BLESS: bagged logistic regression for biomarker identification.

The traditional single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-wise approach in genome-wide association studies is focused on examining the marginal association between each SNP with the outcome separately and applying multiple testing adjustments to the resulting -values to reduce false positives. However, the approach suffers a lack of power in identifying biomarkers. We design an ensemble machine learning approach to aggregate results from logistic regression models based on multiple subsamples, which helps to identify biomarkers from high-dimensional genomic data.

The impact of extreme heat events on hospital admissions to the Royal Hobart Hospital.

Background: Extreme heat (EH) events are increasing in frequency and duration and cause more deaths in Australia than any other extreme weather event. Consequently, EH events lead to an increase in the number of patient presentations to hospitals.

Methods: Climatic observations for Hobart's region and Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH) emergency department admissions data were collected retrospectively for the study period of 2003-2010.

Health professional beliefs, knowledge, and concerns surrounding medicinal cannabis - A systematic review.

Background: The number of jurisdictions allowing access to medicinal cannabis has been steadily increasing since the state of California introduced legislation in 1996. Although there is a high degree of legislative heterogeneity across jurisdictions, the involvement of a health professional is common among all. This places health professionals at the forefront of therapy, yet no systematic review of literature has offered insight into the beliefs, knowledge, and concerns of health professionals regarding medicinal cannabis.

Is Conversion from Mycophenolate Mofetil to Enteric-Coated Mycophenolate Sodium Justifiable for Gastrointestinal Quality of Life?

Background: Globally, enteric-coated mycophenolate sodium (EC-MPS) is replacing mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) in maintenance immunosuppressant regimens. The predominant reason for conversion is the purported improvement in gastrointestinal (GI) quality of life. This paper considers the level of bias associated with studies comparing EC-MPS and MMF for GI-related improvement and provides insight into whether conversion is supported by evidence.

Multinational Evaluation of Mycophenolic Acid, Tacrolimus, Cyclosporin, Sirolimus, and Everolimus Utilization.

Background: Increasing immunosuppressant utilization and expenditure is a worldwide challenge as more people successfully live with transplanted organs. Our aims were to characterize utilization of mycophenolate, tacrolimus, cyclosporin, sirolimus, and everolimus in Australian transplant recipients from 2007 to 2013; to identify specific patterns of usage; and to compare Australian utilization with Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and the Netherlands use.

Material And Methods: Australian utilization and expenditure data were captured through national Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and Highly Specialized Drug administrative databases.