social Security numbers as tax ID numbers or provider numbers [...] (Source: Dr. Bobbs) Dr. Bobbs blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3524059 Sun, 11 Oct 2009 04:26:21 +0100 3524059 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2879729&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F10%2Funinsured-by-county-by-voting.php The New York Times has a piece, The Divided States of Health Care:Those who lack health insurance now are far more likely to live in states that usually vote Republican — the states whose senators and representatives are least likely to support a law to extend coverage.That would seem to indicate that Republican constituents are the ones who would most benefit from passage of universal health insurance coverage. But an analysis of Congressional districts within those states indicates that those without health insurance are much more likely to live in strongly Democratic Congressional districts. Many of those contain large minority populations with relatively low incomes.This is not a surprising finding. Some of the most Democratic districts due to variables of race & income are in "R... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2879729 Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:43:00 +0100 2879729 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2875968&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F10%2F09%2Fworking-together-to-save-lives-the-organ-donation-taskforce-implementation-programmes-annual-report-200809%2F Title: Working together to save lives: the Organ Donation Taskforce Implementation Programme’s annual report, 2008/09 Skinny: Highlights the progress that has been made in the first year of the Implementation Programme.  The move to a centrally managed, and enlarged, network of Donor Transplant Coordinators and the appointment of Clinical Leads for Organ Donation within hospital trusts, coupled with greater public awareness of  organ donation, have led to: an increase of 11% in deceased donor rates, leading to 172 extra transplants an increase of 12% in living donation, leading to 104 extra transplants an increase of 7% in the number of people on the NHS Organ Donor Register, taking the total well past the 16 million figure. Publisher: DH Size of Publication: 28p Published: 08/1... Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2875968 Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:20:50 +0100 2875968 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2871532&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2Fhealth-it-vendors-trafficking-in.html Of all of the risks regarding electronic health records, the largest is perhaps to privacy and confidentiality, and other civil liberties through the ability of information technology to rapidly duplicate and disseminate massive amounts of data.This duplication and dissemination can be performed in a controlled manner for the betterment of patient and public health, but it can also occur in a harmful manner that serves the interests of others, often without meaningful informed consent by the patients (legal jargon on typical disclosure forms that almost nobody reads or understands does not fall into what I consider "meaningful").This can occur in, for example, the stealing of computers and computer backup disks, tape etc., which seems to be a common occurrence in the news in recent years, ... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2871532 Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:06:00 +0100 2871532 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2865811&cid=t_345798_125_f&fid=34820&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dentalblogs.com%2Farchives%2Fadministrator%2Fis-your-data-safe-5-tips-for-data-security-in-your-dental-practice%25e2%2580%25a6%2F Protecting patient data is a critical part of the modern dental practice – especially in light of HIPAA requirements. How does this translate into daily operations at your practice? Tom Terronez of Medix Dental has put together some tips to make sure you are doing all you can to protect your patient’s data… 1. Are you emailing patient information and digital x-rays to other doctors? Make sure that your office and the receiving office utilize encrypted email services. If you don’t, your data can easily be read on its path from your practice to theirs. HIPAA states that you are responsible for making a reasonable attempt at protecting your data. 2. Do you have a wireless router in your office? If you are using wireless Internet for internal purposes, make sure your router is a curren... dental blog for dentists about dentistry blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2865811 Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:42:53 +0100 2865811 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2865778&cid=t_345798_114_f&fid=34646&url=http%3A%2F%2Fweb.me.com%2Fasgoldberg1%2Ffilechute%2Fharmstandarddatabreachletter.pdf Members of the U.S. House of Representative submitted an October 1, 2009 letter of concern to Secretary Sebelius and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) concerning inclusion of a "harm standard" in the recently released(August 24, 2009) Interim Final Rule - Breach Notification for Unsecured Protected Health Information (45 CFR Part 160 and 164) 74 Fed. Reg. 42740.HHS in developing the Interim Final Rule interpreted the term "compromises" as meaning that a threshold substantial harm standard should be included when determining whether a breach of data has occurred. However, the Members indicate in their letter that they considered whether a "harm standard" should be a part of the legislation and decided not to include such a standard. The letter urges HHS to revise and repeal ... Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2865778 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:28:41 +0100 2865778 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2862609&cid=t_345798_114_f&fid=34646&url=http%3A%2F%2Fedocket.access.gpo.gov%2F2009%2Fpdf%2FE9-20169.pdf Have you had a health data security breach? Do you know what a health data breach is? Are you required to notify individuals impacted by the breach? Do you have to notify federal agencies of such breach?Read on for more information regarding the Office for Civil Right (OCR) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations requiring health care providers and other health data business vendors to assess and in some cases notify and report health information data breaches under the new federal law created by ARRA-HITECH.The new regulations went into effect on September 23, 2009 and September 24, 2009, respectively, with a full compliance date of February 22, 2010. Health care providers covered under HIPAA and third party users of health information, including personal health record (PHR) compan... Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2862609 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:55:03 +0100 2862609 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2857491&cid=t_345798_122_f&fid=35068&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbrainwindows.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F10%2F02%2Fautomated-roi-analysis-for-calcium-imaging%2F One of the most time consuming and frustrating tasks associated with fluorescence imaging in the brain is picking out your regions of interest.  Which pixels do you include in as part of the cell and which are part of the surrounding neuropil?  Often, the answer is not obvious, and even with painstaking selections you can make errors.  Eran Mukamel et. al, from Mark Schnitzer’s lab just published this Neurotechnique Automated Analysis of Cellular Signals from Large-Scale Calcium Imaging Data that aims to simplify and improve the results of ROI selection.  The authors used a multistage approach to identify and quantify the calcium-dependent fluorescence changes of imaged neurons. First, they used principal component analysis to identify the components of the image that were likel... Brain Windows blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2857491 Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:04:54 +0100 2857491 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2855507&cid=t_345798_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F10%2F02%2Fnhs-inpatient-and-outpatient-waiting-times-figures-31-august-2009%2F Title: NHS inpatient and outpatient waiting times figures, 31 August 2009 The Skinny: Inpatient waiting times The number of patients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over the 26 weeks standard at the end of August 2009 was 59. The number of patients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over 13 weeks at the end of August 2009 was 45,200, an increase of 2,200 (5.1%) from July 2009, but a rise of 4,400 (10.8%) from August 2008. Outpatient waiting times The number of patients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over the 13 weeks standard for a first outpatient appointment following GP referral at the end of August 2009 was 74. The number of patients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over 8 weeks at the e... Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2855507 Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:32:52 +0100 2855507 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2855770&cid=t_345798_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F10%2Freligion-teen-birthrate-relation.php A few weeks ago I pointed to a paper which suggested a state-level relationship between teen births and religiosity. I did the calculation, and added in race as a control, as well as breaking out birthrate of the 15-17 age bracket. My results differ a little because 1) I didn't impute states like Rhode Island, 2) I think I used 2000 Census household income numbers, not later American Community Survey numbers (my bad). Teen Birth Rate 15-17 Birth Rate r r (control Black) r (control Household Income) r r (control Black) r (control Household Income) Black 0.41 0.41 0.39 0.38 Median Household Income -0.59 -0.59 -0.49 -0.49 Religiosity Index 0.72 0.64 0.55 0.65 0.56 0.49 Race didn't make th... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2855770 Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:25:00 +0100 2855770 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2851740&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F7WV-RsICUJA%2F On Sunday, the Washington Post ran an op-ed by the chancellor and vice chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, in which the writers proposed that the federal government start pumping money into a select few public universities. Why? On the constantly repeated but never substantiated assertion that state and local governments have been cutting those schools off. As I point out in the following, unpublished letter to the editor, that is what we in the business call “a lie:” It’s unfortunate that officials of a taxpayer-funded university felt the need to deceive in order to get more taxpayer dough, but that’s what UC Berkeley’s Robert Birgeneau and Frank Yeary did. Writing about the supposedly dire financial straits of public higher education (“Rescuing Ou... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2851740 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:02:09 +0100 2851740 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2862455&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=35060&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthnewsblog.com%2Fblog%2F929091 A website called Flucount.org is attempting to track the cases and deaths of H1N1 swine flu around the world. Tracking is not easy because testing is different in different pats of the world. Many cases are also never tested and some deaths are likely missed. Even in the U.S. there is a lack of confirming whether each case is H1N1 related because test kits aren't always accurate and it takes too long to get results back from the CDC. There are also people who get the flu and never tell anyone and there also people who never have symptoms. The CDC itself has gone back to reporting overall flu cases instead of trying to track individual H1N1 cases. This works for now because the bulk of the flu cases are currently suspected to be H1N1. When the regular flu season hits this winter it may be... HealthNewsBlog.