Tag: impact

Study reveals the impact of prompt design on ChatGPT’s health advice accuracy

In a groundbreaking study, researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and The University of Queensland have unveiled the critical impact of prompt variations on the accuracy of health information provided by Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT), a state-of-the-art generative large language model (LLM). This research marks a significant advancement in our understanding of how artificial intelligence (AI) technologies process health-related queries, emphasizing the importance of prompt design in ensuring the reliability of the information disseminated to the public.

Study: Dr ChatGPT tell me what I want to hear: How different prompts impact health answer correctness

Study: Dr ChatGPT tell me what I want to hear: How different prompts impact health answer correctness

As AI becomes increasingly integral to our daily lives, its ability to provide accurate and reliable information, particularly in sensitive areas such as health, is under intense scrutiny. The study conducted by CSIRO and The University of Queensland researchers brings to light the nuanced ways in which the formulation of prompts influences ChatGPT’s responses. In the realm of health information seeking, where the accuracy of the information can have profound implications, the findings of this study are especially pertinent.

Using the Text Retrieval Conference (TREC) Misinformation dataset, the study precisely evaluated ChatGPT’s performance across different prompting conditions. This analysis revealed that ChatGPT could deliver highly accurate health advice, with an effectiveness rate of 80% when provided with questions alone. However, this effectiveness is significantly compromised by biases introduced through the phrasing of questions and the inclusion of additional information in the prompts.

The study delineated two primary experimental conditions: “Question-only,” where ChatGPT was asked to provide an answer based solely on the question, and “Evidence-biased,” where the model was provided with additional information from a web search result. This dual approach allowed the researchers to simulate real-world scenarios where users either pose straightforward questions to the model or seek to inform

Fast Fashion and Its Environmental Impact in 2024

Clothing retailers like Zara, Forever 21, and H&M make cheap and fashionable clothing to satisfy the needs of young consumers. Yet, fast fashion has a significant environmental impact. According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the industry is the second-biggest consumer of water and is responsible for about 10% of global carbon emissions – more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. Unfortunately, fast fashion problems are often overlooked by consumers.

What Is Fast Fashion?

The term ‘fast fashion’ has become more prominent in conversations surrounding fashion, sustainability, and environmental consciousness. The term refers to ‘cheaply produced and priced garments that copy the latest catwalk styles and get pumped quickly through stores in order to maximise on current trends’.

The fast fashion model is so-called because it involves the rapid design, production, distribution, and marketing of clothing, which means that retailers are able to pull large quantities of greater product variety and allow consumers to get more fashion and product differentiation at a low price.




The term was first used at the beginning of the 1990s, when when Zara landed in New York. “Fast fashion” was coined by the New York Times to describe Zara’s mission to take only 15 days for a garment to go from the design stage to being sold in stores. The biggest players in the fast fashion world include Zara, UNIQLO, Forever 21 and H&M.

H&M fast fashion store during sales. Wikimedia Commons

The Dark Side of Fast Fashion

According to an analysis by Business Insider, fashion production comprises 10% of total global carbon emissions, as much as the European Union. It dries up water sources and pollutes rivers and streams, while 85% of all textiles go to dumps each year. Even washing clothes releases 500,000 tons of microfibres into the ocean each year,

How AI will impact everything in healthcare

As AI took center stage in 2023, there was no sector in which the stakes were higher than in healthcare.

While the industry is no stranger to AI, especially in drug development and medical imaging, there are many ways in which the mainstream awareness of OpenAI’s ChatGPT has pushed the discussion further than ever.

A sector known for still relying on the fax machine is finding its way in the tech age as competition heats up. Companies like Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) are angling for their share of next-generation tech that frees up doctors and medical staff from burdensome administrative tasks. In addition, health insurers have been experimenting with ways to automate the claims process.

Artificial intelligence could boost productivity, cut costs, and improve care, just as the industry faces an aging America. For investors, the effects of the technology will likely begin to show for insurers, pharma giants, hospital chains, software makers, and more.

While the healthcare sector has lagged the market — the S&P Health Care Equipment index is down 6% this year, compared to the broader index’s 24% gain — that may soon change. Citi Global Wealth listed medical technology as one of its key investment themes for next year as health spending continues to grow.

Yahoo Finance asked experts about what they expect to see from the intersection of AI and healthcare in 2024, including views from Big Tech, VCs, startups, cybersecurity, and more.

Google chief clinical officer Michael Howell

“2024 will be the year where healthcare enterprises start to see value out of generative AI. … On the technical side, it’s clear we’re still in an exponential right now and it’s very hard to predict your way out of an exponential. So I anticipate that we’re going to see continued breakneck

21st Century Cures Act information-blocking rule has no impact on patient complaints in radiology

The information-blocking rule under the 21st Century Cures Act—requiring providers to grant patients immediate access to their radiology reports—appears to have no impact on patient complaints.

