Accuracy Check Research Articles

Semi-Automatic Detection of Errors in Genome-Scale Metabolic Models.

Genome-Scale Metabolic Models (GSMMs) are used for numerous tasks requiring computational estimates of metabolic fluxes, from predicting novel drug targets to engineering microbes to produce valuable compounds. A key limiting step in most applications of GSMMs is ensuring their representation of the target organism's metabolism is complete and accurate. Identifying and visualizing errors in GSMMs is complicated by the fact that they contain thousands of densely interconnected reactions. Furthermore, many errors in GSMMs only become apparent when considering pathways of connected reactions collectively, as opposed to examining reactions individually. We present Metabolic Accuracy Check and Analysis Workflow (MACAW), a collection of algorithms for detecting errors in GSMMs. The relative frequencies of errors we detect in manually curated GSMMs appear to reflect the different approaches used to curate them. Changing the method used to automatically create a GSMM from a particular organism's genome can have a larger impact on the kinds of errors in the resulting GSMM than using the same method with a different organism's genome. Our algorithms are particularly capable of identifying errors that are only apparent at the pathway level, including loops, and nontrivial cases of dead ends. MACAW is capable of identifying inaccuracies of varying severity in a wide range of GSMMs. Correcting these errors can measurably improve the predictive capacity of a GSMM. The relative prevalence of each type of error we identify in a large collection of GSMMs could help shape future efforts for further automation of error correction and GSMM creation.

ANALYSIS OF THE DATA QUALITY OF SERVICE TRANSACTION ON INDONESIA’S BALANCE OF PAYMENTS

This study aims to analyze the root causes of data quality problems in Foreign Exchange Reporting (LLD) as the primary data source used in the preparation of the Indonesian Balance of Payments (NPI), especially in service transactions. The research method used is qualitative with a case study approach. Data collection was carried out through interviews, observation, and document analysis. The results of the study concluded that the data quality problem of LLD reporting was data accuracy. The root causes of the data quality problem of LLD reporting come from both the internal and external sides of Bank Indonesia. The root causes from the internal side of Bank Indonesia are complex transaction purpose codes (STT), acceleration of the development of service transaction, and manual data accuracy checks. While the root causes of the data quality problem from the external side of Bank Indonesia is the routine mutation of frontliner employees of the reporting bank and the lack of training conducted by the Head Office of the reporting bank. To address the root of the problem, several strategies are recommended to be implemented, namely adjustments to the STT list, training to LLD Account Officers, preparation of automated data accuracy check tools, preparation of e-learning and handbook about LLD reporting, as well as additional policies related to training obligations by Head Office of the reporting bank.

Exploring the human factors of medication errors in community pharmacy: a mixed methods study

