Advances in outcomes assessment will require a combination of increased precision in measurement, greater analysis of outliers, and the development of computerized repositories of clinical and health status data.
In conclusion, using easily accessible data from a computerized clinical data repository, we readily classified S. aureus and MRSA infections as CA or healthcare associated.
Using data collected within the Chicago Antimicrobial Resistance Project computerized clinical data repository (9 ) from September 1 , 2001 to August 31, 2004, we developed an electronic rule to define persons with CA infection with S. aureus.
We assessed the utility of administrative databases, a computerized clinical data repository, and an electronic rule to enhance surveillance for CA-MRSA at Stroger (Cook County) Hospital, a 464-bed public safety net hospital in Chicago, and its associated clinics—all part of the Cook County Bureau of Health Services (CCBHS).
Originally implemented in 1990 and mandated for nationwide use in response to the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, the Resident Assessment Instrument Minimum Data Set (MDS) 2.0 has been in use since 1997 and computerized into a national repository since October of 1998[ 1, 2].
For example, Tucker and Miller [ 25] used HIMSS data but defined EMR adoption as complete adoption of four components including computerized practitioner order entry, clinical data repositories, clinical decision making support software, and systems designed to digitize physician documentation.
Exposure information including route, concentration, duration, health endpoint(s), and characteristics of the exposed population was abstracted from included studies and stored in a computerized manganese database (MnDB), providing a comprehensive repository of exposure-response information with the ability to support categorical regression modeling of oral exposure data.
We used the operational definition of EMR as the computerized patient record supported by a clinical data repository and clinical decision-support capabilities [ 10, 11].
We used HIMSS data to identify the year of implementation of a basic EMR, defined as a computerized patient record supported by a clinical data repository and providing clinical decision-support capabilities [ 10, 11].
To identify patients with biopsy proven renal amyloidosis, we conducted a retrospective search of our kidney biopsy repository in the Department of Pathology at Yale University using computerized medical record databases (Copath and EPIC).
