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Rapid typing of herpes simplex virus isolates by deoxyribonucleic acid:deoxyribonucleic acid hybridization.

A method for typing clinical isolates of herpes simplex virus was developed. It utilizes hybridization between unlabeled deoxyribonucleic acid from infected cultures and tritium-labeled virus deoxyribonucleic acid, and it can be completed within a day using a single roller-tube culture of the clinical isolated. The data obtained are inherently quantitative, and the method yields unequivocal identification and typing. Thirty-nine coded clinical isolates were all correctly typed by this method.

DNA, Viral↗

Report on the clinical workstation and clinical data repository utilization at UNC Hospitals.

On December 1, 1993, we implemented version 2.1 of the Clinical Workstation-Clinical Data Repository application in the Ambulatory Care Center. This version of the workstation allowed access of laboratory data from the clinical data repository that had been populated by a real-time HL7 interface between the Clinical Data Repository and the Laboratory Information System. This implementation completed a major part of the Clinical Workstation project. Also in December, we implemented a security system that records the date and time, user logon code, clinical workstation functions used, and the patient medical record number on whom data were displayed. In addition to the security function, this system has proven to be a valuable tool in evaluating the utilization of the clinical workstation and is the source of the data presented in this paper.

Clinical Laboratory Information Systems↗

The AEDMI project, an example of prototype development for a clinical decision helping system.

The AEDMI project, carried out in the Bellvitge University Hospital, near Barcelona, is proposed as an example of clinical decision system prototype development. Several difficulties have been encountered to develop this project. One of them was to find the adequate understanding for the project and proper funding for personnel resources. The support by FIS grants and from the hospital structures was essential to the survival of the project; however the resources always have been below the real needs for development. The difficulties with clinical coding systems, the excessive expectancies upon prototypes, and the lack of culture in information methods were other relevant hinders. The complexity of clinical realm, the uncertainty of medical decisions, and the current trends to substitute the clinical information by data obtained from electronic devices, or analytical monitoring of patients, are additional problems for clinical information managing.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Data quality of general practice electronic health records: the impact of a program of assessments, feedback, and training.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of a program of repeated assessments, feedback, and training on the quality of coded clinical data in general practice. DESIGN: A prospective uncontrolled intervention study was conducted in a general practice research network. MEASUREMENTS: Percentage of recorded consultations with a coded problem title and percentage of patients receiving a specific drug (e.g., tamoxifen) who had the relevant morbidity code (e.g., breast cancer) were calculated. Annual period prevalence of 12 selected morbidities was compared with parallel data derived from the fourth National Study of Morbidity Statistics from General Practice (MSGP4). RESULTS: The first two measures showed variation between practices at baseline, but on repeat assessments all practices improved or maintained their levels of coding. The period prevalence figures also were variable, but over time rates increased to levels comparable with, or above, MSGP4 rates. Practices were able to provide time and resources for feedback and training sessions. CONCLUSION: A program of repeated assessments, feedback, and training appears to improve data quality in a range of practices. The program is likely to be generalizable to other practices but needs a trained support team to implement it that has implications for cost and resources.

Computer User Training↗

Mnemonic coding system for clinical data entry into laboratory computers: its effect on quality and efficiency.

A simplified coding method for entering the clinical details found on pathology request cards was developed. The method uses a basic four letter code, derived from the initial character of the first four words in a clinical detail, being expanded to four characters with letters from the final word if the number of words is less than four. Rules were devised to cope with common medical terminology. In excess of 90% of clinical details on request cards are readily input by clerical staff using our coding system, and 8% of clinical details are used intelligently by the computer in scheduling further tests or automatically commenting on results. A carefully designed coding system such as the one outlined above could greatly facilitate input of clinical detail without the penalty of reduced throughput.