Abstract Introduction Medication errors and near misses in the community pharmacy dispensing process have the potential to adversely impact patient safety. The World Health Organisation has identified the importance of Human factors (HF) in the Patient Safety Curriculum guide (1). However, there is a lack of knowledge on how HF principles have or could be applied in the community pharmacy setting. Adopting a HF approach and using qualitative methods can provide in-depth understanding of factors that contribute to these errors, and contribute to intervention development that may improve patient safety. Aim The study aims to investigate the factors contributing to medication dispensing errors and near misses in community pharmacy, and to gather pharmacists’ views of these factors and how these could be mitigated. Methods Three Irish community pharmacies were recruited and provided details of the last ten dispensing errors or near misses which occurred. Each error was mapped to the Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) steps developed for this study, and mapped to the Systematic Human Error Reduction and Prediction Approach (SHERPA) framework (2). A detailed report was prepared for each pharmacy outlining the error analysis, with recommendations to prevent the errors in future. A qualitative semi-structured interview was conducted with the three pharmacists in the recruited pharmacies to discuss the report, and analysed by thematic analysis. Results A total of 30 medication errors/near misses were analysed (10 errors reached the patients and were not administered). The HTA developed outlines 185 subtasks potentially involved in dispensing a prescribed medication. On mapping to the SHERPA framework, selection-based errors were the most frequently reported error category (21/30, 70%); this included incorrect product selection from the shelf (17/30, 56.7%) and incorrect product selection at the point of computer entry (4/30, 13.3%). Of the 75 HTA steps involved across the 30 errors, the most frequent point of error was in the gathering medication steps (47/75, 62.7%), followed by the pharmacist accuracy check steps (16/75, 21.3%) and patient mix up errors (5/30, 16.7%). The pharmacist interview themes found that cognitive burden, fatigue, distraction and staffing deficiencies were reported as increasing the risk of error and near miss. Knowledge gaps and inexperience with certain medications were also reported as contributing to errors. Recommendations to prevent errors included changes to the physical environment (e.g. using product shelf alerts), improved checking processes and taking short mental breaks. Conclusion This study found that the most common errors/near misses were at the product selection stage of dispensing, with pharmacy accuracy checks sometimes, but not always, detecting these before they reached the patient. Medication errors occur due to several varying and often interacting factors; cognitive burden and lack of standardised medication checking processes. Despite the small sample size and potential for social desirability bias in the interviews, this study has demonstrated how HF techniques can be applied to the dispensing process as a means of understanding and preventing error occurrence in the community pharmacy. References (1) Vosper H, Hignett S. A UK perspective on human factors and patient safety education in pharmacy Curricula. Am J Pharm Educ. 2017;82:6184. (2) Sutherland A, Ashcroft DM, Phipps DL. Exploring the human factors of prescribing errors in paediatric intensive care units. Arch Dis Child 2019;104:588-595.

Verification and Accuracy Check of Simulations with Pope and Ipope

Verification and Accuracy Check of Simulations with Pope and Ipope

Drone Mapping Versus Terrestrial Laser Scanning for Building Mapping andAssesement

Drone mapping and terrestrial laser scanning are two advanced techniques that have been used around the world in recent years for documentation and mapping of buildings with historic value, construction project/infrastructure monitoring, mapping of cities, and a lot more survey. A well-defined methodology for data extraction, modelling, and monitoring is yet to evolve. This study compares and demonstrates terrestrial laser scanning and drone survey for building mapping with validation and accuracy checks. A terrestrial scanner was used to perform three scans of a building and drone was used to capture high-performance vertical images and oblique images. A three dimensional (3D) model was generated using advanced software techniques. Building facade elevation and plans were extracted from the 3D model after validation and accuracy check. The drone model produced high-quality visualization while terrestrial scanner output data allowed to extracting minute details after removing noise. Drone mapping and terrestrial laser scanning are two unique stand-alone technologies for serving different purposes individually, but they greatly complement each other when used together. Visualization of digital real-time 3D model helps in scrolling around at different nooks and corners of the building for a survey which is not possible through conventional mapping techniques; this is one of the greatest advantages of these techniques.

The Need for an Accuracy Check of Irradiation Sensors for Photovoltaic Power Plants

The Need for an Accuracy Check of Irradiation Sensors for Photovoltaic Power Plants

Accuracy Check of GTD MER with Weighted Fringe Wave Using Fresnel Zone Number for Grazing Incidence and Slope Wave Diffraction

Accuracy Check of GTD MER with Weighted Fringe Wave Using Fresnel Zone Number for Grazing Incidence and Slope Wave Diffraction

Accuracy Check and Comparative Analysis of Horizontal Fiber-Optic Gyro Inclinometer in Freezing Hole

Based on the principle of fiber-optic gyro inclinometer, the characteristics of horizontal freezing hole and the working conditions, it is analyzed that the horizontal hole fiber-optic gyroscope tilting technology for freezing holes is one of the most reliable methods. In order to verify the azimuth measurement error of the horizontal fiber optic-gyro inclinometer, the simulation test under the 1:1 working condition was carried out with the actual working conditions on site. Compared with the total station measurement data, it was concluded that 85.2% of the data is in measurement error within ±2°, 55.6% of the data is within ±1°, which verifies the reliability of the measurement data of the horizontal fiber-optic gyro inclinometer. At the test level of α=0.05, the azimuth test error accords with the normal distribution of μ=0.54 and σ=0.73. In the actual use process, the algorithm can be used to optimize the measurement data by taking multiple measurements and taking the average value in combination with the field conditions, so that the data can be closer to the true value.

