Service Evaluation of MyChristie-MyHealth, an Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome Measure Integrated Into Clinical Cancer Care.

PURPOSE: Electronic patient-reported outcome measures (ePROMs) are digitalized health questionnaires used to gauge patients' subjective experience of health and disease. They are becoming prevalent in cancer care and have been linked to a host of benefits including improved survival. MyChristie-MyHealth is the ePROM established at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in 2019. We conducted an evaluation of this service to understand user experiences, as well as strategies to improve its functioning. METHODS: Data collection: Patients who had opted never to complete MyChristie-MyHealth (n = 87), and those who had completed at least one (n = 87) were identified. Demographic data included age, sex, ethnicity, postcode, diagnosis, treatment intent, and trial status. Semistructured interviews were held with noncompleters (n = 30) and completers (n = 31) of MyChristie-MyHealth, as well as clinician users (n = 6), covering themes such as accessibility, acceptability and usefulness, and open discourse on ways in which the service could be improved. RESULTS: Noncompleters of MyChristie-MyHealth were older (median age 72 v 66 years, P = .005), receiving treatment with curative rather than palliative intent (odds ratio [OR], 1.45; P = .045), and less likely to be enrolled on a clinical trial (OR, 0.531; P = .011). They were less likely to own a smartphone (33% v 97%) or have reliable Internet access (45% v 100%). Satisfaction with MyChristie-MyHealth was high in both groups: 93% (n = 29) of completers and 87% (n = 26) noncompleters felt generally happy to complete. Completers of MyChristie-MyHealth wanted their results to be acknowledged by their clinicians. Clinicians wanted results to be displayed in a more user-friendly way. CONCLUSION: We have broadly characterized noncompleters of the Christie ePROM to identify those in need of extra support or encouragement in the clinic. An action plan resulting from this review has been compiled and will inform the future development of MyChristie-MyHealth.

Efficacy of early PET-CT directed switch to carboplatin and paclitaxel based definitive chemoradiotherapy in patients with oesophageal cancer who have a poor early response to induction cisplatin and capecitabine in the UK: a multi-centre randomised controlled phase II trial.

Background: The utility of early metabolic response assessment to guide selection of the systemic component of definitive chemoradiotherapy (dCRT) for oesophageal cancer is uncertain. Methods: In this multi-centre, randomised, open-label, phase II substudy of the radiotherapy dose-escalation SCOPE2 trial we evaluated the role of 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) at day 14 of cycle 1 of three-weekly induction cis/cap (cisplatin (60 mg/m2)/capecitabine (625 mg/m2 days 1-21)) in patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) or adenocarcinoma (OAC). Non-responders, who had a less than 35% reduction in maximum standardised uptake value (SUVmax) from pre-treatment baseline, were randomly assigned to continue cis/cap or switch to car/pac (carboplatin AUC 5/paclitaxel 175 mg/m2) for a further induction cycle, then concurrently with radiotherapy over 25 fractions. Responders continued cis/cap for the duration of treatment. All patients (including responders) were randomised to standard (50Gy) or high (60Gy) dose radiation as part of the main study. Primary endpoint for the substudy was treatment failure-free survival (TFFS) at week 24. The trial was registered with International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number 97125464 and ClinicalTrials.govNCT02741856. Findings: This substudy was closed on 1st August 2021 by the Independent Data Monitoring Committee on the grounds of futility and possible harm. To this point from 22nd November 2016, 103 patients from 16 UK centres had participated in the PET-CT substudy; 63 (61.2%; 52/83 OSCC, 11/20 OAC) of whom were non-responders. Of these, 31 were randomised to car/pac and 32 to remain on cis/cap. All patients were followed up until at least 24 weeks, at which point in OSCC both TFFS (25/27 (92.6%) vs 17/25 (68%); p = 0.028) and overall survival (42.5 vs. 20.4 months, adjusted HR 0.36; p = 0.018) favoured cis/cap over car/pac. There was a trend towards worse survival in OSCC + OAC cis/cap responders (33.6 months; 95%CI 23.1-nr) vs. non-responders (42.5 (95%CI 27.0-nr) months; HR = 1.43; 95%CI 0.67-3.08; p = 0.35). Interpretation: In OSCC, early metabolic response assessment is not prognostic for TFFS or overall survival and should not be used to personalise systemic therapy in patients receiving dCRT. Funding: Cancer Research UK.

