The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #62498

Rachel L. Richesson, MS, MPH¹, James P. Turley, RN, PhD¹, Kathy A. Johnson-Throop, PhD¹, Marianna M. Sockrider, MD, DrPH², Charles G. Macias, MD³, and Mark S. Tuttle⁴. (1) University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences, 7000 Fannin, Suite 600, Houston, TX 77030, 713-500-3456, Rachel.L.Richesson@uth.tmc.edu, (2) Department of Pediatrics, Pulmonary Section, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, 6621 Fannin, CCC 1040.00, Houston, TX 77030, (3) Department of Pediatirc Emergency Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, 6621 Fannin, MC1-1481, Houston, TX 77030, (4) Apelon, Inc., 151 W. Atlantic Avenue, Alameda, CA 94501

The lack of comparable data is a great obstacle for community health assessment activities. Today, computers cannot tell if regional asthma Emergency Room (ER) visits are increasing, decreasing, or staying the same because the electronic records of these visits are not "comparable". One may code a visit’s Chief Complaint as “difficulty breathing”, while another may code “shortness of breath/wheezing”. Any computerized examination of patient care requirements needs to know whether “difficulty breathing” and “shortness of breath/wheezing”, or for that matter, “respiratory problems”, are the same or related, and if related, how related. Reference terminologies provide the uniform data characterization required for any sensible aggregation, analysis, or discussion. Methods for mapping data from disparate coding schemes (including ICD-9) to a reference terminology provide scalable data aggregation solutions that can address changes in both data sources and medical knowledge. The Texas Emergency Department Asthma Surveillance project has solved part of the problem of integrating 4 heterogeneous ER databases by creating a reference terminology and associated "maps" with which locally coded pediatric ER presenting complaints can be analyzed. This model explains to a computer that “difficulty breathing” and “shortness of breath/wheezing” while not the same can be aggregated as instances of “respiratory problems”, and also differentiates between symptoms and diagnoses. The use of this reference terminology to assimilate data from 4 Houston ERs provides insight for larger public health data collection efforts. Dissemination of successful strategies to achieve “comparable” data from heterogeneous databases is critical to bring public health into the information age.

Learning Objectives:

• 1.) Define “comparable” data and discuss potential uses of comparable data in public health analyses
• 2.) Articulate the role of a reference terminology in achieving comparable data from multiple heterogeneous sources

Keywords: Data/Surveillance, Public Health Informatics

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.