ISSN:
1573-7225
Keywords:
cancer registration
;
data quality
;
electronic data capture
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Medicine
Notes:
Abstract Background: Cancer registries provide a basis for many epidemiological studies in cancer. Electronic data provide for prompt, economical data capture for disease registries; doubts, however, exist about their data quality. Materials and methods: We examined the accuracy for cancer registration of a subset of 7043 electronically captured hospital discharge data. Results: Note availability was 82%. Of the notes available for examination demographic data accuracy was high; however, 7.4% of cases coded on discharge as cancer had no malignancy recorded in case notes while 4.1% had in-situ or benign tumors. Almost a third had some inaccuracy in coding tumor site. Prevalent cases accounted for 17.2% of cases examined reflecting a new registry. Electronic data capture reduces time spent examining notes; only 40% of cases notified from PAS required a quick validation check. It enhances data completeness; without electronic discharge data 11.5% of the final database would have been missed. The validation check prevented over-inflation of the cancer registration database by 7.5%. Measures of accuracy in the final database were high. Conclusion: This study shows that discharge data are a valuable data source for cancer registries but require a targeted note review aimed at cases without corroborating data.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1026543100223
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