Accuracy Check of Radar AMeDAS Precipitation by Water Balance Analysis of the Tedori River Mountainous Basin

Accuracy Check of Radar AMeDAS Precipitation by Water Balance Analysis of the Tedori River Mountainous Basin

Accuracy checking of dispensed medications by a pharmacy technician: a hospital case study.

Medication order accuracy checking is an integral and time-consuming component of the current Australian pharmacist's role. However, the pharmacy profession internationally has moved towards separating the checking task into two parts: a clinical check performed by the registered pharmacist and a technical accuracy check delegated to an appropriately trained pharmacy technician. This case study demonstrates that in an Australian hospital pharmacy context, appropriately trained pharmacy technicians have the potential to be more proficient and time efficient than pharmacists when undertaking accuracy checking of dispensed medications.

A meta-analysis of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians' accuracy checking proficiency.

Delegating the accuracy checking task to appropriately trained pharmacy technicians is desirable in all pharmacy settings, however it requires rigorous evidence prior to implementation to ensure safety. The delegation of accuracy checking has a twofold benefit, it frees time for pharmacists to undertake clinical activities and creates an advanced scope role for pharmacy technicians. Institutions also experience economic benefits when tasks can be reallocated to a lower-cost workforce. To perform a meta-analysis of pharmacist and technician accuracy rates when completing the final accuracy check on a prepared item. A systematic literature search was conducted to identify articles that reported the accuracy rates for the final check on prepared items. PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science were used to retrieve articles. No limit was placed on publication year or item type. Once identified, data were extracted regarding study characteristics and accuracy rates. A meta-analysis was conducted using a random effects model. Twelve articles were located which reported that 96.23-99.78% of items were accurately checked by pharmacists, and 98.25-99.95% of items were accurately checked by pharmacy technicians. The meta-analysis calculated the pharmacist accuracy rate for 216402 items to be 99.27% (95% CI: 98.77-99.64) and 99.72% (95% CI: 98.60-99.81) for 563296 items for pharmacy technicians. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant at a level of p < 0.0001. Pharmacy technicians demonstrated a higher level of accuracy, and a lower variation in accuracy rates reported between studies. Improving checking accuracy and pharmacist availability for other clinical tasks is desirable for workforce efficiency and patient safety. These empirical accuracy rates of pharmacy technicians performing accuracy checking could be used by legislative and regulatory bodies to supplement necessary policy changes that improve the safety of the dispensing process.

Mass Accuracy Check Using Common Background Peaks for Improving Metabolome Data Quality in Chemical Isotope Labeling LC-MS.

Chemical isotope labeling (CIL) LC-MS is a highly sensitive and quantitative method for metabolome analysis. Because of a large number of peaks detectable in a sample and the need of running many samples in a metabolomics project, any significant change in mass measurement accuracy during the whole period of running samples can adversely affect the downstream peak alignment and quantitative analysis. Herein, we report a rapid method to check the mass accuracy of individual spectra in each CIL LC-MS run in order to flag up any run containing spectra with accuracy drift that falls outside the expected error. The flagged run may be re-run or discarded before merging with other runs for peak alignment and analysis. This method is based on the observation that some background signals are commonly detected in almost all spectra collected in CIL LC-MS runs. A mass accuracy check (MAC) software program has been developed to first find the common background mass peaks and then use them as mass references to calculate any mass shifts over the course of multiple sample runs. Using a metabolome dataset of 324 human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples and 35 quality control (QC) samples produced by CIL LC-MS, we show that this accuracy check method can streamline the initial raw data processing for downstream analysis in metabolomics.

Introducing a checking technician allows pharmacists to spend more time on patient-focused activities.

