Building a Foundation for High-Quality Health Data: Multihospital Case Study in Belgium.

Background: Data quality is fundamental to maintaining the trust and reliability of health data for both primary and secondary purposes. However, before the secondary use of health data, it is essential to assess the quality at the source and to develop systematic methods for the assessment of important data quality dimensions.

Objective: This case study aims to offer a dual aim-to assess the data quality of height and weight measurements across 7 Belgian hospitals, focusing on the dimensions of completeness and consistency, and to outline the obstacles these hospitals face in sharing and improving data quality standards.

A literature-based approach to predict continuous hospital length of stay in adult acute care patients using admission variables: A single university center experience.

Purpose: To review the existing literature on predicting length of stay (LOS) and to apply the findings on a Real World Data example in a single hospital.

Methods: Performing a literature review on PubMed and Embase, focusing on adults, acute conditions, and hospital-wide prediction of LOS, summarizing all the variables and statistical methods used to predict LOS. Then, we use this set of variables on a single university hospital and run an XGBoost model with Survival Cox regression on the LOS, as well as a logistic regression on binary LOS (cut-off at 4 days).

Restrictive vs Liberal Transfusion Strategy in Patients With Acute Brain Injury: The TRAIN Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Blood transfusions are commonly administered to patients with acute brain injury. The optimal hemoglobin transfusion threshold is uncertain in this patient population.

Objective: To assess the impact on neurological outcome of 2 different hemoglobin thresholds to guide red blood cell transfusions in patients with acute brain injury.

Outcome of early versus late primary embolization in ruptured brain arteriovenous malformations.

Purpose: To determine whether patients with a ruptured brain arteriovenous malformation (rBAVM) would benefit from an early embolization.

Methods: rBAVM treated first by embolization between March 2002 and May 2022 were included. Embolization was defined early (Group 1) when performed within 10 days postbleeding.

Leukocyte telomere length and attrition in association with disease severity in cystic fibrosis patients.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is characterized by chronic airway inflammation and premature aging. The link with leukocyte telomere length (LTL) as a marker of biological aging is unclear. We studied disease severity and LTL in 168 CF patients of which 85 patients had a second retrospective LTL assessment.

Key Research Areas for Building and Deploying a Common Data Model for an Intensive Medicine Data Space in Europe and Beyond.

Key Research Areas (KRAs) were identified to establish a semantic interoperability framework for intensive medicine data in Europe. These include assessing common data model value, ensuring smooth data interoperability, supporting data standardization for efficient dataset use, and defining anonymization requirements to balance data protection and innovation.

Characteristics and outcomes of patients treated with sotrovimab to prevent progression to severe COVID-19 in Belgium.

Objective: Sotrovimab, a dual-action, engineered human monoclonal antibody, has been demonstrated to significantly reduce the risk of hospitalisation and death in high-risk patients with COVID-19. Here, we describe the real-world use of, and outcomes from, sotrovimab treatment in Belgium during the Delta and Omicron waves among patients with COVID-19 at high risk of developing severe disease.

Methods: This was a multicentric, single-arm observational cohort study of non-hospitalised patients receiving outpatient sotrovimab treatment between 1 November 2021 and 2 August 2022 at nine hospitals in Belgium.

Characteristics of Sepsis-2 septic shock patients failing to satisfy the Sepsis-3 septic shock definition: an analysis of real-time collected data.

Background: Baseline characteristics and disease severity of patients with septic shock according to the new Sepsis-3 definition may differ from patients that only comply with the Sepsis-2 definition. We conducted a retrospective cohort study on the ICU of a Belgian tertiary care facility to seek out differences between these two patient groups and to identify variables associated with no longer satisfying the latest definition of septic shock.

Results: Of 1198 patients with septic shock according to the Sepsis-2 consensus definition, 233 (19.

Antimicrobial prescription in severe COVID-19 and CAP: a matched case-control study.

Background: In severe coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19), a high and potentially excessive use of antimicrobials for suspected bacterial co-infection and intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired infections has been repeatedly reported.

Objectives: To compare an ICU cohort of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) with a cohort of severe COVID-19 pertaining to co-infections, ICU-acquired infections and associated antimicrobial consumption.

Methods: We retrospectively compared a cohort of CAP patients with a cohort of COVID-19 patients matched according to organ failure, ICU length of stay (LOS) and ventilation days.

