This paper proposes an approach and demonstrates its application for cross-border exchange of ePrescriptions in the European Union. A business process model of the main use case for exchange of prescription content in the eHealth Digital Service Infrastructure is created and analyzed. The novelty in this approach is the proposed encoding of the basic dataset in a Quick Response (QR) code in terms of an XML scheme that is independent of clinical models or proprietary database structures. It allows to inverse the dataflow control in the chain of message exchanges between Dispenser and National Contact Points. The proposed inversion of control positions the citizen with the QR code of the prescription in the center of that chain of message exchanges between the main actors of the business process. The independent format of content representation in the QR code allows the actors in the message exchange to auto-populate data in their registers when the medicine is dispensed. Initial results are reported and reveal the advantages of embedding prescription details in QR code employing a common independent XML scheme.

This paper considers the association between diabetes and obesity by examining body mass index (BMI) values and ICD-10 codes for obesity illnesses. The BMI values are extracted from 6,887,876 anonymized outpatient records describing all the visits of diabetics to general practitioners and specialists in ambulatory care from the latest Bulgarian nationally representative data. The number of adults in this sample having BMI ≥ 25 is 253,841 i.e. 84.121% of the adult diabetics with BMI records are overweight or obese. The objective of the study is to reveal how the BMI recorded values in outpatient records relate diabetics with overweight or obesity illness. In the existing literature sources there is scant empirical data of this subject where the conclusions are founded on a nationally representative sample. A secondary objective is to obtain the distribution of BMI values of adults with respect to their age and gender. The initial computer experiments prove that there is no immediate and unconditional relation between BMI and the obesity illnesses. These results underpin the role of BMI as a risk factor that should be observed regularly as an important part of proactive public health policies.

The mesoporous silica particles (MSNs) have been investigated as potential drug delivery carriers. They have an extensive surface area and pore volume. Many silanol groups are located along the particles' entire outer and inner surfaces. They make it possible to create bonds or interactions between the drug molecules and the carrier. Still, They are also an extremely suitable basis for further functionalization of the particle and pore surface. This review examines how the functionalization of MSNs, on the one hand, allows more successful loading of active substances into their pores and, on the other hand, successfully controls their release. Upon loading sparingly soluble drugs, an improvement in their solubility was found, most likely by amorphization, obtained after crystallization of the problem substance in the delicate pores of these specific carriers. The synthesis of some types of silicate carriers is a method for improving the loading of the particles with active substances is confirmed.

This paper presents new data about diabetes prevalence and illness duration from a population of patients with diabetes Type 1(43,818) and Type 2 (457,247). Unlike the usual approach that employs adjusted estimates in similar prevalence reports, this study extracts data from a large number of original clinical documents such as all the outpatient records (6,887,876) issued in Bulgaria to all the 501,065 patients with diabetics during 2018 (9.77% of all the 5,128,172 patients recorded in 2018, 4.43% male and 5.35% female). Diabetes prevalence data are described in terms of distributions of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes over age and gender. It is mapped to an Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Common Data Model that is publicly available. The distribution of Type 2 diabetics agrees with peak values of BMI established in related research. A major novelty in this research are the data about the diabetes illness duration. It is an essential metric for evaluating the quality of processes evolving over time. Accurate estimates are obtained for the duration measured in years of Type 1 (95% CI 10.92, 11.08) and Type 2 (95% CI 7.97, 8.02) diabetics from the Bulgarian population. The patients with diabetes Type 1 have longer diabetes duration relatively to those with Type 2. It is recommended to include this metric in official diabetes prevalence reports.