FAIRification of health-related data using semantic web technologies in the Swiss Personalized Health Network.

The Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) is a government-funded initiative developing federated infrastructures for a responsible and efficient secondary use of health data for research purposes in compliance with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable). We built a common standard infrastructure with a fit-for-purpose strategy to bring together health-related data and ease the work of both data providers to supply data in a standard manner and researchers by enhancing the quality of the collected data. As a result, the SPHN Resource Description Framework (RDF) schema was implemented together with a data ecosystem that encompasses data integration, validation tools, analysis helpers, training and documentation for representing health metadata and data in a consistent manner and reaching nationwide data interoperability goals.

A nationwide registry for recurrent urolithiasis in the upper urinary tract - The RECUR study protocol.

Background: Urinary stone disease is a widespread disease with tremendous impact on those affected and on societies around the globe. Nevertheless, clinical and health care research in this area seem to lag far behind cardiovascular diseases or cancer. This may be due to the lack of an immediate deadly threat from the disease and therefore less public and professional interest.

[RECUR - Establishment of An Automated Digital Registry for Patients with Recurrent Stones in the Upper Urinary Tract].

Kidney stones, like cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus, affect a large number of people. Patients suffer from acute pain, repeated hospitalizations and associated secondary diseases, such as arterial hypertension and renal insufficiency. This results in considerable costs for the society and its health care system.

International Comparisons of Harmonized Laboratory Value Trajectories to Predict Severe COVID-19: Leveraging the 4CE Collaborative Across 342 Hospitals and 6 Countries: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Objectives: To perform an international comparison of the trajectory of laboratory values among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 who develop severe disease and identify optimal timing of laboratory value collection to predict severity across hospitals and regions.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: The Consortium for Clinical Characterization of COVID-19 by EHR (4CE), an international multi-site data-sharing collaborative of 342 hospitals in the US and in Europe.

How to compete with Google and Co.: big data and artificial intelligence in stones.

Purpose Of Review: To elucidate the keywords big data and artificial intelligence and corresponding literature in the field of urolithiasis.

Recent Findings: Numbers of publications on big data and artificial intelligence in the field of urolithiasis are rising, but still low. Most publications describe the development, testing, and validation of automated computational analyses of clinical data sets and/or images in a preclinical setting.

Towards Implementation of OMOP in a German University Hospital Consortium.

Background: In 2015, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research initiated a large data integration and data sharing research initiative to improve the reuse of data from patient care and translational research. The Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) common data model and the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) tools could be used as a core element in this initiative for harmonizing the terminologies used as well as facilitating the federation of research analyses across institutions.

Objective: To realize an OMOP/OHDSI-based pilot implementation within a consortium of eight German university hospitals, evaluate the applicability to support data harmonization and sharing among them, and identify potential enhancement requirements.

Regional Differences in Thrombectomy Rates : Secondary use of Billing Codes in the MIRACUM (Medical Informatics for Research and Care in University Medicine) Consortium.

Background And Purpose: Mechanical thrombectomy, in addition to intravenous (i.v.) thrombolysis is recommended for treatment of acute stroke in patients with large vessel occlusions (LVO) in the anterior circulation up to 6 h after symptom onset.

Evaluation of induced and evoked changes in EEG during selective attention to verbal stimuli.

Background: Two challenges need to be addressed before bringing non-motor mental tasks for brain-computer interface (BCI) control to persons in a minimally conscious state (MCS), who can be behaviorally unresponsive even when proven to be consciously aware: first, keeping the cognitive demands as low as possible so that they could be fulfilled by persons with MCS. Second, increasing the control of experimental protocol (i.e.

Improved concept and first results of an auditory single-switch BCI for the future use in disorders of consciousness patients.

A promising approach to establish basic communication for disorders of consciousness (DOC) patients, is the application of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) systems, especially the use of single-switch BCIs (ssBCIs). Recently we proposed the concept of a novel auditory ssBCI paradigm and presented first classification results. In this study we report on the evaluation of four different modifications of the original paradigm with the intention to increase the suitability.

Detection of mental imagery and attempted movements in patients with disorders of consciousness using EEG.

Further development of an EEG based communication device for patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC) could benefit from addressing the following gaps in knowledge-first, an evaluation of different types of motor imagery; second, an evaluation of passive feet movement as a mean of an initial classifier setup; and third, rapid delivery of biased feedback. To that end we investigated whether complex and/or familiar mental imagery, passive, and attempted feet movement can be reliably detected in patients with DoC using EEG recordings, aiming to provide them with a means of communication. Six patients in a minimally conscious state (MCS) took part in this study.

Evaluation of healthy EEG responses for spelling through listener-assisted scanning.

We investigated whether listener-assisted scanning, an alternative communication method for persons with severe motor and visual impairments but preserved cognitive skills, could be used for spelling with EEG. To that end spoken letters were presented sequentially, and the participants made selections by performing motor execution/imagery or a cognitive task. The motor task was a brisk dorsiflexion of both feet, and the cognitive task was related to working memory and perception of human voice.

An independent SSVEP-based brain-computer interface in locked-in syndrome.

Objective: Steady-state visually evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) allow healthy subjects to communicate. However, their dependence on gaze control prevents their use with severely disabled patients. Gaze-independent SSVEP-BCIs have been designed but have shown a drop in accuracy and have not been tested in brain-injured patients.

A single-switch BCI based on passive and imagined movements: toward restoring communication in minimally conscious patients.

We investigate whether an electroencephalography technique could be used for yes/no communication with auditory scanning. To be usable by the target group, i.e.

An adaptive P300-based control system.

An adaptive P300 brain-computer interface (BCI) using a 12 × 7 matrix explored new paradigms to improve bit rate and accuracy. During online use, the system adaptively selects the number of flashes to average. Five different flash patterns were tested.

Combined motor imagery and SSVEP based BCI control of a 2 DoF artificial upper limb.

A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is a device that transforms brain signals, which are intentionally modulated by a user, into control commands. BCIs based on motor imagery (MI) and steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) can partially restore motor control in spinal cord injured patients. To determine whether these BCIs can be combined for grasp and elbow function control independently, we investigated a control method where the beta rebound after brisk feet MI is used to control the grasp function, and a two-class SSVEP-BCI the elbow function of a 2 degrees-of-freedom artificial upper limb.

Asynchronous steady-state visual evoked potential based BCI control of a 2-DoF artificial upper limb.

A brain-computer interface (BCI) provides a direct connection between the human brain and a computer. One type of BCI can be realized using steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs), resulting from repetitive stimulation. The aim of this study was the realization of an asynchronous SSVEP-BCI, based on canonical correlation analysis, suitable for the control of a 2-degrees of freedom (DoF) hand and elbow neuroprosthesis.

Optimized stimulus presentation patterns for an event-related potential EEG-based brain-computer interface.

P300 brain-computer interface (BCI) systems typically use a row/column (RC) approach. This article presents a P300 BCI based on a 12 x 7 matrix and new paradigmatic approaches to flashing characters designed to decrease the number of flashes needed to identify a target character. Using an RC presentation, a 12 x 7 matrix requires 19 flashes to present all items twice (12 columns and seven rows) per trial.

A new P300 stimulus presentation pattern for EEG-based spelling systems.

A P300 spelling system is one of the most popular EEG-based spelling systems. This system is normally presented as a matrix and allows its users to select one of many options by focused attention. It is possible to use large matrices as a large menu (computer keyboard, etc.