That’s according to a new single-center analysis from Vanderbilt University Medical Center published Friday in JAMA Health Forum [1]. The Cures Act first went into effect in December 2016 and entered its first compliance phase in April 2021. It aims to help increase patient access to health information, also including consultation notes, physical exams, lab and pathology work, and discharge summaries.

To better understand the law’s impact, researchers at VUMC analyzed nearly 8,500 unsolicited patient complaints logged at their institution between 2020 and 2022. They found that such grievances increased from over 3,000 in the year leading up to the information-blocking rule’s implementation to nearly 5,500 in the year after.

“In this cohort study with interrupted time-series analysis, the Cures Act [information-blocking rule] was not associated with a change in the monthly rate of [unsolicited patient complaints] at a large academic medical center,” lead author Robert J. Dambrino IV, MD, with Vanderbilt’s Department of Health Policy, and colleagues wrote Sept. 29. “A qualitative review of the complaints suggests that there are unintended consequences of complex medical information being immediately available to patients. Further study of the effects of this legislative mandate with multi-institutional data and a longer time horizon may be helpful for further understanding of this law’s effect on [unsolicited patient complaints].”

Prior to Jan. 1, 2021, Vanderbilt’s policy was to release radiology reports three business days after results were available, pathology reports 15 calendar days later, and to never electronically share clinical notes. After the law change went into effect, the Tennessee institution began providing immediate access to all three via its patient portal.

After the rule went into effect, topics

With thousands of N.W.T. evacuees in Alberta, local experts fear impact of toxic drug crisis

A small group of health-care workers in Alberta is working to inform wildfire evacuees from the Northwest Territories about where to access common medications for opioid-use disorder in Calgary and Edmonton.

Missing even a day of medications causes withdrawal symptoms, while several days without increases the risk of relapsing for otherwise stable patients — which means more people at risk of dying from the toxic street drug supply, says Dr. Kate Colizza, an addiction medicine and internal medicine physician in Calgary.

“It’s not the type of medication where a lot of people can plan ahead or have extras available,” said Colizza, who created fliers listing opioid agonist therapy (OAT) clinics and programs in the two cities.

“The issue with a lot of these medications — like Suboxone, methadone, Kadian — is that … you have to go to the pharmacy every day to pick up and take your medication.”

Thousands of people have fled Yellowknife and surrounding First Nations since last week, filling evacuation centres in Calgary, Edmonton, and surrounding areas. In the middle of a toxic drug crisis that killed at least 7,328 people across Canada last year, experts and advocates fear displacement due to wildfires could lead to more toxic drug poisonings and deaths. 

Colizza and her colleagues began putting together information for the fliers as soon as they heard evacuees would be arriving in Alberta. The goal is to make it easier for people to access care when they do not have an Alberta health plan and physicians cannot access their health records. 

After she shared the information on social media, Colizza said advocates on the ground started printing out the fliers and distributing them at evacuee reception centres. 

Petra Schulz, co-founder of Moms Stop the Harm, said the

Milk River’s emergency department is closed again. The impact goes beyond the rural town

The emergency department in Milk River, Alta., is closed — again.

Alberta Health Services said a shortage of doctors forced the health care facility in the southern Alberta town to shut its doors for a week.

The closure began Friday morning, and it marks the seventh time the emergency department has closed since May. 

“It’s affected us very stressfully,” said Colleen Bianchi, who lives in the nearby village of Coutts, Alta. “A lot of frustration for people not having a doctor, having to find help when there’s emergencies.”

During the temporary closure, AHS said nursing staff will remain on-site to provide care for long-term care residents.

Milk River’s emergency department services an area much larger than the southern Alberta town and its 814 or so residents.

An emergency department is pictured.
Patients in need of emergency care are asked to go to other facilities in the area, including Lethbridge’s Chinook Regional Hospital. (Ose Irete/CBC)

Patients in need of care are advised to access emergency services at the Raymond Health Centre, which is about 60 kilometres away, or the Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge, which is roughly 90 kilometres away.

EMS calls will also be re-routed to to either of those centres, AHS said. 

But traveling that distance isn’t always doable.

“If you live out where we farm, it’s 35 miles,” Bianchi said. “I get to Milk River and you want me to go another hour, 45 minutes. It’s a concern.”

The Milk River facility services an area of about 1,300 square kilometres. It’s the closest emergency department for many southern Alberta towns near the U.S. border. 

“Everybody that lives in this area is dependent upon their services,” said Scott MacCumber, the deputy mayor of Coutts and the chairperson of the Milk River health professionals attraction and retention committee.