Patient and clinician-reported experiences of using electronic patient reported outcome measures (ePROMs) as part of routine cancer care.

BACKGROUND: Cancer and its treatment can have significant impacts on health status, quality of life and functioning of patients. Direct information from patients regarding these aspects can be collected via electronic platforms in the form of electronic Patient Reported Outcome Measures (ePROMs). Research has shown that the use of ePROMS in cancer care leads to improved communication, better symptom control, prolonged survival and a reduction in hospital admissions and emergency department attendance. Acceptability and feasibility of routine ePROM collection has been reported by both patients and clinicians but to date their use has predominantly been limited to clinical trials. MyChristie-MyHealth is an initiative from a UK comprehensive cancer centre The Christie NHS Foundation Trust which incorporates the regular collection of ePROMs into routine cancer care. This study, carried out as part of a service evaluation, explores patient and clinician experiences of using the MyChristie-MyHealth ePROMs service. RESULTS: 100 patients with lung and head and neck cancers completed a Patient Reported Experience questionnaire. All patients reported that MyChristie-MyHealth was easy to understand and, almost all found it timely to complete and easy to follow. Most patients (82%) reported it improved their communication with their oncology team and helped them to feel more involved with their care (88%). A large proportion of clinicians (8/11) felt ePROMs helped communication with their patients and over half (6/10) felt they led to consultations being more patient focused. Clinicians also felt that the use of ePROMs resulted in patients being more engaged in consultations (7/11) and their cancer care in general (5/11). Five clinicians reported that the use of ePROMs altered their clinical decision making. CONCLUSIONS: Regular ePROMs collection as part of routine cancer care is acceptable to both patients and clinicians. Both patients and clinicians feel their use improved communication and increased the feeling of patient involvement with their care. Further work is needed to explore the experiences of patients that did not complete the ePROMs as part of the initiative and to continue to optimize the service for both patients and clinicians.

Experience With the Routine Use of Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome Measures for Patients With Lung Cancer.

PURPOSE: The Christie NHS Foundation Trust launched their electronic patient-reported outcome measures (ePROMs) service in January 2019 in the routine clinical setting. The lung cancer questionnaires consist of 14 symptom items, adapted from the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (version 5.0) and the EuroQol EQ-5D-5L quality-of-life (QoL) tool. Patients with lung cancer are invited to complete questionnaires assessing their symptoms and QoL using an online platform. METHODS: The ePROM responses and clinical, pathologic, and treatment data for patients who completed the questionnaires between January 2019 and December 2020 were extracted from electronic medical records. The symptom and QoL scores of patients who completed baseline pretreatment ePROMs and also those who completed ePROMs pre- and postpalliative lung systemic anticancer therapy (SACT) or radical thoracic radiotherapy were evaluated. Pretreatment questionnaires were analyzed according to age, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS), and Adult Comorbidity Evaluation-27 (ACE-27) comorbidity score. RESULTS: One thousand four hundred eighty patients with lung cancer were included. There were no statistically significant differences in symptoms and QoL scores between age groups. Cough (P = .006) and EQ-5D-5L mobility scores (P = .006) were significantly worse for patients with an ECOG PS of 0-1. Dyspnea (P = .035), hemoptysis (P = .023), nausea (P = .041), mobility (P = .004), and self-care (P = .0420) were significantly worse for those with higher ACE-27 scores (2-3 v 0-1). Palliative SACT was associated with a significant improvement in cough (P < .001) and hemoptysis (P = .025), but significantly negatively affected mobility (P = .013). Patients receiving radical thoracic radiotherapy reported a significant improvement in hemoptysis (P = .042) but worse pain (P = .002) and fatigue (P = .01). Other changes in symptom and QoL scores were not significant. CONCLUSION: The symptoms and QoL reported at baseline and before and after both palliative SACT and radical thoracic radiotherapy are clinically relevant and meaningful. We have demonstrated that routine implementation of ePROMs into clinical practice is feasible and can inform clinical practice and future research.

