Hospitals face increasing pressure to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and guarantee a quality of services. This is perhaps the main reason why hospital process orientation (HPO) – a view on a hospital being a group of processes organized around patients with similar needs is a growing field of interest among hospital managers and researchers. The theoretical research of the content of hospital activities was performed in order to determine the main distinct characteristics in hospital organization that determine the specifics for a process-oriented knowledge system. A conceptual proposal of a technological tool was elaborated taking into account the limited control of hospital management over clinical process dominated by the doctor's decision-making and self-regulating activities.

Visual SPARQL query notations aim at easing the RDF data querying task. At the current state of the art there is still no generally accepted visual graph-based notation suitable to describe RDF data analysis queries that involve aggregation and subqueries. In this paper we present a visual diagram-centered notation for SPARQL select query formulation, capable to handle aggregate/statistics queries and hierarchic queries with subquery structure. The notation is supported by a web-based prototype tool. We present the notation examples, describe its syntax and semantics and describe studies with possible end users, involving both IT and medicine students.

Background and Objectives: The aim of the study was to analyze the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors (RFs) in Latvia from the population-based cross-sectional study performed in 2019–2020 and to compare the results with a similar study done in 2009–2010. Materials and Methods: The target sample of 6000 individuals representing a cross-section of Latvia’s inhabitants (aged 25–74) was formed using stratified two-stage cluster sampling. The survey had two components: (1) an interview using a pre-specified questionnaire and (2) physical examination (height, weight, arterial pressure) and collection of venous blood samples to measure levels of fasting glucose (Glu), total cholesterol (TC), high and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C/LDL-C), and triglycerides (Tg). In total, 4070 individuals were interviewed (32% non-response), from which 2218 (55%) individuals underwent physical examination and collection of blood samples. Results: The most frequently observed RFs were high LDL-C (62.0%), smoking (45.3%), and arterial hypertension (36.8%), while the prevalence of self-reported high cholesterol and hypertension was 19.3 and 18.6%, respectively. A decrease in the prevalence of hypertension, high LDL-C, and Glu was noted. Smoking decreased in younger men. The mean number of five most important cardiovascular RFs was 2.0 (95% confidence interval (CI) 2.0, 2.1); 2.3 (95% CI 2.2, 2.4) for men and 1.8 (95% CI 1.7, 19) for women. The average number of RFs has decreased by 0.3 in 10 years, t(5883) = −7.2, p < 0.001. Conclusions: Although the prevalence of cardiovascular RFs remains noteworthy, an improvement in the risk profile of the Latvian population has been observed over the past decade. The study shows subjective self-underestimation of cardiovascular risk.