Browsing by Author "Rahurkar, Saurabh"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The benefits of health information exchange: an updated systematic review
    (Oxford Academic, 2018-09) Menachemi, Nir; Rahurkar, Saurabh; Harle, Christopher A.; Vest, Joshua R.; Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health
    Objective Widespread health information exchange (HIE) is a national objective motivated by the promise of improved care and a reduction in costs. Previous reviews have found little rigorous evidence that HIE positively affects these anticipated benefits. However, early studies of HIE were methodologically limited. The purpose of the current study is to review the recent literature on the impact of HIE. Methods We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines to conduct our systematic review. PubMed and Scopus databases were used to identify empirical articles that evaluated HIE in the context of a health care outcome. Results Our search strategy identified 24 articles that included 63 individual analyses. The majority of the studies were from the United States representing 9 states; and about 40% of the included analyses occurred in a handful of HIEs from the state of New York. Seven of the 24 studies used designs suitable for causal inference and all reported some beneficial effect from HIE; none reported adverse effects. Conclusions The current systematic review found that studies with more rigorous designs all reported benefits from HIE. Such benefits include fewer duplicated procedures, reduced imaging, lower costs, and improved patient safety. We also found that studies evaluating community HIEs were more likely to find benefits than studies that evaluated enterprise HIEs or vendor-mediated exchanges. Overall, these finding bode well for the HIEs ability to deliver on anticipated improvements in care delivery and reduction in costs.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Leveraging Health Information Exchange to Construct a Registry for Traumatic Brain Injury, Spinal Cord Injury and Stroke in Indiana
    (2018-04-16) Rahurkar, Saurabh; McFarlane, Timothy D.; Wang, Jane; Hoover, Sarah; Hammond, Flora; Kean, Jacob; Dixon, Brian E.; Epidemiology, School of Public Health
    Traumatic brain injury (TBI), spinal cord injury (SCI) and stroke are conditions of interest to public health as they can result in long-term outcomes and disabilities. Specialized registries can facilitate public health surveillance, however only 4% of hospitals in the United States actively engage in electronic reporting to these registries. We leveraged electronic claims and clinical data from a health information exchange to create a statewide TBI/SCI/Stroke registry to facilitate the study of long-term outcomes and health services utilization. The registry contains 109,943 TBI patients, 9,027 SCI patients and 117,084 stroke patients with a mean of 3 years of follow-up data after injury. Additionally, the registry contains data on individual patient encounters, prescriptions and clinical variables. The high-dimensional data with large sample sizes may present a valuable informatics resource for injury research as well as public health surveillance.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Reliability of administrative data to identify sexually transmitted infections for population health: a systematic review.
    (BMJ, 2019-08) Dixon, Brian E.; Rahurkar, Saurabh; Ho, Yenling; Arno, Janet N.; Epidemiology, School of Public Health
    INTRODUCTION: International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes in administrative health data are used to identify cases of disease, including sexually transmitted infections (STIs), for population health research. The purpose of this review is to examine the extant literature on the reliability of ICD codes to correctly identify STIs. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of empirical articles in which ICD codes were validated with respect to their ability to identify cases of chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis or pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Articles that included sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value of ICD codes were the target. In addition to keyword searches in PubMed and Scopus databases, we further examined bibliographies of articles selected for full review to maximise yield. RESULTS: From a total of 1779 articles identified, only two studies measured the reliability of ICD codes to identify cases of STIs. Both articles targeted PID, a serious complication of chlamydia and gonorrhoea. Neither article directly assessed the validity of ICD codes to identify cases of chlamydia, gonorrhoea or syphilis independent of PID. Using ICD codes alone, the positive predictive value for PID was mixed (range: 18%-79%). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: While existing studies have used ICD codes to identify STI cases, their reliability is unclear. Further, available evidence from studies of PID suggests potentially large variation in the accuracy of ICD codes indicating the need for primary studies to evaluate ICD codes for use in STI-related public health research.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Trends in user-initiated health information exchange in the inpatient, outpatient, and emergency settings
    (Oxford University Press, 2021-03-01) Rahurkar, Saurabh; Vest, Joshua R.; Finnell, John T.; Dixon, Brian E.; Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health
    Prior research on health information exchange (HIE) typically measured provider usage through surveys or they summarized the availability of HIE services in a healthcare organization. Few studies utilized user log files. Using HIE access log files, we measured HIE use in real-world clinical settings over a 7-year period (2011-2017). Use of HIE increased in inpatient, outpatient, and emergency department (ED) settings. Further, while extant literature has generally viewed the ED as the most relevant setting for HIE, the greatest change in HIE use was observed in the inpatient setting, followed by the ED setting and then the outpatient setting. Our findings suggest that in addition to federal incentives, the implementation of features that address barriers to access (eg, Single Sign On), as well as value-added services (eg, interoperability with external data sources), may be related to the growth in user-initiated HIE.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Using Web-Based Search Data to Study the Public’s Reactions to Societal Events: The Case of the Sandy Hook Shooting
