Skip to main content
Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer Application in Medical Care logoLink to Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer Application in Medical Care
. 1995:218–222.

Using belief networks to enhance sharing of medical knowledge between sites with variations in data accuracy.

W R Hogan 1, M M Wagner 1
PMCID: PMC2579087  PMID: 8563271

Abstract

Differences in data definition between sites are a known obstacle to sharing of reminder-system rule sets. We identify another data characteristic--data accuracy--with implications for sharing. We reviewed the literature on data accuracy and found reports of high error rates for many data classes used by reminder systems (e.g., problem lists). The accuracy of other, equally important, data classes had not been characterized. Wide variations in accuracy between sites has been observed, suggesting that such differences may pose a previously unrecognized barrier to sharing of reminder rules. We propose a belief-network model for encoding reminder rules that explicitly models site-specific data accuracy and we discuss how encoding knowledge in this format may lower the cost and effort required to share reminder rules between sites.

Full text

PDF
218

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Aas I. H. Quality of hospital data and DRGs. Scand J Soc Med. 1988;16(4):223–226. doi: 10.1177/140349488801600406. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Barrie J. L., Marsh D. R. Quality of data in the Manchester orthopaedic database. BMJ. 1992 Jan 18;304(6820):159–162. doi: 10.1136/bmj.304.6820.159. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Basden A., Clark E. M. Errors in a computerized medical records system (CLINICS). Med Inform (Lond) 1979 Oct-Dec;4(4):203–208. doi: 10.3109/14639237909017757. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Burnum J. F. The misinformation era: the fall of the medical record. Ann Intern Med. 1989 Mar 15;110(6):482–484. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-110-6-482. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Jelovsek F., Hammond W. Formal error rate in a computerized obstetric medical record. Methods Inf Med. 1978 Jul;17(3):151–157. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Kuhn K., Swobodnik W., Johannes R. S., Zemmler T., Stange E. F., Ditschuneit H., Classen M. The quality of gastroenterological reports based on free text dictation: an evaluation in endoscopy and ultrasonography. Endoscopy. 1991 Sep;23(5):262–264. doi: 10.1055/s-2007-1010682. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Lloyd S. S., Rissing J. P. Physician and coding errors in patient records. JAMA. 1985 Sep 13;254(10):1330–1336. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. McGonigal G., McQuade C., Thomas B. Accuracy and completeness of Scottish mental hospital in-patient data. Health Bull (Edinb) 1992 Jul;50(4):309–314. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Payne T., Kanvik S., Seward R., Beeman D., Salazar A., Miller Z., Immanuel V., Thompson R. S. Development of an immunization tracking system in a large health maintenance organization. Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound. Proc Annu Symp Comput Appl Med Care. 1991:131–135. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Pryor T. A., Hripcsak G. Sharing MLM's: an experiment between Columbia-Presbyterian and LDS Hospital. Proc Annu Symp Comput Appl Med Care. 1993:399–403. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Rao N. G., Prasad B. E., Guha S. K., Reddy P. G. A user-oriented validation method for clinical data. Med Inform (Lond) 1986 Oct-Dec;11(4):317–328. doi: 10.3109/14639238608997655. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Ricketts D., Newey M., Patterson M., Hitchin D., Fowler S. Markers of data quality in computer audit: the Manchester Orthopaedic Database. Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1993 Nov;75(6):393–396. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Roos L. L., Mustard C. A., Nicol J. P., McLerran D. F., Malenka D. J., Young T. K., Cohen M. M. Registries and administrative data: organization and accuracy. Med Care. 1993 Mar;31(3):201–212. doi: 10.1097/00005650-199303000-00002. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Skinner P. W., Riley D., Thomas E. M. Use and abuse of performance indicators. BMJ. 1988 Nov 12;297(6658):1256–1259. doi: 10.1136/bmj.297.6658.1256. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Teperi J. Multi method approach to the assessment of data quality in the Finnish Medical Birth Registry. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1993 Jun;47(3):242–247. doi: 10.1136/jech.47.3.242. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Teppo L., Pukkala E., Lehtonen M. Data quality and quality control of a population-based cancer registry. Experience in Finland. Acta Oncol. 1994;33(4):365–369. doi: 10.3109/02841869409098430. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Wagner M. M., Cooper G. F. Decision-theoretic information pretrieval: a generalization of reminding. Proc Annu Symp Comput Appl Med Care. 1993:512–516. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Wilton R., Pennisi A. J. Evaluating the accuracy of transcribed clinical data. Proc Annu Symp Comput Appl Med Care. 1993:279–283. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer Application in Medical Care are provided here courtesy of American Medical Informatics Association

RESOURCES