Internationally there is an increasing focus on the clinical and cognitive services that pharmacists can provide. Lack of time has been identified as a barrier to pharmacists increasing their clinical activities. Within the pharmacy workplace there are many tasks that can only be performed by a pharmacist. The final accuracy check of a dispensed prescription is currently the sole responsibility of pharmacists in New Zealand. This takes up a significant amount of time during a pharmacist's work day. The introduction of a checking technician role has been suggested to allow pharmacists more time to do more patient focused work. To investigate the amount of time pharmacy staff spend on specific activities and to establish whether the introduction of a checking technician into twelve pilot sites increased the amount of time that the pharmacists could spend on patient focused activities. This study utilised a self-reported work sampling technique in twelve pilot sites, selected from both the hospital and community settings. Work sampling using an electronic device was conducted at two time-points (before the implementation of a Pharmacy Accuracy Checking Technician (PACT) role and when the PACT was in place). Data was collected at 10min intervals for the period of five days, a working week. Tasks were grouped into patient focused, dispensing and personal activities. The introduction of the PACT into the pilot sites saw a mean increase of 19% in pharmacists' patient focused activities and a mean 20% decrease in dispensing activities. The introduction of a checking technician role into New Zealand pharmacies demonstrated the potential to provide pharmacists with more time to spend on patient focused activities.

SU‐D‐BRC‐03: Development and Validation of an Online 2D Dose Verification System for Daily Patient Plan Delivery Accuracy Check

Purpose:All plan verification systems for particle therapy are designed to do plan verification before treatment. However, the actual dose distributions during patient treatment are not known. This study develops an online 2D dose verification tool to check the daily dose delivery accuracy.Methods:A Siemens particle treatment system with a modulated scanning spot beam is used in our center. In order to do online dose verification, we made a program to reconstruct the delivered 2D dose distributions based on the daily treatment log files and depth dose distributions. In the log files we can get the focus size, position and particle number for each spot. A gamma analysis is used to compare the reconstructed dose distributions with the dose distributions from the TPS to assess the daily dose delivery accuracy. To verify the dose reconstruction algorithm, we compared the reconstructed dose distributions to dose distributions measured using PTW 729XDR ion chamber matrix for 13 real patient plans. Then we analyzed 100 treatment beams (58 carbon and 42 proton) for prostate, lung, ACC, NPC and chordoma patients.Results:For algorithm verification, the gamma passing rate was 97.95% for the 3%/3mm and 92.36% for the 2%/2mm criteria. For patient treatment analysis,the results were 97.7%±1.1% and 91.7%±2.5% for carbon and 89.9%±4.8% and 79.7%±7.7% for proton using 3%/3mm and 2%/2mm criteria, respectively. The reason for the lower passing rate for the proton beam is that the focus size deviations were larger than for the carbon beam. The average focus size deviations were −14.27% and −6.73% for proton and −5.26% and −0.93% for carbon in the x and y direction respectively.Conclusion:The verification software meets our requirements to check for daily dose delivery discrepancies. Such tools can enhance the current treatment plan and delivery verification processes and improve safety of clinical treatments.

Tracer tests and uncertainty propagation to design monitoring setups in view of pharmaceutical mass flow analyses in sewer systems

The development of a strategic approach to manage pollution of surface waters with pharmaceutical residues is in centre of interest in Europe. In this context a lack of reliable standard procedures for sampling and subsequent assessment of pharmaceutical mass flows in the water cycle has been identified. Authoritative assessment of relevant substance concentrations and flows is essential for environmental risk assessments and reliable efficiency analysis of measures to reduce or avoid emissions of drugs to water systems. Accordingly, a detailed preparation of monitoring campaigns including an accuracy check for the sampling configuration provides important information on the reliability of the gathered data. It finally supports data analysis and interpretation for evaluations of the efficiency of measures as well as for cost benefit assessments. The precision of mass flow balances is expected to be particularly weak when substances with high short-term variations and rare upstream emissions are considered. This is especially true for substance flow analysis in sewers close to source because of expectable highly dynamic flow conditions and emission patterns of pollutants.The case study presented here focusses on the verification of a monitoring campaign in a hospital sewer in Luxembourg.The results highlight the importance for a priori accuracy checks and provide a blueprint for well-designed monitoring campaigns of pharmaceutical trace pollutants on the one hand. On the other hand, the study provides evidence that the defined and applied continuous flow proportional sampling procedure enables a representative monitoring of short-term peak loads of the x-ray contrast media iobitridol close to source.

