Developing a Framework for Self-regulatory Governance in Healthcare AI Research: Insights from South Korea.

This paper elucidates and rationalizes the ethical governance system for healthcare AI research, as outlined in the 'Research Ethics Guidelines for AI Researchers in Healthcare' published by the South Korean government in August 2023. In developing the guidelines, a four-phase clinical trial process was expanded to six stages for healthcare AI research: preliminary ethics review (stage 1); creating datasets (stage 2); model development (stage 3); training, validation, and evaluation (stage 4); application (stage 5); and post-deployment monitoring (stage 6). Researchers identified similarities between clinical trials and healthcare AI research, particularly in research subjects, management and regulations, and application of research results.

Using natural language processing to analyze unstructured patient-reported outcomes data derived from electronic health records for cancer populations: a systematic review.

Introduction: Patient-reported outcomes (PROs; symptoms, functional status, quality-of-life) expressed in the 'free-text' or 'unstructured' format within clinical notes from electronic health records (EHRs) offer valuable insights beyond biological and clinical data for medical decision-making. However, a comprehensive assessment of utilizing natural language processing (NLP) coupled with machine learning (ML) methods to analyze unstructured PROs and their clinical implementation for individuals affected by cancer remains lacking.

Areas Covered: This study aimed to systematically review published studies that used NLP techniques to extract and analyze PROs in clinical narratives from EHRs for cancer populations.

Impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on cancer care: How the pandemic has changed cancer utilization and expenditures.

Purpose: Since identified in December 2019, the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a global impact on medical resource use and costs for patients with cancer in South Korea. This study aimed to identify the medical use and costs among patients with cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic, to predict these patterns in South Korea in the future.

Methods: We conducted a secondary claims data analysis using the National Health Insurance Service database for the calendar period of 2019-2020.

Impact of COVID-19 on the End-of-Life Care of Cancer Patients Who Died in a Korean Tertiary Hospital: A Retrospective Study.

Purpose: Social distancing and strict visitor restrictions at hospitals have been national policies since the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This has challenged the concept of a good death in comfort with the opportunity to say goodbye. Little is known about how these measures have influenced end-of-life (EOL) care among cancer patients who die in acute care hospitals.

Response-shift effects in childhood cancer survivors: A prospective study.

Background: Treatment-related late effects can worsen over time among cancer survivors. Such worsening health states may trigger changes in internal standards, values, or conceptualization of quality-of-life (QOL). This "response-shift" phenomenon can jeopardize the validity of QOL assessment, and misrepresent QOL comparisons over time.

Ten Considerations for Integrating Patient-Reported Outcomes into Clinical Care for Childhood Cancer Survivors.

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are subjective assessments of health status or health-related quality of life. In childhood cancer survivors, PROMs can be used to evaluate the adverse effects of cancer treatment and guide cancer survivorship care. However, there are barriers to integrating PROMs into clinical practice, such as constraints in clinical validity, meaningful interpretation, and technology-enabled administration of the measures.

A Review of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Childhood Cancer.

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are used in clinical work and research to capture the subjective experiences of childhood cancer patients and survivors. PROs encompass content domains relevant and important to this population, including health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL), symptoms, and functional status. To inform future efforts in the application of PRO measures, this review describes the existing generic and cancer-specific PRO measures for pediatric cancer populations and summarizes their characteristics, available language translations, content coverage, and measurement properties into tables for clinicians and researchers to reference before choosing a PRO measure that suits their purpose.

Stronger association of perceived health with socio-economic inequality during COVID-19 pandemic than pre-pandemic era.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has changed peoples' routine of daily living and posed major risks to global health and economy. Few studies have examined differential impacts of economic factors on health during pandemic compared to pre-pandemic. We aimed to compare the strength of associations between perceived health and socioeconomic position (household income, educational attainment, and employment) estimated before and during the pandemic.

Efficacy and safety of rapid intermittent bolus compared with slow continuous infusion in patients with severe hypernatremia (SALSA II trial): a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Hypernatremia is a common electrolyte disorder in children and elderly people and has high short-term mortality. However, no high-quality studies have examined the correction rate of hypernatremia and the amount of fluid required for correction. Therefore, in this study, we will compare the efficacy and safety of rapid intermittent bolus (RIB) and slow continuous infusion (SCI) of electrolyte-free solution in hypernatremia treatment.

