Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 11, 2025
High-throughput and Comprehensive Drug Surveillance Using Multisegment Injection-Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry
Published on: April 23, 2019
Leveraging Natural Language Processing to Identify Veterans Who Inject Drugs to Assess Preexposure Prophylaxis and
Minh Q Ho1,2, Colin O'Connor2, Karine Rozenberg-Ben-Dror3
1Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA.
Background:
People who inject drugs (PWID) face disproportionate risks for infectious diseases yet remain difficult to identify within health care systems. Natural language processing (NLP) offers potential solutions for identifying PWID to improve access to harm reduction services.
Methods:
We evaluated an NLP dashboard designed to identify Veterans with evidence of injection drug use across 6 Veterans Health Administration facilities between August and October 2024. Four independent reviewers assessed electronic health records to confirm recent injection drug use and evaluated preventive care delivery, including HIV/hepatitis screening, sexually transmitted infection testing, preexposure prophylaxis usage, and harm reduction services.
Results:
Among 502 075 veterans, the dashboard identified 507 potential PWID, with 78 (15%) confirmed through chart review. Of confirmed PWID, 49% injected opiates, 41% cocaine, and 37% methamphetamines. HIV prevalence was 6%, hepatitis C antibody positivity 45% (28% viremic), and hepatitis B exposure 13%. Despite 94% engaging with mental health services and 82% with social work, only 29% saw infectious disease specialists. Most PWID (88%) had not received syringes, 74% lacked recent gonorrhea/chlamydia screening, and only 1 received HIV preexposure prophylaxis. Independent reviewers completed most chart reviews within 1 to 2 minutes.
Conclusions:
The NLP dashboard efficiently identified PWID within an extensive health care system, revealing significant gaps in preventive care delivery despite high engagement with mental health services. Findings suggest opportunities to leverage existing therapeutic relationships while enhancing collaboration among mental health, social work, and infectious disease services to improve care for this vulnerable population.
Related Concept Videos
01:17Healthcare Agencies II
Parish nursing is a growing specialty nursing profession that focuses on holistic healthcare, health promotion, and illness prevention. It blends professional nursing practice with a health ministry, focusing on health and healing within the context of a Christian community. Parish nurses serve as health educators, referral sources,...
01:19Pharmacovigilance
This process, termed pharmacovigilance, aims to detect, evaluate, and minimize harmful effects related to medication use. The data collection for pharmacovigilance depends on spontaneous reporting systems, where healthcare professionals or patients voluntarily report suspected ADRs.
In some cases, there...
01:30Specialized Care Centers and Settings-II
Rural health centers are specialized care facilities in remote locations with very few medical personnel. The primary care providers who run the centers are mostly Registered Nurse Practitioners. Here, emergency treatment is provided to critically ill or injured patients before they are transferred to the closest hospital. Fortunately, due to advancement in technology, many rural healthcare facilities and professionals have easy access to diagnostic and treatment...
01:26Drug Discovery: Overview
01:18Healthcare Agencies I
01:26Drug Administration and Therapy Phases: Overview
The pharmaceutical phase focuses on leveraging the physicochemical properties of the drug to design and manufacture an effective product. Variants include orally administered tablets or capsules, topical creams or ointments, and parenteral-delivery solutions or emulsions.
The pharmacokinetic phase...