Radiotherapy and olaparib in combination for carcinoma of the oesophagus: A phase I study.

Background and purpose: Radical concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for oesophageal cancer is associated with significant morbidity and is unsuitable for some patients. Olaparib, an inhibitor of the DNA repair enzyme poly-(ADP)-ribose polymerase (PARP) has radiosensitising properties and may be better tolerated than chemotherapy. Materials and methods: We performed a phase 1 study of olaparib with radiotherapy (RT) in oesophageal cancer patients unsuitable for conventional CRT to determine its maximum tolerated dose (MTD) in this setting. Results: Eight patients were recruited. One of 5 patients receiving olaparib 50 mg twice daily and two of 3 receiving 100 mg twice daily experienced dose limiting toxicity (DLT). Conclusions: Olaparib 100 mg twice daily exceeded the MTD in combination with RT in these patients. 50 mg twice daily may be the MTD but this cannot be stated with certainty as the study closed before full recruitment.

Impact of Introducing Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy on Curative Intent Radiotherapy and Survival for Lung Cancer.

Background: Lung cancer survival remains poor. The introduction of Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT) allows treatment of more complex tumours as it improves conformity around the tumour and greater normal tissue sparing. However, there is limited evidence assessing the clinical impact of IMRT. In this study, we evaluated whether the introduction of IMRT had an influence on the proportion of patients treated with curative-intent radiotherapy over time, and whether this had an effect on patient survival. Materials and Methods: Patients treated with thoracic radiotherapy at our institute between 2005 and 2020 were retrospectively identified and grouped into three time periods: A) 2005-2008 (pre-IMRT), B) 2009-2012 (selective use of IMRT), and C) 2013-2020 (full access to IMRT). Data on performance status (PS), stage, age, gross tumour volume (GTV), planning target volume (PTV) and survival were collected. The proportion of patients treated with a curative dose between these periods was compared. Multivariable survival models were fitted to evaluate the hazard for patients treated in each time period, adjusting for PS, stage, age and tumour volume. Results: 12,499 patients were included in the analysis (n=2675 (A), n=3127 (B), and n=6697 (C)). The proportion of patients treated with curative-intent radiotherapy increased between the 3 time periods, from 38.1% to 50.2% to 65.6% (p<0.001). When stage IV patients were excluded, this increased to 40.1% to 58.1% to 82.9% (p<0.001). This trend was seen across all PS and stages. The GTV size increased across the time periods and PTV size decreased. Patients treated with curative-intent during period C had a survival improvement compared to time period A when adjusting for clinical variables (HR=0.725 (0.632-0.831), p<0.001). Conclusion: IMRT was associated with to more patients receiving curative-intent radiotherapy. In addition, it facilitated the treatment of larger tumours that historically would have been treated palliatively. Despite treating larger, more complex tumours with curative-intent, a survival benefit was seen for patients treated when full access to IMRT was available (2013-2020). This study highlights the impact of IMRT on thoracic oncology practice, accepting that improved survival may also be attributed to a number of other contributing factors, including improvements in staging, other technological radiotherapy advances and changes to systemic treatment.

Outcomes of curative-intent radiotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and interstitial lung disease (ILD).

Outcomes of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD n = 587) and interstitial lung disease (ILD n = 34) treated with curative-intent radiotherapy were retrospectively investigated. Presence of ILD but not decreased forced expiratory volume in 1-second correlated with poor overall survival. Increased breathlessness and oxygen requirements after radiotherapy were observed in severe/very severe COPD and ILD.

