Publications by authors named "S T Ballard"

Background: Effective vector control interventions, notably insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) are indispensable for malaria control in Tanzania and elsewhere. However, the emergence of widespread insecticide resistance threatens the efficacy of these interventions. Monitoring of insecticide resistance is, therefore, critical for the selection and assessment of the programmatic impact of insecticide-based interventions.

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Background: Returning to school after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) can improve quality of life and promote positive adjustment. However, this process may be challenging, and there is a limited understanding of school-aged children and adolescents' perspectives on this process.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews over video with pediatric recipients of HCT (10-18 years of age at HCT; 1-7 years post HCT) who were treated at our institution and had returned to in-person school post HCT.

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Background: Adolescents and young adults with cancer (AYAs, ages 15-39 at the time of diagnosis) experience significant adverse health and psychosocial outcomes. AYAs live with emotional distress and health care demands that exceed those of their healthy peers but can have difficulty accessing care. Digitally delivered interventions are an attractive option for AYA survivors, a population that routinely utilizes online resources when seeking health information and support.

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Objective: To challenge clinicians and informaticians to learn about potential sources of bias in medical machine learning models through investigation of data and predictions from an open-source severity of illness score.

Methods: Over a two-day period (total elapsed time approximately 28 hours), we conducted a datathon that challenged interdisciplinary teams to investigate potential sources of bias in the Global Open Source Severity of Illness Score. Teams were invited to develop hypotheses, to use tools of their choosing to identify potential sources of bias, and to provide a final report.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The paper explores using Large Language Models (LLMs) to streamline data wrangling and automate tasks in data discovery and harmonization, crucial for making biomedical data AI-ready by developing Common Data Elements (CDEs).
  • - A human-in-the-loop approach was utilized to ensure the accuracy of generated CDEs from various studies and databases, achieving a high accuracy rate where 94.0% of fields required no manual changes, with an interoperability mapping rate of 32.4%.
  • - The resulting CDEs are designed to improve dataset compatibility by measuring how well different data sources align with these standards, ultimately enhancing the efficiency and scalability of biomedical research efforts.
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