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BACKGROUND: Pharmacist-led medication review and medication management programs (MMP) are well-known strategies to improve medication safety and effectiveness. If performed interprofessionally, outcomes might even improve. However, little is known about task sharing in interprofessional MMP, in which general practitioners (GPs) and community pharmacists (CPs) collaboratively perform medication reviews and continuously follow-up on patients with designated medical and pharmaceutical tasks, respectively. In 2016, ARMIN (Arzneimittelinitiative Sachsen-Thüringen) an interprofessional MMP was launched in two German federal states, Saxony and Thuringia. The aim of this study was to understand how GPs and CPs share tasks in MMP when reviewing the patients' medication. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional postal survey among GPs and CPs who participated in the MMP. Participants were asked who completed which MMP tasks, e.g., checking drug-drug interactions, dosing, and side effects. In total, 15 MMP tasks were surveyed using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from "I complete this task alone" to "GP/CP completes this task alone". The study was conducted between 11/2020 and 04/2021. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: In total, 114/165 (69.1%) GPs and 166/243 (68.3%) CPs returned a questionnaire. The majority of GPs and CPs reported (i) checking clinical parameters and medication overuse and underuse to be completed by GPs, (ii) checking storage conditions of drugs and initial compilation of the patient's medication including brown bag review being mostly performed by CPs, and (iii) checking side-effects, non-adherence, and continuous updating of the medication list were carried out jointly. The responses differed most for problems with self-medication and adding and removing over-the-counter medicines from the medication list. In addition, the responses revealed that some MMP tasks were not sufficiently performed by either GPs or CPs. CONCLUSIONS: Both GPs' and CPs' expertise are needed to perform MMP as comprehensively as possible. Future studies should explore how GPs and CPs can complement each other in MMP most efficiently.

Unstructured information in electronic health records provide an invaluable resource for medical research. To protect the confidentiality of patients and to conform to privacy regulations, de-identification methods automatically remove personally identifying information from these medical records. However, due to the unavailability of labeled data, most existing research is constrained to English medical text and little is known about the generalizability of de-identification methods across languages and domains. In this study, we construct a varied dataset consisting of the medical records of 1260 patients by sampling data from 9 institutes and three domains of Dutch healthcare. We test the generalizability of three de-identification methods across languages and domains. Our experiments show that an existing rule-based method specifically developed for the Dutch language fails to generalize to this new data. Furthermore, a state-of-the-art neural architecture performs strongly across languages and domains, even with limited training data. Compared to feature-based and rule-based methods the neural method requires significantly less configuration effort and domain-knowledge. We make all code and pre-trained de-identification models available to the research community, allowing practitioners to apply them to their datasets and to enable future benchmarks., Comment: Proceedings of the 1st ACM WSDM Health Search and Data Mining Workshop (HSDM2020), 2020

The purpose of the Strategic Workshop in Information Retrieval in Lorne is to explore the long-range issues of the Information Retrieval field, to recognize challenges that are on - or even over - the horizon, to build consensus on some of the key challenges, and to disseminate the resulting information to the research community. The intent is that this description of open problems will help to inspire researchers and graduate students to address the questions, and will provide funding agencies data to focus and coordinate support for information retrieval research.

We are well beyond the days of expecting search engines to help us find documents containing the answer to a question or information about a query. We expect a search engine to help us in the decision-making process. Argument retrieval task in Touché Track at CLEF2020 has been defined to address this problem. The user is looking for information about several alternatives to make a choice between them. The search engine should retrieve opinionated documents containing comparisons between the alternatives rather than documents about one option or documents including personal opinions or no suggestion at all. In this paper, we discuss argument retrieval from web documents. In order to retrieve argumentative documents from the web, we use three features (PageRank scores, domains, argumentative classifier) and try to strike a balance between them. We evaluate the method based on three dimensions: relevance, argumentativeness, and trustworthiness. Since the labeled data and final results for Toucheé Track have not been out yet, the evaluation has been done by manually labeling documents for 5 queries.

This paper documents the University of Amsterdam’s participation in CLEF 2020 Touché Track. This is the first year this track has been introduced at CLEF, and we were attracted to participate in it due to its potentialities for Parliamentary debates we are currently working on. This track consists of two tasks: Conversational Argument Retrieval and Comparative Argument Retrieval. We submitted a run to both tasks. For the first task, we used a combination of the traditional BM25 model and learning to rank models. BM25 model helps to retrieve relevant arguments, and learning to rank model helps to re-rank the list and put stronger arguments on top of the list. For the second task, Comparative Argument Retrieval, we proposed a pipeline to re-rank documents retrieved from Clueweb using three features: PageRank scores, web domains, and argumentativeness. Preliminary results on 5 queries have shown that this heuristic pipeline may help to achieve a balance among three important dimensions: relevance, trustworthiness, and argumentativeness.