Social prescribing by students: the design and delivery of a social prescribing scheme by medical students in general practice.

Background Social prescribing is a means of enabling primary care professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical services. Medical students at a large GP surgery in Corby designed, implemented and led a social prescribing service for the practice's patients. Through the project students gained an understanding of social prescribing in an authentic setting. Methods During a 12 week GP placement students collated information on local organisations, charities and schemes into a social prescribing directory. A clinic was set up and a social prescribing protocol created to enable suitable patients to be referred to the service. Students educated staff and collected feedback on how the service should run. Patients referred to the service were seen by medical students, who identified suitable social prescribing opportunities. Follow up was arranged to encourage patient engagement with services. The student-led service has been successfully integrated with the work of the new PCN link worker. Outcome Medical students were able successfully identify social prescribing opportunities for patients referred to them in primary care. Experential learning enabled them to develop an understanding of social prescribing and its place in healthcare. Discussion Medical students successfully designed and delivered a social prescribing intervention providing authentic educational experience in real-life clinical practice. The introduction of a Primary Care Network link worker enhanced this work and student input has continued in the ongoing service. It is hoped the scheme will be rolled out across the Primary Care curriculum in Leicester.

The use of volunteers to implement electronic patient reported outcomes in lung cancer outpatient clinics.

BACKGROUND: Treatment related toxicity is common after chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Our group has developed and validated an electronic Patient Reported Outcome questionnaire (ePRO) to assess symptoms and toxicity in lung cancer patients receiving (chemo)radiotherapy treatment. We assessed the need for volunteer support in clinics to assist patients in completing ePROs. METHODS: Lung Cancer patients attending outpatient or radiotherapy clinics at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester were consented and asked to complete a Patient Reported Outcomes questionnaire using an electronic device (a touchscreen). Trained volunteers were available if patients required help such as verbal or physical assistance. The primary objective was to determine the need for volunteers to assist lung cancer patients in completing ePROs. RESULTS: 27/86 (31.4%) of patients who consented to this study required assistance to complete the ePRO. After questioning, we found that only 7/86 (8.1%) would have relied on volunteers for assistance as the majority of patients had a companion that could have provided help. 81/86 (94.2%) of patients were satisfied with the use of a touchscreen tablet to complete the ePRO. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that the introduction of ePROs in lung cancer outpatient clinics is feasible, even without the use of volunteers for the majority of patients. The implementation of ePROs would allow large volumes of high quality (chemo)radiotherapy toxicity data to be collected accurately and quickly. This is essential for the development of predictive models of outcome using population-based data, which could allow the personalisation of (chemo)radiotherapy treatment for lung cancer patients.

Association of parent-child relationships and executive functioning in South Asian adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: It is known that some environmental variables can significantly affect the development of executive functions (EF). The primary aim of this study was to analyze whether some family conditions, such as the adolescent's perception of the quality of parent-child relationships and the socioeconomic status (SES; assessed according to education, occupational status, and income) are significantly associated with EF test scores. METHODS: There were 370 Pakistani participants ranging in age 13 to 19 years who were selected and then individually administered the following tests taken from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS): Trail Making Test (TMT), Design Fluency Test (DFT), Color Word Interference Test (CWIT), and Card Sorting Test (CST). In addition, a Parent-Child Relationship Scale (PCRS) also was administered. RESULTS: Results showed that perceived "neglect" in the PCRS was negatively associated with the 4 EF test scores. Parents' education and SES were positively associated with 3 EF measures: DFT, CWIT, and CST. Further correlational analyses revealed that inhibition (as measured with the CWIT) and problem-solving ability (as measured with the CST) were significantly associated with the perceived parent-child relationships. Some gender differences also were observed: males outperformed females on TMT, DFT, and CST, while females outperformed males in the CWIT. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that perceived parent-child relationships, SES, and parents' education are significantly associated with executive function test performance during adolescents.

