Automated Identification of Acute Hepatitis B Using Electronic Medical Record Data to Facilitate Public Health Surveillance
2008

Automated Identification of Acute Hepatitis B Using Electronic Medical Record Data

Sample size: 601 publication 10 minutes Evidence: high

Author Information

Author(s): Michael Klompas, Gillian Haney, Daniel Church, Ross Lazarus, Xuanlin Hou, Richard Platt

Primary Institution: Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care

Hypothesis

Can electronic medical record data be used to accurately identify cases of acute hepatitis B for public health surveillance?

Conclusion

An algorithm using electronic medical record data can reliably detect acute hepatitis B and improve public health surveillance.

Supporting Evidence

  • The algorithm identified 112 out of 113 patients with acute hepatitis B.
  • The sensitivity of the final algorithm was 99% and specificity was 94%.
  • Eight cases of acute hepatitis B were identified without any false positives.

Takeaway

Researchers created a computer program to find cases of a liver infection called acute hepatitis B using patient records, and it worked really well.

Methodology

The study developed and validated an algorithm using electronic medical record data to identify acute hepatitis B cases.

Potential Biases

Potential misclassification of acute versus chronic hepatitis B cases by the physician reviewer.

Limitations

The validation dataset was relatively small compared to the derivation set.

Participant Demographics

Patients from a large ambulatory medical practice in Eastern Massachusetts.

Statistical Information

P-Value

0.0001

Confidence Interval

95% CI, 94–100%

Statistical Significance

p<0.05

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1371/journal.pone.0002626

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