Table 1.

Scheme Used to Classify Data Elements Necessary to Complete the General SCOAP Data Abstraction Form According to Ease of Automatic Extraction

Classification	Description	Example
Easy	Data element stored as a structured and accessible database field.	Age stored as an integer, smoking status stored as “yes/no,” diagnosis stored as an ICD-9 code.
Moderate	Data element that requires the use of more than one structured database field to calculate.	“Antibiotics administered within 60 minutes of surgical incision,” for which the antibiotics administration date/time and surgical incision date/time are needed as well as logic to compare the temporality of the events.
Complex	Data element stored as free-text, or that needs human interpretation to abstract.	“Comorbidities” captured within the admission notes and stored as free-text, or an “unplanned ICU stay” for which human interpretation is needed to decide whether or not an ICU stay was planned.