The Role Medical Software Plays in Clinical Trials

Every year, medical experts and pharmaceutical companies develop new medications and treatment options for various ailments. Before these medicines can be released to the mass market, they must undergo rigorous testing during clinical trials. Clinical trials test the safety and efficacy of drugs in people from different demographics. To perform these trials, pharmaceutical companies need reliable medical software to record and secure the data but also to track activities at each phase.

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

During this process, medical experts note the side effects of the new medications and adjust the dosage as needed. The government drug administration regulatory body audits clinical trials in the countries where they take place. These audits depend on the data stored on the medical software, and they usually take place after every phase of the clinical trial.

Phases of Clinical Trials

Clinical trials usually occur in the phases listed below:

Phase one

During this phase, drug companies test their new medication on a small group of people, usually 10 to 20 people. The aim is to ensure that a low dose of the medicine is not harmful.

Phase two

This phase aims to find the optimal dose of the treatment and the side effects on the body upon consumption. The participant size is between 20 to 50 people.

Phase three

In this phase, medical experts verify the efficacy of the optimal dosage found in phase two and further investigate the side effects of the medication. The participants in this phase range between 50 and 100 people.

Phase four

Once the medication is proven effective, medical experts will compare it to existing treatments for the same ailment or a placebo. This phase usually has hundreds or thousands of participants. During this phase, the pharmaceutical company producing the drug will also seek government approval to sell it to the mass market.

Phase five

After drug approval and sales to the mass market, the pharmaceutical company will continue to monitor its consumption to observe long-term side effects.

Each phase of clinical trials generates huge volumes of data because of the numerous participants. It is worth noting that every company has its unique method of operation, so there might not exist medical software suited to their unique needs. This is why companies like AROBS develop custom medical software that can be configured with features that will make pharmaceutical companies conduct their trials efficiently.

Features of Medical Software

Pharmaceutical companies often customize their medical software to their unique needs. Nevertheless, some features are commonly found in most medical software used for clinical trials. They are listed below:

1. Electronic health records
2. Financial management
3. Reporting and analytics
4. Inventory management
5. Payroll
6. Medical CRM
7. Telehealth

Endnote

Medical software is a crucial asset for pharmaceutical companies conducting clinical trials because it helps them keep track of the participants’ performance and health status. They also use it to record medical data that will be audited by the appropriate government regulatory body before approving the medication being developed. This software can be customized to fit the medical needs at hand, making it more useful.

by Web Desk via Digital Information World

From Abstract to Urban: A Guide to Understanding Artistic Styles

Art is difficult to define, but it can be divided into different types for better understanding. Many artworks are available in the market, but people often get confused by the variety. Artworks can be identified by their vision, subject, and the feelings they convey. To help you navigate this, we've created a list of 11 art styles. This guide will help you choose the type of artwork that suits your taste.

1- Abstract Art

Abstract art is all about abstract and non-object things. It is the style of art where the artist uses his emotions and feelings to represent shapes, lines, forms and other gestural marks. Abstract art doesn’t use any material things to awaken emotion.

Image: Pawel Czerwinski / Unsplash

The strokes of colors on the canvas are enough to convey the emotions behind the idea of the artwork.

2- Figurative Art

As we can tell from the name, figurative art uses figures to convey emotions behind the artwork. This is the art style that has been being used for centuries. The artist paints real objects that look like human forms and present it in a way that shows a bigger meaning.

Image: DIW-Aigen

In modern times, figurative art is also being used with other contemporary art types like abstract, minimalist and cubic art.

3- Geometric Art

In this artistic approach, a myriad of geometric shapes such as triangles, squares, and circles converge to construct intricate angles, points, and forms.

Image by StakeCash from Pixabay

From straightforward designs to elaborate compositions, the geometric style of art spans a spectrum of complexity.

4- Minimalist Art

Minimalist art is a type of abstract art but the artist doesn’t use any of his emotions or feelings to make this art style. It is often described as, “what you see is what you see”, which means that there is no hidden meaning behind minimalist art.

Image: Bench Accounting / UnSplash

Image: Hardae/pixabay

Minimalist art is simple, often made with geometric and least expressive figures.

5- Nature Art

This art is all about nature, from landscapes to animals and humans.

Image: eddydsgn/pixabay

You can see nature in different forms of art like painting, drawing, photography and digital technology. It is widely liked by photography enthusiasts across all masses.