Adolescent Aggression as Predicted from Parent-Child Relationships and Executive Functions.

Previous research has emphasized the role of parent-child relationships (PCRs) in child and adolescent development. The present study extends the previous findings by examining the direct and mediated relationship between PCRs, executive functioning (EF), and adolescent aggression. Five hundred twelve adolescents of South Asian ethnic background, enrolled at the secondary and higher secondary levels (aged 13-19 years; 50% boys), participated in the study. The Parent-Child Relationship Scale (Rao, 2000), Aggression Scale (Mathur & Bhatnagar, 2004), and four tests from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (Delis, Kaplan, & Kramer, 2001) were administered to measure the perceived quality of PCR, level of aggression, and EF, respectively, in participants. Pearson correlation coefficients revealed that perceived PCRs were related to EF and adolescent aggression among South Asian youth. Furthermore, multiple regression analyses using Baron and Kenny's (1986) guidelines showed that the influence of PCRs on aggression was partially mediated by EF The findings suggest that PCRs and EF can be important factors to focus on in interventions aimed at preventing adolescent aggression in society.

Investigation of a Patient Reported Outcome tool to assess radiotherapy-related toxicity prospectively in patients with lung cancer.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: There is a paucity of data regarding the feasibility and relevance of Patient Reported Outcome (PRO) tools to assess radiotherapy-related toxicity in lung cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODS: From January to June 2013, lung cancer patients undergoing thoracic radiotherapy/chemo-radiotherapy completed nine patient-adapted Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE), the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life (QoL) questionnaire and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) at baseline, the end of radiotherapy and at follow-up. Clinicians completed the same CTCAE items and agreement between patients' and clinicians' reporting was assessed using weighted kappa coefficients. QoL and HADS scores were correlated with the patients' and clinicians' reported toxicity. RESULTS: 70/116 patients completed the questionnaires for at least one time point excluding baseline. Agreement between patients' and clinicians' reported toxicity ranged from slight to substantial. Most discrepancies were within one grade and patients reported greater severity than clinicians for most symptoms. QoL and HADS scores were more strongly correlated with the patients' compared to clinicians' matching toxicity reports. The PRO tool was found to be statistically reliable. CONCLUSIONS: The use of a PRO tool in lung cancer radiotherapy is feasible, reliable and acceptable to patients. PROs should be integrated in future clinical trials evaluating new radiotherapy approaches to assess toxicity.

Anterior decompression and fixation with Webb-Morley procedure in dorsolumbar spinal injury.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the neurological outcome of anterior decompression and fixation with Webb-Morley procedure in dorsolumbar spinal injuries. STUDY DESIGN: A case series study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: The Neurosurgery Department, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, from May 2008 to July 2010. METHODOLOGY: Patients with post-traumatic unstable dorsolumbar spine having compression of the spinal cord with bony fragments of the fractured vertebra were included in the study. Patients below the age of 15 years and patients with bed sores and unfit for anaesthesia were excluded. Plain X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were done. All patients were treated for dorsolumbar fractures by anterior decompression and fixation with Webb-Morley procedure. All patients were assessed clinically by the Frankel's grading before and after surgery. RESULTS: Among 60 patients, 41 were males and 19 were females. Mean age was 37.2 ± 4 years. Major cause of trauma was road traffic accident. The commonest level of the fracture was at the dorsolumbar junction i.e. 71.66% (n = 43). About 19 (31.66%) patients improved to the Frankel's grade-E, while 41.66% (n = 25) improved to grade-D after surgery. There was no postoperative mortality. CONCLUSION: According to the current study, anterior decompression and fixation with Webb-Morley procedure is an effective and safe approach. Those patients who had complete motor deficit showed no improvement in power but those who had partial motor deficit, had excellent improvement.

Omitting elective nodal irradiation during thoracic irradiation in limited-stage small cell lung cancer--evidence from a phase II trial.