Stress Formulation in the All-Electron Full-Potential Linearized Augmented Plane Wave Method: II. Accuracy Check in the Generalized Gradient Approximation

Stress formulation in the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave method within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) is presented as an extension of our previous stress formulation within the local density approximation [N. Nagasako and T. Oguchi: J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 80 (2011) 024701]. We show that stress corrections in GGA appear only from the plane-wave part of the exchange–correlation energy and that there exist no other correction terms appearing from the exchange–correlation energy inside muffin-tin spheres. As the results of test calculations for several material systems, it is confirmed that both diagonal and off-diagonal components of the stress tensor are precisely computed with the present formulation in GGA.

Exploratory study to identify the process used by pharmacy staff to verify the accuracy of dispensed medicines

To determine the common stages and strategies involved in the dispensing accuracy-checking process used by pharmacy staff and to determine the training activities used by these staff to gain the knowledge and skills for accuracy checking. Face-to-face tape-recorded ethnographic interviews (n = 28) were undertaken in 2009-2010 at two large teaching hospitals with a purposive sample of pharmacists and accredited checking technicians qualified to undertake the final accuracy check on dispensed medicines. Participants described their accuracy-checking process, strategies used to aid checking using anonymised prescriptions and accurate dispensing of medicines to aid discussion. The range of training activities undertaken to develop this skill were discussed. Qualitative data were analysed in accordance with the principles of grounded theory to identify themes. The accuracy-checking process was described as a cognitive and systematic process. The order in which accuracy checking was executed was found to follow two pathways, with all participants checking the prescription first before verifying either the label or dispensed product. Various physical and sensory aids were used to assist in this verification process. There were inconsistencies in the level of accuracy-checking training received by pharmacists and accredited checking technicians, with many pharmacists reporting no training. Although an important medication-error prevention strategy, until this study little was known about the process used by pharmacy staff when verifying the accuracy of dispensed medicines. Accuracy checking is a complex cognitive task involving verification of the product and label with the prescription. Strategies obtained during past experience and in training were used to aid checking. The study highlighted that pharmacy staff training to undertake this task was variable. Application of strategies identified in this study may allow individuals to adopt further safeguards to improve patient safety.

To investigate how disruptive interruptions are on paediatric dispensary accuracy checkers

ObjectiveTo measure the impact that interruptions have on dispensary accuracy checkers. It is well documented that interruptions impact adversely on task performance.1–3 What is less well known is the impact...

To investigate how disruptive interruptions are on paediatric dispensary accuracy checkers

BackgroundIt is well documented that interruptions adversely affect task performance. What is less well known is the impact of interruptions in the context of the paediatric dispensary accuracy checking process.PurposeTo...

The Canadian experience in performing accuracy checks on administered doses of radiopharmaceuticals

A calibration service was introduced in 1986 to assist the Canadian nuclear medicine community in determining more accurately the amount of radioactive material administered to patients for either diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. This aspect of a quality assurance program in nuclear medicine provides an accuracy check on instruments and the technologists using them. The calibration report issued constitutes direct traceability of a facility to a national standards laboratory. Nuclides most frequently calibrated are 99mTc and 131I. Others include 67Ga, 111In, 123I, 125I and 201Tl. All samples received are analysed for radionuclidic impurities by high-resolution X-ray and gamma-ray spectrometry. Ten years of testing has shown that, except for a few conscientious departments, accuracy checks on radionuclide (dose) calibrators are not a high priority. There are 285 nuclear medicine facilities in Canada and, since there is no legal requirement that the calibrators be checked for accuracy, only 29 have had their instruments checked using this service. Of these, 14 perform annual accuracy checks with NRCC. In this paper, the results of the intercomparisons are described, and quality control problems associated with the use of radionuclide calibrators in nuclear medicine are discussed.