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S Cohn

Publications and source records attributed to S Cohn.

77 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
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Phase II evaluation of clinical coding schemes: completeness, taxonomy, mapping, definitions, and clarity. CPRI Work Group on Codes and Structures.

OBJECTIVE: To compare three potential sources of controlled clinical terminology (READ codes version 3.1, SNOMED International, and Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) version 1.6) relative to attributes of completeness, clinical taxonomy, administrative mapping, term definitions and clarity (duplicate coding rate). METHODS: The authors assembled 1929 source concept records from a variety of clinical information taken from four medical centers across the United States. The source data included medical as well as ample nursing terminology. The source records were coded in each scheme by an investigator and checked by the coding scheme owner. The codings were then scored by an independent panel of clinicians for acceptability. Codes were checked for definitions provided with the scheme. Codes for a random sample of source records were analyzed by an investigator for "parent" and "child" codes within the scheme. Parent and child pairs were scored by an independent panel of medical informatics specialists for clinical acceptability. Administrative and billing code mapping from the published scheme were reviewed for all coded records and analyzed by independent reviewers for accuracy. The investigator for each scheme exhaustively searched a sample of coded records for duplications. RESULTS: SNOMED was judged to be significantly more complete in coding the source material than the other schemes (SNOMED* 70%; READ 57%; UMLS 50%; *p < .00001). SNOMED also had a richer clinical taxonomy judged by the number of acceptable first-degree relatives per coded concept (SNOMED* 4.56, UMLS 3.17; READ 2.14, *p < .005). Only the UMLS provided any definitions; these were found for 49% of records which had a coding assignment. READ and UMLS had better administrative mappings (composite score: READ* 40.6%; UMLS* 36.1%; SNOMED 20.7%, *p < .00001), and SNOMED had substantially more duplications of coding assignments (duplication rate: READ 0%; UMLS 4.2%; SNOMED* 13.9%, *p < .004) associated with a loss of clarity. CONCLUSION: No major terminology source can lay claim to being the ideal resource for a computer-based patient record. However, based upon this analysis of releases for April 1995, SNOMED International is considerably more complete, has a compositional nature and a richer taxonomy. Is suffers from less clarity, resulting from a lack of syntax and evolutionary changes in its coding scheme. READ has greater clarity and better mapping to administrative schemes (ICD-10 and OPCS-4), is rapidly changing and is less complete. UMLS is a rich lexical resource, with mappings to many source vocabularies. It provides definitions for many of its terms. However, due to the varying granularities and purposes of its source schemes, it has limitations for representation of clinical concepts within a computer-based patient record.

Abstracting and Indexing↗
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Human immunodeficiency virus infection in diabetic intravenous drug users.

OBJECTIVE: --To evaluate the association between diabetes and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seroprevalence in a population of intravenous (IV) drug users. DESIGN: --Cross-sectional survey in a cohort of IV drug users. SETTING: --Community-based study clinic. SUBJECTS: --The study included 2921 individuals with a history of IV drug use in the past 10 years; over 90% had injected drugs in the past year and 77% in the past month; only 15% were receiving drug treatment. OUTCOME MEASURES: --The HIV seroprevalence among IV drug users with and without a history of diabetes. RESULTS: --Those IV drug users with a history of diabetes had significantly lower HIV seroprevalence (9.8%) than nondiabetic IV drug users (24.3%; P = .03). Despite similar duration and intensity of drug use and sexual practices, diabetic IV drug users tended not to share injection paraphernalia and were less likely to attend shooting galleries than nondiabetic IV drug users. CONCLUSION: --Our data suggest that the apparent protective effect of diabetes against HIV infection in IV drug users is most likely due to their safer injection practices afforded by their ready access to sterile injection equipment.

Adult↗
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Comparative immunogenicity of plasma and recombinant hepatitis B virus vaccines in homosexual men.

A randomized, double-blind clinical trial of plasma-derived and DNA recombinant hepatitis B virus vaccines was conducted in 186 homosexual men. Nine months after the immunization series (three doses) began, the seroconversion rate in the plasma vaccine group was 88% (68/77); this was significantly higher than the 74% (60/81) response rate of the recombinant vaccine group. Men positive for antibody to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) had a considerably higher nonresponse rate to either vaccine than expected in non-HIV-infected homosexual men. The odds ratios of nonresponse to hepatitis B virus vaccine for HIV-seropositive vs HIV-seronegative subjects were 12.0 (95% confidence interval, 1.7 to 89.3) and 13.6 (95% confidence interval, 2.3 to 148.3) for the plasma and DNA recombinant vaccines, respectively.

Adult↗