BACKGROUND:A complete overview on the patient's medication is one precondition for medication safety. For this, a complete and current medication plan (MP) is an appropriate instrument. We aimed to develop and implement software to evaluate and exchange medication plans in local software systems of general practitioners (GPs) and community pharmacies (CPs). Furthermore, it was the aim to evaluate feasibility and acceptance of the defined processes. METHODS:CPs and GPs were involved to pilot the software in several steps. Additionally, they generated and updated MP according to pre-defined processes and responsibilities. Feasibility and acceptance were evaluated in a survey and a workshop. RESULTS:For the first time in Germany, the technical requirements were established to generate and exchange MP electronically. Four software systems of CPs and one software system of GPs were involved. Solved Problems were technical errors, errors relevant for medication safety, differences in display of the medication data, and limited capacity of the barcode on the MP printout. Eleven GP and CP teams recruited 196 patients. 60 % were satisfied with the defined processes. 80 % of the GPs and 63 % of CPs agreed with the defined responsibilities. GPs considered the initial compilation on patient's medication in the CP as useful. The professional exchange between GPs and CPs improved: 70 % of GPs referred to increased knowledge on medication and 88 % of CPs received more information on patients' health conditions. The structured collaboration between GPs and CPs was considered to be important (25 %) or very important (75 %) for the quality of medication plans. DISCUSSION:An electronic MP was successfully implemented for the first time in local software systems. Processes and responsibilities were accepted by both professions. These are important prerequisites for sustainably implementing the MP in daily practice.

Since 1 October 2016, all legally insured persons are entitled to a nationwide medication plan (BMP) under certain conditions (according to § 31a SGB V, E-Health Law). The catalogue of measures of the 3rd Action Plan 2013-2015 for the improvement of drug therapy safety (AMTS) provided for the testing of a medication plan in practice, including its acceptance and practicability in three model projects. These three projects - MetropolMediplan 2016, Erfurt, and PRIMA - are presented and recommendations are derived on the basis of the collected findings. Overall, the BMP was welcomed by the participating patients in all projects and led to an increase in satisfaction and an improvement in competence with regard to medication. Both doctors and pharmacists rated the interdisciplinary cooperation via the medium BMP very positively. The high effort and lack of technical infrastructure without electronic availability of the last current version of a BMP of the individual patient was perceived as negative. An original data comparison of the BMP data with the drugs actually taken in the MetropolMediplan 2016 project showed that only 36% of the patients were in agreement with the BMP and the drugs presently taken. The paper version of the BMP has therefore not yet been able to solve the problem of the timeliness and completeness of the medication. In addition to various proposals for the further development of BMP, all parties involved require the BMP to be available electronically across all sectors. The BMP should therefore be an important instrument for improving AMTS in the future.

The H2020 GATEWAY project aims to develop a comprehensive model Pilot Case which, intentionally, will pave the ground for CCS deployment in Europe. It will result from the assessment of, technical, commercial, judicial and societal issues related to a future CO2 transport infrastructure. The Pilot Case derived on this basis, will emphasize a gateway for CO2 transport in the North Sea Basin. Four potential pilot cases have been evaluated through a combination of techno-economic modelling of the individual cases and evaluation against more qualitative criteria. The chosen Pilot Case, Rotterdam Nucleus, will be refined and developed during the remaining period of the GATEWAY project. To maximise impact, the GATEWAY project adapts its work to lay the foundation for a future application to a European ‘Project of Common Interest’ (PCI). Continuous dialogue with the most relevant stakeholders is an important part of GATEWAY, as a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) H2020 project.

There is a need to gather new knowledge on the fundamental properties of CO2 mixtures with impurities and their impact on the chain integrity and economics of Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) chains. One of the main results from the FP7 IMPACTS project is the IMPACTS toolbox, which comprises new experimental data, thermodynamic reference models for CO2 mixtures relevant for CCS and the framework for CCS risk assessment taking Health Safety & Environment aspects, the impact of the quality of the CO2 and CCS chain integrity into account, and finally the recommendations report.

The IMPACTS project has the objective to develop the knowledge base of CO2 quality required for establishing norms and regulations to ensure safe and reliable design, construction and operation of CO2 pipelines and injection equipment, and safe long-term geological storage of CO2. More specifically for this paper, the project sets out to reveal the impacts of relevant impurities in the CO2 stream on the design, operation and costs of the capture, transport and storage infrastructure and to provide recommendations for optimized CO2 quality through technoeconomic assessments. The areas covered include corrosion from water content in the CO2 stream in combination with other impurities and the influences of impurities on transport, injection and storage processes and include estimates of the cost of measures to mitigate or prevent these impacts, or of adapting of CCS system design. A specifically designed CCS chain model is used to assess the impacts on a number of reference CCS chains, evaluating economic trade-offs to both understand the full-chain whole-life economics of certain CO2 impurities at different levels and then to potentially optimize a purity specification for various sets of circumstances.