Omitting elective nodal irradiation (ENI) in limited-stage disease small cell lung cancer (LD-SCLC) is expected to result in smaller radiation fields. We report on data from a randomised phase II trial that omitted ENI in patients receiving concurrent chemo-radiotherapy for LD-SCLC. 38 patients with LD-SCLC were randomised to receive once-daily (66 Gy in 33 fractions) or twice-daily (45 Gy in 30 fractions) radiotherapy (RT). 3D-conformal RT was given concurrently with cisplatin and etoposide starting with the second cycle of a total of four cycles. The gross tumour volume was defined as primary tumour with involved lymph nodes (nodes ≥1 cm in short axis) identifiable with CT imaging. ENI was not used. Six recurrence patterns were identified: recurrence within planning target volume (PTV) only, recurrence within PTV+regional nodal recurrence and/or distant recurrence, isolated nodal recurrence outside PTV, nodal recurrence outside PTV+distant recurrence, distant metastases only and no recurrence. At median follow-up 16.9 months, 31/38 patients were evaluable and 14/31 patients had relapsed. There were no isolated nodal recurrences. Eight patients relapsed with intra-thoracic disease: 2 within PTV only, 4 within PTV and distantly and 2 with nodal recurrence outside PTV plus distant metastases. Rates of grade 3+ acute oesophagitis and pneumonitis in the 31 evaluable patients were 23 and 3% respectively. In our study of LD-SCLC, omitting ENI based on CT imaging was not associated with a high risk of isolated nodal recurrence, although further prospective studies are needed to confirm this. Routine ENI omission will be further evaluated prospectively in the ongoing phase III CONVERT trial (NCT00433563).

Use of G-CSF during concurrent chemotherapy and thoracic radiotherapy in patients with limited-stage small-cell lung cancer safety data from a phase II trial.

There is paucity of data in the literature regarding the safety of combining granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) during chemo-radiotherapy (CTRT) in lung cancer patients. The ASCO 2006 recommendations advise against use of CSFs during concomitant mediastinal CTRT. The only randomised study evaluating CSFs in this context showed significant increase in grade 3/4 thrombocytopenia and an excess of pulmonary toxic deaths. In the context of a phase II trial, 38 patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer were randomised to receive once-daily (66 Gy in 33 fractions) or twice-daily (45 Gy in 30 fractions) radiotherapy. Radiotherapy (RT) was given concurrently with cisplatin and etoposide. G-CSF was given as primary or secondary prophylaxis or as a therapeutic measure during an episode of febrile neutropenia according to local protocols. Common terminology criteria for adverse events (CTCAE) v3.0 was used to record toxicity. Thirteen (34%) of 38 patients received G-CSF concurrently with RT. With a median follow-up of 16.9 months, there were no treatment related deaths reported. Seven (54%) patients experienced grade 3/4 thrombocytopenia and 5 (38%) experienced grade 3/4 anaemia. Thirty-one percent required platelet transfusions. No episodes of bleeding were observed. There were no cases of grade 3/4 acute pneumonitis. These data suggests that with modern three-dimensional (3D) conformal RT, G-CSF administration concurrently with CTRT does not result in the increase risk of pulmonary toxicity, but does increase the risk of thrombocytopenia. Whether the risks of thrombocytopenia are outweighed by the outcome of timely early concurrent CTRT is being evaluated prospectively in the ongoing phase III CONVERT trial (NCT00433563) in which G-CSF is permitted during thoracic irradiation.

Colorectal cancer: a decade of progress.

Over the last decade there has been considerable improvement in the management of metastatic colorectal cancer. Like other cancer patients, people with colorectal cancer have benefited from service reorganizations that have lead to more rapid referral and diagnosis, and enabled more patients to benefit from recent advances in treatment.

Coexisting ectopic and intrauterine pregnancies: a case report.

