pharmacy – NIH Director's Blog (original) (raw)
National Library of Medicine Helps Lead the Way in AI Research
Posted on November 8th, 2022 by Patricia Flatley Brennan, R.N., Ph.D., National Library of Medicine
Credit: National Library of Medicine, NIH
Did you know that the NIH’s National Library of Medicine (NLM) has been serving science and society since 1836? From its humble beginning as a small collection of books in the library of the U.S. Army Surgeon General’s office, NLM has grown not only to become the world’s largest biomedical library, but a leader in biomedical informatics and computational health data science research.
Think of NLM as a door through which you pass to connect with health data, literature, medical and scientific information, expertise, and sophisticated mathematical models or images that describe a clinical problem. This intersection of information, people, and technology allows NLM to foster discovery. NLM does so by ensuring that scientists, clinicians, librarians, patients, and the public have access to biomedical information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The NLM also supports two research efforts: the Division of Extramural Programs (EP) and Intramural Research Program (IRP). Both programs are accelerating advances in biomedical informatics, data science, computational biology, and computational health. One of EP’s notable investments is focused on advancing artificial intelligence (AI) methods and reimagining how health care is delivered with the power of AI.
Credit: National Library of Medicine, NIH
With support from NLM, Corey Lester and his colleagues at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy, Ann Arbor, MI, are using AI to assist in pill verification, a standard procedure in pharmacies across the land. They want to help pharmacists avoid dangerous and costly dispensing errors. To do so, Lester is using AI to develop a real-time computer vision model. It views pills inside of a medication bottle, accurately identifies them, and determines that they are the correct or incorrect contents.
The IRP develops and applies computational methods and approaches to a broad range of information problems in biology, biomedicine, and human health. The IRP also offers intramural training opportunities and supports other training aimed at pre-baccalaureate to postdoctoral students and professionals.
The NLM principal investigators use biological data to advance computer algorithms and connect relationships between any level of biological organization and health conditions. They also use computational health sciences to focus on clinical information processing and analyze clinical data, assess clinical outcomes, and set health data standards.
Credit: National Library of Medicine, NIH
NLM investigator Sameer Antani is collaborating with researchers in other NIH institutes to explore how AI can help us understand oral cancer, echocardiography, and pediatric tuberculosis. His research also is examining how images can be mined for data to predict the causes and outcomes of conditions. Examples of Antani’s work can be found in mobile radiology vehicles, which allow professionals to take chest X-rays (right) and screen for HIV and tuberculosis using software containing algorithms developed in his lab.
For AI to have its full impact, more algorithms and approaches that harness the power of data are needed. That’s why NLM supports hundreds of other intramural and extramural scientists who are addressing challenging health and biomedical problems. The NLM-funded research is focused on how AI can help people stay healthy through early disease detection, disease management, and clinical and treatment decision-making—all leading to the ultimate goal of helping people live healthier and happier lives.
The NLM is proud to lead the way in the use of AI to accelerate discovery and transform health care. Want to learn more? Follow me on Twitter. Or, you can follow my blog, NLM Musings from the Mezzanine and receive periodic NLM research updates.
I would like to thank Valerie Florance, Acting Scientific Director of NLM IRP, and Richard Palmer, Acting Director of NLM Division of EP, for their assistance with this post.
Links:
National Library of Medicine (National Library of Medicine/NIH)
Video: Using Machine Intelligence to Prevent Medication Dispensing Errors (NLM Funding Spotlight)
Video: Sameer Antani and Artificial Intelligence (NLM)
NLM Division of Extramural Programs (NLM)
NLM Intramural Research Program (NLM)
NLM Intramural Training Opportunities (NLM)
Principal Investigators (NLM)
NLM Musings from the Mezzanine (NLM)
Note: Dr. Lawrence Tabak, who performs the duties of the NIH Director, has asked the heads of NIH’s Institutes and Centers (ICs) to contribute occasional guest posts to the blog to highlight some of the interesting science that they support and conduct. This is the 20th in the series of NIH IC guest posts that will run until a new permanent NIH director is in place.
Posted In: Generic
Tags: AI, artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, biomedical information, computational biology, computational health sciences, data science, dispensing errors, echocardiography, extramural research, library, machine learning, medication, National Library of Medicine, NIH Intramural Program, NLM, oral cancer, pediatric tuberculosis, pharmacists, pharmacy, pills
Cutting Ribbon for NIH Clinical Center Pharmacy
Posted on May 20th, 2022 by Lawrence Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D.
It was great to take part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony and officially open the NIH Clinical Center Pharmacy. The fully renovated, 10,000-square-foot facility, located on the first floor of the building’s southeast wing, consists of three parts: the outpatient pharmacy, which dispenses medications to patients who visit the clinical center for periodic checkups or treatment as part of a clinical study; the unit-dose pharmacy, which prepares medications in small doses for patients while staying at the Clinical Center; and the intravenous admixture unit (IVAU), which formulates sterile products, as needed, for patients at the Clinical Center. The Clinical Center Pharmacy will perform all of the above with the help of state-of-the-art automation, including a robotic medication management system.
I’m third from the left in the ribbon-cutting line. To my right, scissors in hand, (l-r) are Richard DeCederfelt, the Clinical Center’s Acting Pharmacy Chief, and James Gilman, CEO of the Clinical Center. Cutting the ribbon to my left (l-r) are Alfred Johnson, NIH’s Deputy Director for Management, and Marilyn Farinre, the Clinical Center’s Pharmacy Operations Chief. Looking on just behind them (l-r) are Tara Schwetz, NIH’s Acting Principal Deputy Director, and Michael Gottesman, NIH’s Deputy Director for Intramural Research. The ribbon-cutting ceremony took place on May 18 in the Outpatient Pharmacy Waiting Room. Credit: NIH
Posted In: Director's Album, Director's Album - Photos
Tags: Alfred Johnson, James Gilman, Marilyn Farinre, Michael Gottesman, NIH Clinical Center, NIH Clinical Center Pharmacy, outpatient pharmacy, pharmacy, Richard DeCederfelt, Tara Schwetz
LabTV: Young Scientist on a Mission to Cure Alzheimer’s Disease
Posted on April 30th, 2015 by Dr. Francis Collins
Time for another LabTV video! Today, I’d like you to meet Melissa Young, a third-year graduate student in the College of Pharmacy, University of Georgia, Athens. Young, who is doing research in the lab of James Franklin, says her scientific goal is to help build the scientific case that oxidative stress plays a key role in Alzheimer’s disease.
Young also has a personal reason for wanting to her research to succeed. From her experiences with a beloved grandmother and aunt, she has seen first-hand the heartbreaking effects of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia on both patients and their loved ones. Currently, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease and no treatments to halt or reverse its progression. That’s one of the reasons why Young has chosen to go into an area of science focused on translating basic discoveries into new therapeutics.