6- Pop Art

Pop art started getting well known in post-war America and Britain in the early 1950s. It was first made as a resistant force for other art styles but it gained popularity in the 1960s. Pop art is a simple yet funky form of art which is inspired by people or current situations.

Image: freepik

You can often see pop art graphics in music, comic books, advertising and product packaging.

7- Portraiture

Image: DIW-Aigen

Portraiture is an art style which covers a person, their style, essence and status perfectly. Do you know the famous painting Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci? It is a perfect example of the portraiture. Portraiture has always been well-known among emperors and kings, especially during the Roman and British empire.

8- Still Life

You can see still life art in painting, drawing, as well as photography. This type of art is for still or inanimate objects. Even a dead person can be a model for still life.

Image: DIW-Aigen / The watermelon symbolizes Palestinian resistance in protests and art, embodying the struggle against Israeli occupation.

Still life artwork can also be about flowers, furniture, game, food and anything that isn’t breathing or moving.

9- Surrealist

Surrealist art style is all about unreal and irrational thinking style projected into art. It serves as a medium for exploring the depths of the psyche, revealing juxtapositions of thoughts and emotions that defy rational explanation.

Image: DIW-Aigen

You cannot define or explain a surrealist art as there is no logic or meaning behind it. It is complex and doesn’t match any real objects. Surrealist art often challenges conventional norms and perceptions, prompting viewers to question reality and delve into the realms of dreams and subconscious thoughts.

10- Typography

Typography art style arranges texts to give a powerful message, that are more popular on digital channels these days. It uses typeface, a method of designing alphabets in specific styles, to convey a feeling, identity or any message.

Image: Nick Fewings/unsplash

You can see typography on books, posters, internet, social media posts and street signs.

11- Urban Art

Image: Nick Fewings / Unsplash

Image: Felix Dubois-Robert / Unsplash

Urban art is often made by artists living in urban areas. These artworks show city life and experiences one faces living in an urban environment. It also shows the negative effects of urbanization like poverty.

Conclusion:

Understanding various art styles enhances our connection to the world and enriches our appreciation of human creativity. Each style offers a unique perspective on the human experience, empowering us to select pieces that resonate with us. Exploring these styles provides insights into history and culture, fostering curiosity and empathy. Embracing different art forms sparks meaningful connections and enriches our lives.

Familiarity with various art forms not only enriches personal taste but also enhances interaction with AI-based image generation tools like DALL-E and Bing Image. For instance, prompting these tools to create a modern illustration versus a realistic minimalist art piece can yield vastly different visual outputs. Understanding these distinctions empowers users to craft more precise prompts, resulting in more tailored and satisfying outcomes from AI-generated images.

Read next: Analytical Thinking, Creativity in Jobs Benefit Long-Term Brain Health, Research Shows
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Study Reveals Apple and Starlink Users' Locations Easily Trackable, Sparking Privacy Concerns

Researchers from the University of Maryland conducted research showing how the location of Apple and Starlink users can be tracked easily. This is an alarming situation that creates a privacy threat worldwide, particularly in areas where wars and oppressions are ongoing (such as in Palestine/Gaza). Starlink has a Wi-Fi-based positioning system (WPS) that uses Wi-Fi signals to determine the location of the device you are using. It utilizes nearby Wi-Fi access points and signal strengths to determine the locations.

Apple collects the location of their users to provide their devices with a Wi-Fi-Based Positioning System, an alternative to the Global Positioning System (GPS). For the research, researchers performed an attack using data from Apple to collect a snapshot of Wi-Fi Basic Service Set Identifiers (BSSID) geolocations. As a result, they could easily monitor the Wi-Fi access points of Apple users anywhere in the world. The researchers also mentioned that the attack method they used can be executed by anyone with basic technical knowledge. After researching for a year, the team determined the location of about two billion BSSIDs worldwide.

• Also read: Majority of Shoppers Embrace AI Search for Product Discovery

As a result of this study, researchers were also able to identify the location of several travel routers, which pose a significant threat to people who do not want to be tracked. War zones were particularly exposed to this tracking. Researchers found nearly 3,722 Starlink terminals based in military zones in Ukraine. They also discovered that the Apple devices they tracked never even used WPS. All of them just needed to be within Wi-Fi range to expose their location publicly and get tracked.

The team of researchers informed Google and Apple about their findings, as both companies use their own WPS. They also discussed their concerns with GL.iNet and SpaceX. In response, Apple announced in March 2024 that users can now opt out of having their wireless access points' locations collected by Apple. To prevent Google from indexing your location, simply add "_nomap" to the name of your Wi-Fi access points (SSID).