Discharge from hospital with newly administered antipsychotics after intensive care unit delirium - Incidence and contributing factors.

Purpose: Delirium in the intensive care unit (ICU) is often treated with haloperidol or atypical antipsychotics. Antipsychotic treatment can lead to severe adverse effects and excess mortality. After initiation in the ICU, patients are at risk of having their antipsychotics continued unnecessarily at ICU and hospital discharge.

The obesity paradox in critically ill patients: a causal learning approach to a casual finding.

Background: While obesity confers an increased risk of death in the general population, numerous studies have reported an association between obesity and improved survival among critically ill patients. This contrary finding has been referred to as the obesity paradox. In this retrospective study, two causal inference approaches were used to address whether the survival of non-obese critically ill patients would have been improved if they had been obese.

Nebulized Heparin in Burn Patients with Inhalation Trauma-Safety and Feasibility.

Background: Pulmonary hypercoagulopathy is intrinsic to inhalation trauma. Nebulized heparin could theoretically be beneficial in patients with inhalation injury, but current data are conflicting. We aimed to investigate the safety, feasibility, and effectiveness of nebulized heparin.

Automated screening of natural language in electronic health records for the diagnosis septic shock is feasible and outperforms an approach based on explicit administrative codes.

Purpose: Identification of patients for epidemiologic research through administrative coding has important limitations. We investigated the feasibility of a search based on natural language processing (NLP) on the text sections of electronic health records for identification of patients with septic shock.

Materials And Methods: Results of an explicit search strategy (using explicit concept retrieval) and a combined search strategy (using both explicit and implicit concept retrieval) were compared to hospital ICD-9 based administrative coding and to our department's own prospectively compiled infection database.

Changes in ventilator settings and ventilation-induced lung injury in burn patients-A systematic review.

Objective: Ventilation strategies aiming at prevention of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI), including low tidal volumes (V) and use of positive end-expiratory pressures (PEEP) are increasingly used in critically ill patients. It is uncertain whether ventilation practices changed in a similar way in burn patients. Our objective was to describe applied ventilator settings and their relation to development of VILI in burn patients.

Prevalence and risk factors related to haloperidol use for delirium in adult intensive care patients: the multinational AID-ICU inception cohort study.

Purpose: We assessed the prevalence and variables associated with haloperidol use for delirium in ICU patients and explored any associations of haloperidol use with 90-day mortality.

Methods: All acutely admitted, adult ICU patients were screened during a 2-week inception period. We followed the patient throughout their ICU stay and assessed 90-day mortality.

Epidemiology, causes, evolution and outcome in a single-center cohort of 1116 critically ill patients with hypoxic hepatitis.

Background: Hypoxic hepatitis (HH) is a type of acute hepatic injury that is histologically characterized by centrilobular liver cell necrosis and that is caused by insufficient oxygen delivery to the hepatocytes. Typical for HH is the sudden and significant increase of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in response to cardiac, circulatory or respiratory failure. The aim of this study is to investigate its epidemiology, causes, evolution and outcome.

Ingestion of white spirit resulting in perineal skin burns: a case report and review of the literature.

In the literature, possible systemic effects on health of inhalation or ingestion of white spirit are well described. Only a few case reports discuss the toxic skin effects that can occur following massive ingestion. Ingestion of large amounts of white spirit produces a watery diarrhoea with a high concentration of white spirit, resulting in perineal skin burns when there is prolonged contact.

Random Survival Forests for Predicting the Bed Occupancy in the Intensive Care Unit.

Predicting the bed occupancy of an intensive care unit (ICU) is a daunting task. The uncertainty associated with the prognosis of critically ill patients and the random arrival of new patients can lead to capacity problems and the need for reactive measures. In this paper, we work towards a predictive model based on Random Survival Forests which can assist physicians in estimating the bed occupancy.

Role of an electronic antimicrobial alert system in intensive care in dosing errors and pharmacist workload.

Background: Critically ill patients are vulnerable to dosing errors. We developed an electronic Antimicrobial Dose alert based upon Creatinine clearance (ADC-alert), which gives daily antimicrobial dosing advice based upon the 24-h creatinine clearance (CLcr).

Objective: Primary objective: to verify the correctness of the ADC-alert output and its benefit for the workload of the clinical pharmacist (CP).