BACKGROUND: The simulated presence of intrauterine and extrauterine pregnancies is a rare condition. Diagnosis is difficult, accomplished on grounds of strong suspicion (as in assisted reproductive treatment cases), on the presence of predisposing factors (pathology of salpinx) or as a coincidental finding in the emergency room when a patient presents after an elective or spontaneous abortion. An intrauterine pregnancy may be discovered in a patient who presents with ectopic pregnancy. CASE: A 40-year-old multigravida was diagnosed with coexisting extrauterine and intrauterine pregnancies when she presented with a right ectopic pregnancy in the emergency room. The patient underwent partial right salpingectomy and an elective abortion. CONCLUSION: Patients who present with acute pelvic pain must be investigated for coexisting ectopic pregnancy even though they have a proven intrauterine pregnancy. Such an investigation is even more important if the patient is undergoing assisted reproductive treatment. In patients who have had spontaneous or elective abortion, especially in cases of a gestation <4 weeks, the differential diagnosis should include coexisting ectopic pregnancy. Failure to diagnose this condition can have serious consequences.

A statistical evaluation of recent full reference image quality assessment algorithms.

Measurement of visual quality is of fundamental importance for numerous image and video processing applications, where the goal of quality assessment (QA) algorithms is to automatically assess the quality of images or videos in agreement with human quality judgments. Over the years, many researchers have taken different approaches to the problem and have contributed significant research in this area and claim to have made progress in their respective domains. It is important to evaluate the performance of these algorithms in a comparative setting and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of these methods. In this paper, we present results of an extensive subjective quality assessment study in which a total of 779 distorted images were evaluated by about two dozen human subjects. The "ground truth" image quality data obtained from about 25,000 individual human quality judgments is used to evaluate the performance of several prominent full-reference image quality assessment algorithms. To the best of our knowledge, apart from video quality studies conducted by the Video Quality Experts Group, the study presented in this paper is the largest subjective image quality study in the literature in terms of number of images, distortion types, and number of human judgments per image. Moreover, we have made the data from the study freely available to the research community. This would allow other researchers to easily report comparative results in the future.

A joint source-channel distortion model for JPEG compressed images.

The need for efficient joint source-channel coding (JSCC) is growing as new multimedia services are introduced in commercial wireless communication systems. An important component of practical JSCC schemes is a distortion model that can predict the quality of compressed digital multimedia such as images and videos. The usual approach in the JSCC literature for quantifying the distortion due to quantization and channel errors is to estimate it for each image using the statistics of the image for a given signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This is not an efficient approach in the design of real-time systems because of the computational complexity. A more useful and practical approach would be to design JSCC techniques that minimize average distortion for a large set of images based on some distortion model rather than carrying out per-image optimizations. However, models for estimating average distortion due to quantization and channel bit errors in a combined fashion for a large set of images are not available for practical image or video coding standards employing entropy coding and differential coding. This paper presents a statistical model for estimating the distortion introduced in progressive JPEG compressed images due to quantization and channel bit errors in a joint manner. Statistical modeling of important compression techniques such as Huffman coding, differential pulse-coding modulation, and run-length coding are included in the model. Examples show that the distortion in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) can be predicted within a 2-dB maximum error over a variety of compression ratios and bit-error rates. To illustrate the utility of the proposed model, we present an unequal power allocation scheme as a simple application of our model. Results show that it gives a PSNR gain of around 6.5 dB at low SNRs, as compared to equal power allocation.

Quality-aware images.

We propose the concept of quality-aware image, in which certain extracted features of the original (high-quality) image are embedded into the image data as invisible hidden messages. When a distorted version of such an image is received, users can decode the hidden messages and use them to provide an objective measure of the quality of the distorted image. To demonstrate the idea, we build a practical quality-aware image encoding, decoding and quality analysis system, which employs: 1) a novel reduced-reference image quality assessment algorithm based on a statistical model of natural images and 2) a previously developed quantization watermarking-based data hiding technique in the wavelet transform domain.