The impact of COVID-19 on cancer care in a tertiary hospital in Korea: possible collateral damage to emergency care.

Objectives: We investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer care in a tertiary hospital in Korea without specific lockdown measures.

Methods: A retrospective cohort of cancer patients from one of the largest tertiary hospitals in Korea was used to compare healthcare utilization in different settings (outpatient cancer clinic, the emergency department [ED], and admissions to the hematology/oncology ward) between January 1 and December 31, 2020 and the same time period in 2019. The percent changes in healthcare utilization between the 2 periods were calculated.

Blood DNA methylation signatures are associated with social determinants of health among survivors of childhood cancer.

Social epigenomics is an emerging field in which social scientist collaborate with computational biologists, especially epigeneticists, to address the underlying pathway for biological embedding of life experiences. This social epigenomics study included long-term childhood cancer survivors enrolled in the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort.

The Association of the Health Management Strategy with Subjective Health and Well-being Outcomes in General Population.

Background: People face many obstacles to overcoming crisis in life and proactively manage life crises. This study aimed to evaluate the association of self-management strategy with subjective health and well-being for the general South Korean population.

Methods: We recruited 1,200 respondents using an equal-probability sampling method from March to May 2018.

Leveraging Text Mining Approach to Identify What People Want to Know About Mental Disorders From Online Inquiry Platforms.

Online inquiry platforms, which is where a person can anonymously ask questions, have become an important information source for those who are concerned about social stigma and discrimination that follow mental disorders. Therefore, examining what people inquire about regarding mental disorders would be useful when designing educational programs for communities. The present study aimed to examine the contents of the queries regarding mental disorders that were posted on online inquiry platforms.

Association of co-morbidities with financial hardship in survivors of adult cancer.

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of co-morbidities on financial hardship in adult cancer survivors and the role of health insurance and a usual source of care (i.e., a particular doctor's office/health center/other place that the person usually goes if he/she is sick or needs advice) in relieving this impact.

Persistent variations of blood DNA methylation associated with treatment exposures and risk for cardiometabolic outcomes in long-term survivors of childhood cancer in the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort.

Background: It is well-established that cancer treatment substantially increases the risk of long-term adverse health outcomes among childhood cancer survivors. However, there is limited research on the underlying mechanisms. To elucidate the pathophysiology and a possible causal pathway from treatment exposures to cardiometabolic conditions, we conducted epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) to identify the DNA methylation (DNAm) sites associated with cancer treatment exposures and examined whether treatment-associated DNAm sites mediate associations between specific treatments and cardiometabolic conditions.

The major effects of health-related quality of life on 5-year survival prediction among lung cancer survivors: applications of machine learning.

The primary goal of this study was to evaluate the major roles of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in a 5-year lung cancer survival prediction model using machine learning techniques (MLTs). The predictive performances of the models were compared with data from 809 survivors who underwent lung cancer surgery. Each of the modeling technique was applied to two feature sets: feature set 1 included clinical and sociodemographic variables, and feature set 2 added HRQOL factors to the variables from feature set 1.

Patient-reported outcomes in paediatric cancer survivorship: a qualitative study to elicit the content from cancer survivors and caregivers.

Objectives: Content elucidation for patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in paediatric cancer survivorship is understudied. We aimed to compare differences in the contents of five PRO domains that are important to paediatric cancer survivorship through semistructured interviews with paediatric cancer survivors and caregivers, and identified new concepts that were not covered in the item banks of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS).

Design: Semistructured interviews to collect qualitative PRO data from survivors and caregivers.

Negligible Effects of the Survey Modes for Patient-Reported Outcomes: A Report From the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study.

Purpose: This study compared the measurement properties for multiple modes of survey administration, including postal mail, telephone interview, and Web-based completion of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) among survivors of childhood cancer.

Methods: The population included 6,974 adult survivors of childhood cancer in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study who completed the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18), which measured anxiety, depression, and somatization symptoms. Scale reliability, construct validity, and known-groups validity related to health status were tested for each mode of completion.