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MEDICAL DATA
In order to avoid errors, medical data being used in
healthcare need to be constantly reviewed and updated.1
The quality of the data is equally important and this can only be assured by
the following:
- The accuracy of the data as compared to a standard.
- Precision of the data is repeatability.
- Resolution is at a detailed level.
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Medical data on individuals are being collected, collated,
stored and analysed in unprecedented amounts and put to diverse use.2
How and what exactly is collected is largely determined by national laws. These
laws have been passed as a result of privacy and confidentiality issues that
arise from the use of Clinical Data Management (CDM) systems and Electronic
Medical Records (EMRs).
The Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) passed by the US government, ensures
amongst other things that the past, present and future confidentiality and
privacy of an individual’s health information is protected. It also calls for
the standardisation of such data along with administrative and financial data.
Full implementation of the HIPAA would not only affect how all
healthcare organisations, from healthcare providers through to information
systems vendors, store and use health information but would also require them
to adopt Standard Code Sets that must be used in all electronic health
transactions.
Within the UK, the Data Protection
Act 1998, which implements the European Data
Protection Directive, ensures the privacy and confidentiality of
individual medical data on health information systems.
Once confidentiality and privacy have been adhered to,
healthcare organisations generally use the data for research, billing and
reimbursement and for better provision of care and treatment through quality
assurance and diagnosis and treatment analysis. In the UK, the National Health
Service has adopted a CDM tool called
MIQUEST (Morbidity Query Information Expert SynTax) for the retrieval
and validation of data from General practice systems. It is now a requirement
for General Practice systems within the UK to be
MIQUEST compliant.
Organisations involved in CDM include the Society for
Clinical Data Management (SCDM) and the Association
for Clinical Data Management (ACDM) in the UK.
References
-
Degoulet, Practice; Fieschi, Marius. Introduction to clinical
Informatics, Chp 3. Springer 1999.
-
Lagasse, R. December 2001. [WWW] European situation of the
routine medical data collection and their utilisation for health monitoring. (5TH
October 2003)
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