Table 1.

Data abstraction guidelines were developed and used to abstract information from the medical consult forms.

	Information item	Description and example
Patient information
1	Record ID
2	Age	Patient age at time of encounter; difference between the date of birth and the date medical consult was sent to medical provider
3	Gender	Listed in the electronic dental record (i.e., Male, Female, Unknown)
Reason for medical consult
4	Reason for the medical consult	Specific or implied reason written on the medical consult form
5	Medical provider specialty	i.e., Family Practice, Internal Medicine, Cardiology
6	Medical provider address	Private practice or facility address
Information reported by dental providers in the medical consult form
5	Dental conditions/diagnoses	i.e., abscess, tooth pain
6	Dental treatments	i.e., course of treatment, type of treatment, etc.
7	Medication to be used during dental treatment	i.e., local anesthetic
8	Medication to be used after dental treatment	i.e., pain medication
9	Medical conditions and medications as reported by the patient	Any medical and medication information provided by the patient
Information requested by dental providers
10	Medication history of the patient	i.e., pain medication, list of medication/s antihypertensive medication, etc.
11	Medical condition(s) of the patient	Current medical status, condition(s) status and laboratory and/or diagnostic reports (i.e., medical history, cardiac status, HbA1c, viral load, CD4 count, echocardiogram report, recommendations etc.)
Information reported by physicians in the returned medical consult form
12	Medical condition(s) of the patient	Any medical information regarding a patient's condition(s)
13	Medication history	Any medication(s) the patient is currently prescribed, for example, anticoagulant medication
14	Contradictions for dental treatment	recommendations and medical clearance (i.e., antibiotic prophylaxis, contraindications, medical clearance etc.)
Medical consult response time
15	Number of days taken for the medical provider's response to medical consult	difference between the date of sending medical consult and date when medical consult was scanned into patient record (when available for dental provider to view information)
Miscellaneous
16	Complete patient health record provided	Medical provider sent complete patient record without responding to dental provider's questions