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2862455 Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:00:00 +0100 2862455 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2842513&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FM9AfmWdCXWQ%2F USA Today’s Dennis Cauchon reports that ”state governments are rushing to borrow money to take advantage of cheap and plentiful credit at a time when tax collections are tumbling.” That will allow them to “avoid some painful spending cuts,” Cauchon notes, but it will sadly impose more pain on taxpayers down the road. When politicians have the chance to act irresponsibly, they will act irresponsibly. Give them low interest rates and they go on a borrowing binge. The result is that they are in over their heads with massive piles of bond debt on top of the huge unfunded obligations they have built up for state pension and health care plans. The chart shows that total state and local government debt soared 93 percent this decade. It jumped from $1.2 trilli... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2842513 Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:34:18 +0100 2842513 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2890709&cid=t_345798_109_f&fid=34761&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedblitz.com%2F%7E%2F1593591%2Fpzbmk%2Fneuromarketing%7EYour-Brain-on-Thousands-of-Products.htm Last week, we saw that order of presentation of a small number of products dramatically affects consumer preference. (See Order Effect Affects Orders.) But how do our brains cope when choices number in the hundreds or thousands, and how do websites best match products or services to their visitors? First, a warning – Neuromarketing reader participation [...] CommentsBy: Tom Kasperski by Tom KasperskiBy: Kim (Edible/Usable) by Kim (Edible/Usable)Plus 4 more... (Source: Neuromarketing) Neuromarketing blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2890709 Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:58:05 +0100 2890709 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2886504&cid=t_345798_109_f&fid=34761&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedblitz.com%2F%7E%2F1593591%2Fps5fb%2Fneuromarketing%7EYour-Brain-on-Thousands-of-Products.htm Last week, we saw that order of presentation of a small number of products dramatically affects consumer preference. (See Order Effect Affects Orders.) But how do our brains cope when choices number in the hundreds or thousands, and how do websites best match products or services to their visitors? First, a warning – Neuromarketing reader participation [...] CommentsBy: Tom Kasperski by Tom KasperskiBy: Kim (Edible/Usable) by Kim (Edible/Usable)Plus 4 more... (Source: Neuromarketing) Neuromarketing blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2886504 Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:58:05 +0100 2886504 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2838983&cid=t_345798_109_f&fid=34761&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.neurosciencemarketing.com%2Fblog%2Farticles%2Fbrain-search-match.htm Last week, we saw that order of presentation of a small number of products dramatically affects consumer preference. (See Order Effect Affects Orders.) But how do our brains cope when choices number in the hundreds or thousands, and how do websites best match products or services to their visitors? First, a warning – Neuromarketing reader participation [...] Related posts:Google and Your Brain, Part 2Search Engine Claims to Mimic Brain (Source: Neuromarketing) Neuromarketing blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2838983 Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:58:05 +0100 2838983 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2836304&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FkYErcJwifaI%2F Image via Wikipedia Just read the transcript of what sounded like an excellent talk by Greg Pfister about the next 20 years of HPC. Here are some of the key points of his talk Computing will become cheaper, but not necessarily much faster per processor There will be democratization of at least some HPC. In other words with faster processors and accelerators, we might all have access to some sort of TeraFLOPS device Computing will be done all over the place, with a lot being done in the cloud. I am not quite sure I get what Greg was aiming at with his section on garbage computing, but my guess is that the cycles we’ll consume might not be the highest quality cycles but they’ll get the job done You will be billed by how much power and bandwidth your computation consumes, not ... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2836304 Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:24:36 +0100 2836304 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2846462&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F09%2F25%2Femr-data-archiving%2F In my previous post I talked about a few of the options related to shredding or archiving your paper charts after you’ve implemented an EMR and the paper charts aren’t being accessed. Now let’s take a look at what’s just begun to come up in our clinic: EMR Data Archiving Archiving Old EMR Records Once you’ve been on an EMR for a number of years, you start to think about all of the data that’s stored in your EMR. Do you really want to store ALL of the information you’ve entered into an EMR in perpetuity? The answer as usual is maybe. Quick Disclaimer: Before you do any EMR data archiving, you better talk to a good lawyer to make sure what you’re doing is legal in your state. I am not a lawyer and don’t even play one on TV. Just don&#8217... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2846462 Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:00:58 +0100 2846462 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832245&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2F0S30e8dSZ8w%2F In my previous post I talked about a few of the options related to shredding or archiving your paper charts after you’ve implemented an EMR and the paper charts aren’t being accessed. Now let’s take a look at what’s just begun to come up in our clinic: EMR Data Archiving Archiving Old EMR Records Once you’ve been on an EMR for a number of years, you start to think about all of the data that’s stored in your EMR. Do you really want to store ALL of the information you’ve entered into an EMR in perpetuity? The answer as usual is maybe. Quick Disclaimer: Before you do any EMR data archiving, you better talk to a good lawyer to make sure what you’re doing is legal in your state. I am not a lawyer and don’t even play one on TV. Just don&#8217... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832245 Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:00:58 +0100 2832245 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2824367&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FZ9-LJglzYaU%2F Today I got a chance to see a short pitch by Dhruv Bansal from Infochimps announcing the launch of “the world’s largest open platform for data”. I have talked about the Infochimps here before, but this announcement launches them as a marketplace for data, and they have kindly given me 50 invite codes. So if you use the code “bigbiodata” you can sign up for a beta account as well. Let’s get our data out there. Related articles by Zemanta Infochimps: Share and Sell Your Raw Data (readwriteweb.com) Infochimps Wants Folks to Monkey Around With Its Data (gigaom.com) DEMO: Infochimps lets users share and sell data (venturebeat.com) Since some of the data seta on AWS Public Data Sets come from the good folk at the Infochimps, please read this disclaimer (Sou... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2824367 Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:27:38 +0100 2824367 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2820447&cid=t_345798_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2009%2F09%2F21%2Fdead-salmon-in-fmri-machine-shows-signs-of-thought-not-really%2F This poster, by Bennett, Baird, Miller, and Wolford, provides a memorable reminder that you have to do a statistical correction for multiple comparisons when you datamine a large number of things for correlation. “The task administered to the salmon involved completing an open-ended mentalizing task. The salmon was shown a series of photographs depicting human individuals in social situations with a specified emotional valence. The salmon was asked to determine what emotion the individual in the photo must have been experiencing.” Voxels in the data were searched to find voxels which show a statistically significant correlation with the experimental condition. 16 such voxels were found (without doing any correction). As the poster says, “Across the 130,000 voxels in a ty... neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2820447 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:46:50 +0100 2820447 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2820206&cid=t_345798_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FyOSuDWU6edg%2F I won’t go on at too much length about FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s speech at Brookings announcing his intention to codify the principle of “net neutrality” in agency rules—not because I don’t have thoughts, but because I expect it would be hard to improve on my colleague Tim Lee’s definitive paper, and because there’s actually not a whole lot of novel substance in the speech. The digest version is that the open Internet is awesome (true!) and so the FCC is going to impose a “nondiscrimination” obligation on telecom providers—though Genachowski makes sure to stress this won’t be an obstacle to letting the copyright cops sniff through your packets for potentially “unauthorized” music, or otherwise interfere wit... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2820206 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:41:58 +0100 2820206 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2809848&cid=t_345798_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FruD3vCSXd08%2F Over the next few months, I’ll be giving a bunch of talks about large scale data. I will be talking at Hadoop World about “Hadoop for Bioinformatics“, at a Cloud Computing for Hedge Funds and at Supercomputing. Thinking through what I want to cover at all these talks has my brain in overdrive these days. At the same time discussions with various people facing data-related challenged provides a reality check and reminds me that there is still a long way to go. The one concept that people need to start putting their head around is the relative location of compute and data. Many people still think along the “move data to the compute” paradigm. When our data sets were small, this was not a problem. As instruments provide more and more data, ever faster, that tends... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2809848 Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:33:17 +0100 2809848 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2800507&cid=t_345798_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F09%2F15%2Fhealthcare-data-sharing-in-emr-software%2F Healthcare data sharing is one of the hottest topics when talking about the importance of EMR software. Some people call it healthcare data portability. One of the problems I have with these discussions is that everyone has different goals for why they want to share the information. Here’s a partial list of reasons people may want to share healthcare data between various EMR respositories (in no particular order): Clinical data sharing for reimbursement purposes Quality data sharing for broader research goals Quality data sharing to meet ARRA requirements/reimbursement Data shared for continuity of care between providers There are probably other reasons to have EMR software be able to share clinical data. However, you get the basic point. There are a lot of reasons why people want ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2800507 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:45:59 +0100 2800507