Scroll .in: Implant files: International journalism body creates database to track faulty medical devices. “The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has compiled a global database of medical devices that are either faulty or dangerous. It allows users to explore more than 70,000 recalls, safety alerts and field safety notices of medical devices in 11 countries – Australia, Canada, Finland, India, Lebanon, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, Spain, Switzerland and the United States – in its first release.”
public health
New Zealand Herald: The killer that claimed more lives than WWI
New Zealand Herald: The killer that claimed more lives than WWI. “For decades, most of the influenza victims’ graves in Wellington’s Karori Cemetery lay neglected and overgrown. Many people lay in unmarked graves, while some had been disinterred and their remains put elsewhere as no one had paid for their grave or marker. Now genealogists have created a new website… which documents the 660 flu victims who are buried there. The genealogists have researched and documented 160 of the victims’ lives in intimate detail.”
DICE: Immune cell atlas goes live (EurekAlert)
EurekAlert: DICE: Immune cell atlas goes live . “Compare any two people’s DNA and you will find millions of points where their genetic codes differ. Now, scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) are sharing a trove of data that will be critical for deciphering how this natural genetic variation shapes the immune system’s ability to protect our health.”
University of Alabama at Birmingham: Pro-breastfeeding communities empower new moms
University of Alabama at Birmingham: Pro-breastfeeding communities empower new moms. “Social media can positively influence breastfeeding related attitudes, knowledge and behavior, according to a new study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Breastfeeding support groups on social media create a sense of community for new moms to share experiences and support each other in the breastfeeding practice and could be considered pillars of support for new moms.”
Assessing the Methods, Tools, and Statistical Approaches in Google Trends Research: Systematic Review (JMIR)
JMIR: Assessing the Methods, Tools, and Statistical Approaches in Google Trends Research: Systematic Review. “In the era of information overload, are big data analytics the answer to access and better manage available knowledge? Over the last decade, the use of Web-based data in public health issues, that is, infodemiology, has been proven useful in assessing various aspects of human behavior. Google Trends is the most popular tool to gather such information, and it has been used in several topics up to this point, with health and medicine being the most focused subject. Web-based behavior is monitored and analyzed in order to examine actual human behavior so as to predict, better assess, and even prevent health-related issues that constantly arise in everyday life.”
WSAW: USDA releases new interactive tool to track opioid crisis
WSAW: USDA releases new interactive tool to track opioid crisis. “This week, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched a new tool that helps put the crisis in perspective at a county level. The tool was designed to help community leaders develop solutions for the opioid crisis, but it also provides an insightful context to understand the epidemic. The online tool overlays drug and opioid overdose death rates with socio-economic demographics by county across the nation. The data provided covers 2012 through 2016.”
Arizona State University: ASU researchers develop tool to help determine a neighborhood’s walkability
Arizona State University: ASU researchers develop tool to help determine a neighborhood’s walkability. “…researchers at ASU’s College of Health Solutions, working with computer scientists at the School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, are developing an automated, cost-effective tool that uses Google Street View (GSV), crowdsourcing, computer vision and deep learning to virtually detect a neighborhood’s microfeatures. They want to more precisely determine the correlation between the presence of certain features and the physical activity levels of its residents.”
