Misc

Uncovering Midlife Dementia Risks from Altered Structural and Functional Coupling Mechanisms 2023 Award: $47,761 Dementia is a syndrome of cognitive and functional decline, commonly occurring in later life as a result of neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular processes beginning earlier in the life course. Mounting evidence shows that genetic, demographic, and lifespan environmental exposures closely interact to determine vulnerability to dementia. In this context, we aim to discover the smoking gun of dementia risks and understand the neurobiological mechanism of how these dementia risk factors affect brain structures and functions over time. Need/Problem: Mounting evidence shows that genetic, demographic, and lifespan environmental exposures closely interact to determine vulnerability to dementia. Since pre-symptomatic or early symptomatic interventions may ultimately constitute the best long-term therapeutic strategy, a life-course approach is critical to disentangle the nature and timing of dementia risks that contribute to [...]

A Machine Learning Approach to Classify Medical Records by Psychiatric Diagnosis 2023 Award: $35,784 The widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) has been accompanied by the enticing promise of using “big data” to improve patient care and clinical research. Many “big data” models rely on discrete data points, while in the field of mental health, our outcomes and diagnostic criteria are typically found in unstructured clinical narratives. In this study, we will train and evaluate machine learning classification models of psychiatric diagnoses using software capable of mining structured and unstructured data in the EHR, by incorporating unstructured clinical data using natural language processing. Need/Problem: The widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) is accompanied by the enticing promise of using “big data” to improve patient care through large-scale research studies, population health and quality improvement initiatives, and improved [...]