Clinical Laboratory Information Systems↗

Risk adjustment using administrative data: impact of a diagnosis-type indicator.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the frequency with which commonly coded clinical variables are complications, as opposed to baseline comorbidities, and to compare the results of 2 risk-adjusted outcome analyses for coronary artery bypass graft surgery for which we either (a) ignored, or (b) used the available "diagnosis-type indicator." DESIGN: Analysis of existing administrative data. SETTING: Twenty-three Canadian hospitals. PATIENTS: A total of 50,357 coronary artery bypass graft surgery cases. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Among 21 clinical variables whose definitions involve the diagnosis-type indicator, 14 were predominantly (> or =97%) baseline risk factors when present. Seven variables were often complication diagnoses: renal disease (when present, 13% coded as complications), recent myocardial infarction (15%), peptic ulcer disease (15%), congestive heart failure (17%), cerebrovascular disease (26%), hemiplegia (34%), and severe liver disease (35%). The results of risk adjustment analyses predicting in-hospital mortality differed when the diagnosis-type indicator was either used or ignored, and as a result, adjusted hospital mortality rates and rankings changed, often dramatically, with rankings increasing for 10 hospitals, decreasing for 9 hospitals, and remaining the same for only 4 hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: The results of analyses performed using the diagnosis-type indicator in Canadian administrative data differ considerably from analyses that ignore the indicator. The widespread introduction of such an indicator should be considered in other countries, because risk-adjustment analyses performed without a diagnosis-type indicator may yield misleading results.

Canada↗

Automated quality checks on repeat prescribing.

BACKGROUND: Good clinical practice in primary care includes periodic review of repeat prescriptions. Markers of prescriptions that may need review have been described, but manually checking all repeat prescriptions against the markers would be impractical. AIM: To investigate the feasibility of computerising the application of repeat prescribing quality checks to electronic patient records in United Kingdom (UK) primary care. DESIGN OF STUDY: Software performance test against benchmark manual analysis of cross-sectional convenience sample of prescribing documentation. SETTING: Three general practices in Greater Manchester, in the north west of England, during a 4-month period in 2001. METHOD: A machine-readable drug information resource, based on the British National Formulary (BNF) as the 'gold standard' for valid drug indications, was installed in three practices. Software raised alerts for each repeat prescribed item where the electronic patient record contained no valid indication for the medication. Alerts raised by the software in two practices were analysed manually. Clinical reaction to the software was assessed by semi-structured interviews in three practices. RESULTS: There was no valid indication in the electronic medical records for 14.8% of repeat prescribed items. Sixty-two per cent of all alerts generated were incorrect. Forty-three per cent of all incorrect alerts were as a result of errors in the drug information resource, 44% to locally idiosyncratic clinical coding, 8% to the use of the BNF without adaptation as a gold standard, and 5% to the inability of the system to infer diagnoses that, although unrecorded, would be 'obvious' to a clinical reading the record. The interviewed clinicians supported the goals of the software. CONCLUSION: Using electronic records for secondary decision support purposes will benefit from (and may require) both more consistent electronic clinical data collection across multiple sites, and reconciling clinicians' willingness to infer unstated but 'obvious' diagnoses with the machine's inability to do the same.

Clinical Pharmacy Information Systems↗

The quality of burns coding. Compliance with standards and the effects on clinical data.

Coded burns cases in two NSW public acute care facilities were reviewed to determine 1. the degree of compliance with Australian Coding Standards (ACS) relating to burns separations 2. the relationship between coding errors and poor quality documentation and 3. the impact of coding errors on ANDRG allocation. Despite high compliance with specific aspects of the ACS, coding errors occurred in 89% of cases. The ANDRG changed in 9% of total cases as a result of recoding. While some cases changed to a higher weighted ANDRG, overall the hospitals would have lost $98,445 after recoding. Significant associations were found between coding errors and poor quality documentation. The results indicate that while the ACS are adhered to, a high degree of coding variation still exists. This is largely due to inadequacies in medical record documentation. Clinicians and coders need to work together to ensure that coding variation is kept to a minimum.