    (JMIR Publications, 2017) Menachemi, Nir; Rahurkar, Saurabh; Rahurkar, Mandar; Department of Health Policy and Management, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health
    Background: Internet search is the most common activity on the World Wide Web and generates a vast amount of user-reported data regarding their information-seeking preferences and behavior. Although this data has been successfully used to examine outbreaks, health care utilization, and outcomes related to quality of care, its value in informing public health policy remains unclear. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of Internet search query data in health policy development. To do so, we studied the public’s reaction to a major societal event in the context of the 2012 Sandy Hook School shooting incident. Methods: Query data from the Yahoo! search engine regarding firearm-related searches was analyzed to examine changes in user-selected search terms and subsequent websites visited for a period of 14 days before and after the shooting incident. Results: A total of 5,653,588 firearm-related search queries were analyzed. In the after period, queries increased for search terms related to “guns” (+50.06%), “shooting incident” (+333.71%), “ammunition” (+155.14%), and “gun-related laws” (+535.47%). The highest increase (+1054.37%) in Web traffic was seen by news websites following “shooting incident” queries whereas searches for “guns” (+61.02%) and “ammunition” (+173.15%) resulted in notable increases in visits to retail websites. Firearm-related queries generally returned to baseline levels after approximately 10 days. Conclusions: Search engine queries present a viable infodemiology metric on public reactions and subsequent behaviors to major societal events and could be used by policymakers to inform policy development. [JMIR Public Health Surveill 2017;3(1):e12]
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Validation of ICD-10-CM Codes for Identifying Cases of Chlamydia and Gonorrhea
    (Wolters Kluwer, 2020-07) Ho, Yenling A.; Rahurkar, Saurabh; Tao, Guoyu; Patel, Chirag G.; Arno, Janet N.; Wang, Jane; Broyles, Andrea A.; Dixon, Brian E.; Epidemiology, School of Public Health
    Background While researchers seek to use administrative health data to examine outcomes for individuals with sexually transmitted infections, the ICD-CM-10 codes used to identify persons with chlamydia and gonorrhea have not been validated. Objectives were to determine the validity of using ICD-10-CM codes to identify individuals with chlamydia and gonorrhea. Methods We utilized data from electronic health records gathered from public and private health systems from October 1, 2015 to December 31, 2016. Patients were included if they were aged 13-44 years and received either 1) laboratory testing for chlamydia or gonorrhea or 2) an ICD-10-CM diagnosis of chlamydia, gonorrhea, or an unspecified STI. To validate ICD-10-CM codes, we calculated positive and negative predictive values, sensitivity, and specificity based on the presence of a laboratory test result. We further examined the timing of clinical diagnosis relative to laboratory testing. Results The positive predictive values for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and unspecified STI ICD-10-CM codes were 87.6%, 85.0%, and 32.0%, respectively. Negative predictive values were high (>92%). Sensitivity for chlamydia diagnostic codes was 10.6% and gonorrhea was 9.7%. Specificity was 99.9% for both chlamydia and gonorrhea. The date of diagnosis occurred on or after the date of the laboratory result for 84.8% of persons with chlamydia, 91.9% for gonorrhea, and 23.5% for unspecified STI. Conclusions Disease specific ICD-10-CM codes accurately identify persons with chlamydia and gonorrhea. However, low sensitivities suggest that most individuals could not be identified in administrative data alone without laboratory test results.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Validation of International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification Codes for Identifying Cases of Chlamydia and Gonorrhea
    (Wolters Kluwer, 2021) Ho, Yenling Andrew; Rahurkar, Saurabh; Tao, Guoyu; Patel, Chirag G.; Arno, Janet N.; Wang, Jane; Broyles, Andrea A.; Dixon, Brian E.; Epidemiology, School of Public Health
    Background: While researchers seek to use administrative health data to examine outcomes for individuals with sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) codes used to identify persons with chlamydia and gonorrhea have not been validated. Objectives were to determine the validity of using ICD-10-CM codes to identify individuals with chlamydia and gonorrhea. Methods: We used data from electronic health records gathered from public and private health systems from October 1, 2015, to December 31, 2016. Patients were included if they were aged 13 to 44 years and received either (1) laboratory testing for chlamydia or gonorrhea or (2) an ICD-10-CM diagnosis of chlamydia, gonorrhea, or an unspecified STI. To validate ICD-10-CM codes, we calculated positive and negative predictive values, sensitivity, and specificity based on the presence of a laboratory test result. We further examined the timing of clinical diagnosis relative to laboratory testing. Results: The positive predictive values for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and unspecified STI ICD-10-CM codes were 87.6%, 85.0%, and 32.0%, respectively. Negative predictive values were high (>92%). Sensitivity for chlamydia diagnostic codes was 10.6%, and gonorrhea was 9.7%. Specificity was 99.9% for both chlamydia and gonorrhea. The date of diagnosis occurred on or after the date of the laboratory result for 84.8% of persons with chlamydia, 91.9% for gonorrhea, and 23.5% for unspecified STI. Conclusions: Disease-specific ICD-10-CM codes accurately identify persons with chlamydia and gonorrhea. However, low sensitivities suggest that most individuals could not be identified in administrative data alone without laboratory test results.