Using AI to find Hidden Clues in Medical Records, a Drug that Thinks it’s a Virus, and a Grant to Study Prescription Price Models

Posted on by

MSK in the news this week…

The Gunner Rätsch Lab at Sloan Kettering Institute is working on training an artificial intelligence to identify similarities between cancer cases that human doctors might miss. The software algorithm combs through over 100 million sentences taken from anonymized clinical notes of 200,000 people with cancer, and sorts symptoms, medical histories, and doctors’ observations into clusters. These clusters are then analyzed to look for patterns and connections between different comments and treatments. “We’re looking to exhaust all that data to try to find something interesting” says Rätsch.

Previous studies showed a murine norovirus that can enhance intestinal immune system development. Researchers from the Eric Pamer Lab at Sloan Kettering Institute have identified a molecule that mimics this norovirus, which reduces Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE), a very serious hospital acquired pathogen, in mice. This molecule, a synthetic ligand called Resiquimod (R848) mimics the virus-derived RNA and binds directly to the protein TLR7 in the immune pathway. However, lead author Michael Abt warns, “It’s going to take a lot more research before it can get us to an actual therapeutic.”

M.C. Abt et al., “TLR-7 activation enhances IL-22 mediated colonization resistance against vancomycin,” Science Translational Medicine, doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf33802, 2016. Continue reading →

New Version of VisualDx Launches on 3/1/2016

Posted on by

Today, VisualDx, a visual diagnostic decision support system MSK Library subscribes to, is releasing a significantly enhanced new version. The product, which has been around since 1999, is expanding its coverage of general medicine, thereby more than doubling the number of diagnoses from the 1,300 included in the earlier VisualDx to 2,700 or more diagnoses available in the new version. The new VisualDx is also going to include additional images (including radiologic images), as well as, previously unavailable guided chief complaint questionnaires, among other new content.


Another big enhancement is the introduction of VisualDx’s exclusive Sympticon technology, whereby users will be presented with graphical representations of the patterns of symptoms and other findings, not just with lists of diagnoses, as was the case before. Sympticons will provide users with the powerful ability to compare the features of each potential diagnosis on one screen. Continue reading →

Molecular Medical Microbiology Added to Library Collection

Posted on by

Molecular Medical Microbiology is the first book to synthesize the many new developments in both molecular and clinical research in a single comprehensive resource. This timely work is edited by MSK’s Yi-Wei Tang and features contributions from several other MSK authors. It is an invaluable reference source of medical bacteriology.  Covered topics include bacterial structure, cell function, and genetics; mechanisms of pathogenesis and prevention; antibacterial agents; and infections ranging from gastrointestinal to urinary tract, central nervous system, respiratory tract, and more.  This three-volume set includes:

  • a clinical overview for each major bacterial group
  • the latest information on vaccine development, molecular technology, and diagnostic technology
  • more than 100 chapters covering all major groups of bacteria

Molecular Medical Microbiology may be found in TriCat, our library catalog.