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Biomedical subjects

W Giere

Publications and source records attributed to W Giere.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Concept-oriented standardization and statistics-oriented classification: continuing the classification versus nomenclature controversy.

Nowadays, most activities on controlled medical vocabularies focus on the provision of a sufficient atomic-level granularity for representing clinical data. Amongst others, clinical vocabularies should be concept oriented, compositional and should also reject "Not Elsewhere Classified". We strongly share the opinion that there is a need to deal with serious deficits of existing manually created vocabularies and with new demands for computer-based advanced processing and exchange of medical language data. However, we do not share the opinion that methodological requirements like observational and structural comparability needed for sound statistics should not be included in desiderata of controlled medical vocabularies. Statistical-oriented classifications are not developed for representing detailed clinical data but for providing purpose-dependent classes where cases of interest are assigned uniquely. Either statistical classifications are not included into the set of controlled medical vocabularies in the sense of Cimino, or his desiderata are misleading. We argue that statistical classifications should be linked to (formal) concept systems, but again this linkage does not change their different natures. With this article we continue the "classification versus nomenclature" controversy referring to Coté.

Data Interpretation, Statistical↗

Multi-dimensional visualisation of laboratory findings and functional test results for analysing the clinical course of disease in medicine.

The illustration of a patient's history by a graphical primitive is discussed. Illustration technology is presented which simultaneously represents quantitative examination findings (e.g., laboratory values) and qualitative findings (e.g., from function diagnostics) by a single geometrical figure. Depending on the medical results, this figure takes on characteristic forms which can be identified as patterns typical for a specific disease. The procedure developed is integrated in a user interface which is implemented in the form of a computerized medical record for use on a pentop computer. This portable computer assists the physician during ward rounds, supplies additional, intelligence-based information, serves quality control, and streamlines working procedures making them more efficient.

Clinical Laboratory Information Systems↗

[Statistical contribution on symptomatic dry eye].

Optical mark page reader forms to establish the case history were statistically evaluated with regard to the question 'Do you often have the feeling of having sand in the eye. Out of a total of 5,833 patients, 684 (11.7%) answered this question with 'yes'. Women stated with 15.1% relatively more often than men with 9.7% this clinical symptom. Of these 684 patients who subjectively complained of feeling of sand, 241 had an ophthalmological examination. In 92 patients (38.2%) the Bengal-Rosa 1% test was specifically performed due to the specific past history and the clinical symptoms stated on questions by the physician; in all cases signs of a keratoconjunctivitis sicca of different degree were found by slit-lamp microscopy, i.e., at least 4.5% keratoconjunctivitis sicca patients on our whole collective can be expected. The result of a thorough examination in these 92 patients (39 men and 53 women) with ophthalmologically confirmed keratoconjunctivitis sicca showed that in 25 (of 53) women there was an imbalance of the sex hormones. Besides degenerative diseases due to age, diseases of the connective tissue and those caused by an auto immune mechansim were found.

Adult↗

[Feeling of sand in the eyes and hormonal contraceptives (authors transl)].

By questionnaire forms the relation between the admission of taking antibaby pills and the subjective feeling of having sand in the eyes was checked. Out of 2201 patients from our group, aged between 9 and 84 years, 372 (16.9%) took hormonal contraceptives, 1812 (82.3%) denied the taking of contraceptives and 17 (0.8%) could not say. From the 372 patients who took hormonal contraceptives 37 (10%) complained of having the feeling of sand in the eyes, the other 335 (90%) denied having a feeling of sand in the eyes. The frequency of a subjective feeling of sand in the eyes was in the individual age groups independent of the subjective statement, of "take hormonal contraceptives" (chi2-test; P greater than 10%).

Adolescent↗

[The information system of the Deutsche Klinik für Diagnostik (author's transl)].

Data processing in medicine includes the administration, patient control and medical documentation. The introduction must be made step by step, lead to selective editing of information and promote the standardization process through the application of electronic data processing. Data acquisition can be done automatically by activating the computer or feeding from the information flow. Patient-linked information, including clear text, can be inverted, i. e. edited for retrieval by automatic description in a diagnosis orientated form.

Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted↗