Validation and verification framework and data integration of biosensors and diagnostic devices: a position statement of the IFCC Committee on Mobile Health and Bioengineering in Laboratory Medicine (C-MBHLM) and the IFCC Scientific Division.

Advances in technology have transformed healthcare and laboratory medicine. Biosensors have emerged as a promising technology in healthcare, providing a way to monitor human physiological parameters in a continuous, real-time, and non-intrusive manner and offering value and benefits in a wide range of applications. This position statement aims to present the current situation around biosensors, their perspectives and importantly the need to set the framework for their validation and safe use.

A new door to a different world: opportunities from the metaverse and the raise of meta-medical laboratories.

Objectives: In the digital age, the metaverse has emerged with impressive potential for many segments of society. The metaverse could be presented as a parallel dimension able to enhance the physical world as well as our actions and decisions in it with the objective to use a coalition between the natural and virtual worlds for value creation. Our aim was to elaborate on the impact of the metaverse on laboratory medicine.

Target association rule mining to explore novel paediatric illness patterns in emergency settings.

Background And Aims: To assess the hospitalized sick children admitted to the pediatric emergency department (ED) and to find new patterns of clinical and laboratory attributes using association rule mining (ARM).

Methods: In this observational study, 158 children with median (IQR) age 11 months and a PRISM III score of 5 (2-9) were enrolled. Hotspot data mining method was applied to assess clinical attributes, lab investigations and pre-defined outcome parameters of children and their association in sick hospitalized children aged 1 month to 12 years.

Evaluation of Hepcidin Level in COVID-19 Patients Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) presents a clinical spectrum that ranges from a mild condition to critical illness. Patients with critical illness present respiratory failure, septic shock and/or multi-organ failure induced by the so called "cytokine storm". Inflammatory cytokines affect iron metabolism, mainly inducing the synthesis of hepcidin, a hormone peptide not routinely measured.

The COVID-19 pandemic: viral variants and vaccine efficacy.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has prompted the scientific community and the pharmaceutical companies to put maximum efforts into developing vaccines to contain the spread of this disease. Presently, many vaccines have been developed and authorized for use in human beings in different countries. In particular, in Europe to date, the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen COVID-19 vaccines have been authorized.

Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Emphasizing the Emerging Role and Perspectives from Artificial Intelligence, Mobile Health, and Digital Laboratory Medicine.

SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus causing COVID-19, is one of the most contagious disease of past decades. COVID-19 is different only in that everyone is encountering it for the first time during this pandemic. The world has gone from complete ignorance to a blitz of details in a matter of months.

Sensor array and gas chromatographic detection of the blood serum volatolomic signature of COVID-19.

Volatolomics is gaining consideration as a viable approach to diagnose several diseases, and it also shows promising results to discriminate COVID-19 patients via breath analysis. This paper extends the study of the relationship between volatile compounds (VOCs) and COVID-19 to blood serum. Blood samples were collected from subjects recruited at the emergency department of a large public hospital.

Collaborative AI and Laboratory Medicine integration in precision cardiovascular medicine.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a broad term that combines computation with sophisticated mathematical models and in turn allows the development of complex algorithms which are capable to simulate human intelligence such as problem solving and learning. It is devised to promote a significant paradigm shift in the most diverse areas of medical knowledge. On the other hand, Cardiology is a vast field dealing with diseases relating to the heart, the circulatory system, and includes coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, rheumatic heart disease and other conditions.