“We’ve got people coming down here from

ESG impact on the fashion clothing industry in Taiwan | Taiwan News

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Where does all of Taiwan’s unsold and unused fashion, clothing, or apparel go?


The question is relevant to the “E” and “S” of environmental, social, and governance (ESG), which Taiwan espouses in its 2050 Net-Zero Pathway. Taiwan’s stores from the high end to the night markets are awash with clothing and associated apparel, whether it be high fashion or simply something for everyday use.


It is impossible to imagine that it is all sold. Seasons change, ranges change, tastes change, and even with discount outlets, there is simply no possibility that the bewildering array of clothing, shoes, and other pieces of apparel are just stored away in the hope that the items will return to be fashionable again.


A simple walk through even outlet stores in Taipei provides evidence of the sheer mountains of clothing and apparel on sale. We are not spoiled for choice, rather we, as consumers, are drowning in it.


However, if Taiwan and the Taiwanese consumer are as committed to ESG as we are led to believe, then we need answers to these questions and action to tackle the problem. Some commentators say that consumers live in a land of make-believe and even “green wishing” if they believe that unsold, unwanted apparel is somehow recycled and becomes available to be worn again.


In 2013, the famous European fashion retailer H&M, launched a global clothing collection campaign. The company promised at the time that 95% of the thousand tonnes of textiles thrown away each year could be worn again or recycled. Consumers were led to believe that discarded items of apparel would be turned into fabrics and ultimately new products.


Instead, and despite company denials, investigative journalists reported that

Shein​, Zara Fast Fashion Environmental Impact Piles up at Holidays

The fashion industry has a staggering garbage problem.

Every year more than 100 billion apparel items are created by the industry — enough for every person on Earth to get 14 new pieces of clothing each year, and more than double the amount of clothing produced in 2000. And because of our “buy-and-return” culture, a lot of that clothing is getting sent back to retailers. Despite what many people think, most clothing returns are not restocked, repurposed, or reused — they end up in the garbage.

The problem is dire: Every day, tens of millions of garments are tossed out to make way for new ones. And every year, 101 million tons of clothing end up in landfills. And the trend toward fast fashion — cheap, mass-produced items that chase short-term fads — are only making us more wasteful. The fast-fashion brand Zara produces 450 million garments, with 20,000 new styles each year, which remain in fashion for a limited amount of time until they’re replaced by new styles the following year. If 20,000 sounds like a lot, the “new kid on the block” just asked us to hold their beer. Shein, a Chinese company which has only been around since 2008, releases 6,000 new styles … a day! And not all of those clothes are sold. Many fast-fashion companies are stuck with mountains of excess inventory that they struggle to get rid of. 

The holiday season exacerbates the problem. Around Christmas, more people are buying clothes they intend to return, and more people are tossing old clothes to make space for new ones. That’s especially true this year. With the pandemic receding in the rearview mirror, people are planning to buy more winter coats and dress clothes for holiday parties and travel, according to a report from

Researchers examine how ADHD traits impact mental health

woman with curly red hair and fuzzy white sweater leaning against a wall in her home office with a laptop on her lapShare on Pinterest
A new study suggests that adults with ADHD may require more mental health support. Image credit: Counter/Getty Images.
  • In a collaborative study, researchers analyzed adult questionnaire responses to examine the connection between ADHD traits, autism traits, and mental health issues.
  • The researchers wanted to find out how much having traits of ADHD or autism increases symptoms of mental health problems.
  • After analyzing the responses, the researchers concluded that officials need to raise more awareness about the impact ADHD can have on mental health, as they believe that people with ADHD are more likely to internalize their struggles.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects many people from childhood to adulthood. ADHD often has many comorbid conditions, including mental health disorders.

Autism — sometimes referred to as “autism spectrum disorder” (ASD) — can have some overlapping traits with ADHD. However, autism manifests on a wide spectrum, with some individuals experiencing symptoms that can more severely disrupt their quality of life.

For this reason, professional healthcare providers may consider that individuals with autism may face more difficulties in everyday life compared to people with ADHD.

Researchers from the Universities of Bath, Bristol, and Cardiff, and King’s College London — all in the United Kingdom — wanted to see whether people who experience traits of either ADHD or autism also have symptoms of mental health issues, such as depression or anxiety, and to what degree they experience those symptoms.

Through questionnaires they analyzed, the researchers found that people with traits of ADHD are more likely to internalize mental health difficulties than people with autism.

The results of the study are available in the journal Scientific Reports.

ADHD often shows up in early childhood and can be diagnosed in a child as young as 4

Overall health Impact Assessment Weblog

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