Read next: 53% of the Consumers in the US are Following AI or Virtual Influencers on Different Social Media Platforms
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

53% of the Consumers in the US are Following AI or Virtual Influencers on Different Social Media Platforms

Many companies on social media are using AI-created influencers to make their brands grow. Most of these identities are AI generated or digital avatars. The researchers over at Influencer Marketing Factory did a survey of 1,000 consumers to find out how well AI and virtual creators are performing on social media feeds.

The survey found out that 53% of those surveyed consumers are following at least one virtual influencer while 22% of them are familiar or know some of those entirely virtual personalities.

There are many AI generated influencers on social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and Instagram with millions of followers. Among these personalities are Magazine Luiza with 69 million Instagram followers and Lil Miquela with 2.6 million Instagram followers. Lil Miquela was created by a tech startup known as Brud and this AI influencer has worked with many brands such as Samsung and Prada. 49% of the consumers said that they followed these AI personalities because they were curious and wanted to know how they work on social media while 36% said that they followed the creators for entertainment. Some participants in the survey also said that they followed the creators because they wanted to know about new products from a virtual point of view.

36% of the participants of the survey also said that they would like if the virtual stars write about their AI nature in their bio to avoid any misunderstandings. When the participants who were not following any AI creator the reason for not following, they said that they are not interested while some replied that they are more interested in real relationships than engaging with AI.

The report also showed that YouTube is the top social media platform with most virtual celebrates with 59% of the participants following them there. TikTok was the platform with the second most virtual personalities with 56% of the participants following them there. Instagram had 51% of the participants following AI influencers, followed by Twitch with 18% followers. 63% of the participants following virtual stars were Millennials and Gen-Z. 71% of the participants in the survey also admitted that despite following all these AI influencers, they haven’t made a purchase after being inspired by them.

Read next: The Impact and Importance of Children’s Technology Use
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Botify Survey: Majority of Shoppers Embrace AI Search for Product Discovery

Botify conducted a survey to find out what shoppers thought of using AI search for finding new products on different platforms. As we know, many search engines including Google have added AI-generated anwers in their search results so Botify saw some potential in discovering new products this way. The results of the survey showed that 44% of the shoppers know what generative AI search is, out of which 58% of Gen-Z and Millennials each knew about it the most while Baby Boomers (74%) didn’t really know about generative search.

The respondents of the survey were asked whether they have used AI search or not, and if they were satisfied with the results. 37% of the respondents answered that they have already used the AI search and found out that they are satisfied with the results. 34% of them said that there is no difference in regular and AI search while 28% said that they feel like they have to explain their query more while making an AI search.

• Also read: The Most Confusing Emojis of 2024

The participants of the survey were also asked if they preferred a result page of AI generated results or traditional results. 54% of them answered that they prefer AI generated results. When asked the reason why they use AI search, 41% of the respondents said that they use AI search for online shopping. 19% of them used it for news while 12% of them used AI search for asking health related questions.

The survey asked the respondents if they believe that AI generated results can make online shopping and discovering new products easier. 55% of the respondents, which were the majority, answered yes. 36% of the respondents in the survey hadn’t used AI search while 25% of them just used it for testing. 17% of the consumers also preferred AI search results over traditional results because it is easier and faster for AI search results to show up.

Read next: Frustrated with Google's AI Overview in Search Results? Here’s How to Disable It With A Chrome Browser Hack
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Musk Claims X App Hits 600 Million Users, Doubling DAUs Since March

Elon Musk is known for making some very striking comments online and most of them tend to get an overreaction from the critics, in case you did not know.

Currently, a trending topic has to do with Musk’s confession about the number of monthly active users that some are casting doubts over.

It’s not an official update, we agree, as Musk is famous for passing some far-fetched comments online. But seeing the tech entrepreneur reveal that the figure stands at 600 million today is just overwhelming for many of us to accept.

Musk says that’s the truth and he couldn’t be more proud. So that means out of the 600 million people out there, half of them are using the app on a daily basis! How’s that for shocking!

It’s a lot to accept because nearly 60 days back, we heard something else. X made an official report of 550 million monthly active users and DAU hit 250 million with stats published online. So now, we’re being told that the huge increase has taken place without any sort of justification as to how, why, and where this arose.

However, some do feel it can be believed as the app hit the 500 million monthly user mark in March of 2023. Depending on these kinds of stats, X has added 50 million more people in less than a year and that has increased by the same amount in nearly eight weeks. How’s that for some tremendous growth?

