What’s New in NLM’s Extramural Programs?

Guest post by Andrew Wiley, Video Producer, NLM Office of Communications and Public Liaison (OCPL).

NLM recently released videos on two exciting projects funded through the Extramural Programs Division.

Using Machine Intelligence to Prevent Medication Dispensing Errors

With help from an NLM grant, Drs. Corey Lester, Raed Al Kontar, and Xi Jessie Yang of the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy in Ann Arbor, Michigan, are using machine intelligence (MI) to assist in the pill verification process and help avoid dangerous and costly pharmacy dispensing errors.

Pharmacists play a critical role in helping safeguard people and communities, and we acknowledge their assistance this October as we celebrate American Pharmacists Month. Dr. Lester and his colleagues are making sure that MI reports accurate information to encourage providers to make sound, trustworthy decisions. In doing so, pharmacists can ensure that patients get the correct pills in the correct bottle and create safer systems that can save lives. Dr. Lester’s proposal was to develop and design artificial intelligence, specifically a computer vision model, that could look at a picture of pills inside a medication bottle and accurately identify the contents of that bottle.

Watch the video about this research and find the transcript here.

After Foster Care: Empowering Youths with Personal Health Records

At Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Dr. Dexheimer is using NLM grant funding to help young adults who are aging out of the foster care system access their personal health records. According to Dr. Dexheimer, there are 427,000 children in the foster care system, and approximately 5,000 youths emancipate, or age out, every year.

Using the Health Hero online platform, Dr. Dexheimer is providing emancipated young adults with access to and control over their own personal health records and improving their health care knowledge as a result. Health care outcomes for these young adults are poor partially due to lack of access to their medical history. The video also includes two young women who recently emancipated from foster care, who were willing to share their stories and experiences using Health Hero.

Watch the video about this effort and find the transcript here.

Get More Video Content and Learn More About NLM

Visit Welcome to NLM to take a virtual tour and to learn more about NLM’s programs, tools, and resources. Be sure to subscribe to the NLM YouTube channel for access to more great video content.