There is an urgent drive to implement Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) on a commercial and global scale. This needs to be done in a demonstrably safe and responsible manner that gains widespread acceptance of stakeholders, most notably regulators and the public. If inhaled in sufficiently high concentrations, CO2 can have toxicological effects on the human body. The hazardous aspects of CO2, combined with the very large quantities that will be contained within CCS systems create the potential that a leak from a CO2 system could pose a major accident hazard. The CO2 stream from capture plants will not be 100% pure, but contain substances, referred to as stream impurities, such as CO, H2O, H2S, NOx, SOx, O2 and H2 that, although in very low levels, can change the properties of the CO2 stream and can change the likelihood and/or the consequences of CO2 system leaks. The IMPACTS project is concerned with the impact these impurities may have when present in CO2 transport and storage systems. The risks associated with CO2 captured as a result of CCS operations differ from those previously encountered either in Natural Gas pipelines or in pure CO2 pipelines (used in USA and elsewhere for enhanced oil recovery operations) in a number of ways, but particularly on account of the large volumes, high pressures and nature of the impurities involved. Established techniques can be used to determine the risks from events that would undermine the overall integrity derived from the design, manufacture, construction and operation of the infrastructure. Some of these techniques and the assessment thereof have been described, together with consequences that can be expected, based on industry experience with pipelines other than those transporting impure CO2. Some of the event types that can lead to a reduction in the level of safety of transport and storage of large volumes of impure CO2, under high pressure, have been identified, and the associated risks described. A significant amount of information, including guidelines, industry standards and legislation, exists worldwide and provides decision support for the design of pipelines carrying hazardous materials. This includes risk reduction measures, requirements for risk assessment, risk criteria and the need for further risk reduction. However, in most cases CO2 is not currently in the scope, but it is possible to apply many of the principles therein to pipelines containing CO2, albeit with some caution. In the absence of agreed guidance figures, reference is made to standards that could be used in system design to support a Safety Case to demonstrate that the risks are at an acceptable level. It would be hoped that these will serveto stimulate debate and provide a starting point from which an acceptable balance might be found between applying additional measures to improve safety by design, and providing projects that are affordable, at the same time allaying public concerns implicit in the introduction of new technologies. At the same time an ISO Standard for CCS is being produced, and this also attempts to provide necessary guidance for system designers.

Contains fulltext : 163225.pdf (Author’s version preprint ) (Open Access) ICML '16: The 33rd International Conference on Machine Learning, June 24, New York, 2016. ML Systems Workshop

Contains fulltext : 159594.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access)

Contains fulltext : 158065.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)

The project PRIMA aims at implementing the medication plan in software applications of both participating physician and pharmacist. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) and performed in the Federal States of Saxony and Thuringia. A pilot study on the readability and understandability[for full text, please go to the a.m. URL], 17. Jahreskongress für Klinische Pharmakologie

Information retrieval systems centrally build upon the concept of relevance in order to rank documents in response to a user's query. Assessing relevance is a non-trivial operation that can be influenced by a multitude of factors that go beyond mere topical overlap with the query. This thesis argues that relevance depends on personal (Chapter 2) and situational (Chapter 3) context. In many use cases, there is no single interpretation of the concept that would optimally satisfy all users in all possible situations. We postulate that relevance should be explicitly modelled as a composite notion comprised of individual relevance dimensions. To this end, we show how automatic inference schemes based on document content and user activity can be used in order to estimate such constituents of relevance (Chapter 4). Alternatively, we can employ human expertise, harnessed, for example, via commercial crowdsourcing or serious games to judge the degree to which a document satisfies a given set of relevance dimensions (Chapter 5). Finally, we need a model that allows us to estimate the joint distribution of relevance across all previously obtained dimensions. In this thesis, we propose using copulas, a model family originating from the field of quantitative finances that decouples observations and dependency structure and which can account for complex non-linear dependencies among relevance dimensions (Chapter 6).

xTAS is an extendable multi-user text analysis service for large scale multi-lingual document analysis developed at the University of Amsterdam. It can process large amounts of documents in a timely manner through a web interface that can be used by multiple users at once. In this demonstration paper we present recent additions which include semanticization, on the fly TF-IDF model generation and on the fly co-occurrence metrics. Furthermore, we demonstrate ThemeStreams, a novel topic monitoring tool built on top of xTAS.