Coming back to daily active users, the growth is much greater because the app hit 250 million for DAU in November of 2022. It reiterated that same figure for this year in March and you’re telling us that zero growth arose in a span of 16 months? Okay, clearly something is missing here.

Now, all of a sudden, it’s another 50 million daily active users as per this note. We agree this is not the official statement but Musk’s confession is super vague and needs to be called out in terms of transparency and what really is going on.

If this is to be believed, the app is growing and that’s a huge endorsement in terms of the direction where the app tends to be going and where it once existed in the past.

Remember, the app needs users, and revenue is down by nearly 50% from what Twitter used to have before Musk came into power. Creating the right audience is never easy and could give rise to lucrative offers from bigger players taking part in making investments in the firm.

Now real facts and figures always count and seeing advertising partners shoo away is never great because it’s Musk who has been to blame in that regard. But if the chance to get great success was there and in the company’s best interest, who can ever say no?

Currently, X does not have the massive audience size that we’ve seen with Twitter in the past so there’s a long way to go to actually win more stakeholders over. But if the app really does hope to gain again, it’s major news that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Expanding potential is never looked down upon, provided the sources it's coming from can be trusted. And as far as Musk is concerned, we’re not sure if the majority see him as an official and the most trustworthy source for X’s user stats.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: Google Defends Its AI Overviews In Search Despite Results Going ‘Off The Rails’ But Vows To Take Action
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Google Defends Its AI Overviews In Search Despite Results Going ‘Off The Rails’ But Vows To Take Action

AI Overviews on Google have been rolled out across Search and within just one week of its existence, it’s causing mayhem for users.

The company revealed the feature as one of its most integral offerings that would truly revolutionize the search experience forever. But it seems like the tech giant spoke too soon as results are literally going off the rails.

But if that was not bad news enough, minus the huge criticism from publishers, we’re now hearing zero accountability from the company. They keep brushing off the error reports as just isolated examples and the majority of users are more than happy with how things are coming into play.

In case you may have missed it, AI Overviews function by making use of Generative AI to design summaries or replies directly to the user’s question. The whole idea here has to do with summarizing the information from several sources to provide end users with a simple and easy means of digesting what’s presented to them.

But in just a few days, the whole thing has gone wild. Passing through social media, you’ll clearly find so many examples of Search AI Overviews that keep giving wrong data. From people trying to add glue to pizza to chicken getting cooked at crazy temperatures, one can’t help but wonder what’s going on here.

It’s doing it all and even going as far as stealing material from various websites online to utilize data and there are no links to the web pages' owners either. Talk about stealing material without credit!

We agree that no launch is perfect but there’s a lot going on here that Google cannot just ignore as the world demands answers. It’s almost like every inaccurate result brought forward is being shunned by the good ones getting published online. That’s what the app is talking about.

Google just gave out an interview on this front including how the mistakes are no big deal and not a setback that threatens the feature. They do not represent the opinions that the majority have and just are very common and can be ignored. But wait, what about the outcry from the masses?

Furthermore, Google says such experiences are great because they help in the refinement of the feature and with time, things are bound to get better. Nevertheless, the company appreciates the feedback it gets on this front.

The majority of AI overviews are giving rise to top-quality data and the links enable people to go down deeper into the world of search. Most examples used against proving the feature is useless are linked to uncommon questions so the company says that only after extensive trial and error were they able to reach the point where they stand today.

Right now, they have been allocated to default settings across Search but are not present on each question rolled out. So what does this mean, no action will be taken by the Android maker despite users’ outcry to get things fixed?

No, that’s not the case. Google may not see the criticism eye to eye with others but that does not mean it’s going to sit back and do nothing. It vows to take prompt action and help fix the matter. It has already disabled some of the features of viral questions. But the majority still goes strong as most results it feels are of top quality.

And in case you were wondering, the AI reply linked to glue helping cheese stick to a pizza that triggered serious backlash has been removed as that is not appropriate!

The company even rolled out a reply on this front including how it vows to take quick action where it feels is appropriate and in line with its policies. And dangerous results will no longer have any room on the search engine. Well, thank God for that, right!

We won’t lie that seeing Google point fingers at misinformation regarding AI Overviews and some towards doctored replies is shocking as they keep brushing that off as isolated examples. Clearly, only time can tell how useful of a feature this is as skepticism keeps growing.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: Here's How To Turn off AI Overviews when Searching Google
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World