Variation in interoperability across clinical laboratories nationwide.

Objective: To characterize nationwide variation and factors associated with clinical laboratories': (1) capabilities to send structured test results electronically to ordering practitioners' EHR systems; and (2) their levels of exchange activity, as measured by whether they sent more than three-quarters of their test results as structured data to ordering practitioners' EHR systems.

Materials And Methods: A national survey of all independent and hospital laboratories was conducted in 2013. Using an analytic weighted sample of 9382 clinical laboratories, a series of logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify organizational and area characteristics associated with clinical laboratories' exchange capability and activity.

ChemDataExtractor: A Toolkit for Automated Extraction of Chemical Information from the Scientific Literature.

The emergence of "big data" initiatives has led to the need for tools that can automatically extract valuable chemical information from large volumes of unstructured data, such as the scientific literature. Since chemical information can be present in figures, tables, and textual paragraphs, successful information extraction often depends on the ability to interpret all of these domains simultaneously. We present a complete toolkit for the automated extraction of chemical entities and their associated properties, measurements, and relationships from scientific documents that can be used to populate structured chemical databases.

Feasibility of 30-day hospital readmission prediction modeling based on health information exchange data.

Introduction: Unplanned 30-day hospital readmission account for roughly $17 billion in annual Medicare spending. Many factors contribute to unplanned hospital readmissions and multiple models have been developed over the years to predict them. Most researchers have used insurance claims or administrative data to train and operationalize their Readmission Risk Prediction Models (RRPMs).

Poly(ethylene glycol) lipid-shelled microbubbles: abundance, stability, and mechanical properties.

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is widely used on the outside of biomedical delivery vehicles to impart stealth properties. Encapsulated gas microbubbles (MBs) are being increasingly considered as effective carriers for therapeutic intervention to deliver drug payloads or genetic vectors. MBs have the advantage that they can be imaged and manipulated by ultrasound fields with great potential for targeted therapy and diagnostic purposes.

Supporting HITECH implementation and assessing lessons for the future: The role of program evaluation.

In addition to supporting the adoption and use of health IT, HITECH also included funds to support independent national program evaluation activities. The main challenges of evaluating health IT programs of the breadth and scale of the HITECH programs are the importance of context in the implementation and impact of the programs, the complexity and heterogeneity of the interventions, and the unpredictable nature of the innovative practices spurred by HITECH. The lessons learned include the importance of tailoring evaluation activities to each phase of implementation, flexible mixed methods, and continuous formative evaluation.

Physician capability to electronically exchange clinical information, 2011.

Objectives: To provide national estimates of physician capability to electronically share clinical information with other providers and to describe variation in exchange capability across states and electronic health record (EHR) vendors using the 2011 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey Electronic Medical Record Supplement.

Study Design: Survey of a nationally representative sample of nonfederal office-based physicians who provide direct patient care.

Methods: The survey was administered by mail with telephone follow-up and had a 61% weighted response rate.

Hospital electronic health information exchange grew substantially in 2008-12.

Electronic health information exchange can improve care coordination for patients by enabling more timely and complete sharing of clinical information among providers and hospitals. Approaches to health information exchange have expanded in recent years with the growth in entities such as regional health information organizations (HIOs) and the increased adoption of electronic health record (EHR) systems. However, little is known about the extent of exchange activity in US hospitals.