Australia↗

Analysis of the UL97 phosphotransferase coding sequence in clinical cytomegalovirus isolates and identification of mutations conferring ganciclovir resistance.

The UL97 phosphotransferase coding sequences of clinical cytomegalovirus (CMV) isolates, 10 resistant and 11 sensitive to ganciclovir, were compared to define mutations associated with drug resistance. In each ganciclovir-resistant isolate, a mutation was found that resulted in an amino acid substitution at codon 460 (4 isolates), codon 594 (2 isolates), or codon 595 (4 isolates). No sensitive isolate carried any of these mutations. Marker transfer studies showed that each mutation was capable of conferring ganciclovir resistance to the laboratory CMV strain AD169. Rapid diagnostic tests based on DNA amplification and restriction enzyme analysis were developed for these mutations. Specific mutant DNAs were detected when they constituted at least 10% of the population in the specimen. Several mutations in UL97 appear to be common markers for ganciclovir resistance, and their detection may be a rapid alternative to conventional cell culture susceptibility testing.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Comparison of four reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction procedures for the detection of dengue virus in clinical specimens.

The sensitivity of dengue virus identification by mosquito inoculation and four reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) procedures (Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 45 (1991) 418 (H); J. Clin. Microbiol. 29 (1991) 2107 (M); J. Clin. Microbiol. 30 (1992) 545 (L); and Southeast Asian J. Trop. Med. Public Health 27 (1996) 228 (Y)) were compared using coded clinical specimens derived from areas in Thailand where all four dengue serotypes circulate. The sensitivity of virus detection in serologically confirmed dengue cases was 54, 52, 60, 79, and 80% for mosquito inoculation, procedures H, M, L and Y, respectively. In comparison to clinical specimens which yielded virus isolates by mosquito inoculation, there was relatively low sensitivity in detecting each of the four dengue serotypes by PCR: procedure H-dengue 4 (25%), procedure M-dengue 3 (73%), procedure L-dengue 1 (70%), and procedure Y-dengue 1 (79%). Dengue virus was detectable by RT-PCR for more days of illness and in the presence of dengue-specific antibody when compared to virus isolated in mosquitoes. Procedures L and Y were more sensitive than mosquito inoculation or procedures H and M in detecting all four dengue serotypes in clinical specimens and may be the RT-PCR methods of choice for virus surveillance or research use.

Aedes↗

Mapping clinically useful terminology to a controlled medical vocabulary.

We have mapped clinically used diagnostic terms from a legacy ambulatory care system to the separate controlled vocabulary of our central clinical information system. The methodology combines elements of lexical and morphologic text matching techniques, followed by manual physician review. Results of the automated matching algorithm before and after partial manual review are presented. The results of this effort will permit the migration of coded clinical data from one system to another. Output from the system after the term review process will be fed back to the target vocabulary via automated and semi-automated means to improve its clinical utility.

Academic Medical Centers↗

Looking to CQI for improvements in clinical documentation and coding.

The following paper examines how the philosophy of Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) can be used to improve the quality of clinical documentation and coding. The philosophical basis of CQI and its application in the healthcare environment is outlined. Health information managers need to explore inventive ways of solving the problem of inadequate clinical documentation and high coding error rates, particularly in light of the current casemix-based funding environment.

Australia↗

Human and system errors, using adaptive turnaround documents to capture data in a busy practice.

Capturing coded clinical data for clinical decision support can improve care, but cost and disruption of clinic workflow present barriers to implementation. Previous work has shown that tailored, scannable paper forms (adaptive turnaround documents, ATDs) can achieve the benefits of computer-based clinical decision support at low cost and minimal disruption of workflow. ATDs are highly accurate under controlled circumstances, but accuracy in the setting of busy clinics with untrained physician users is untested. We recently developed and implemented such a system and studied rates of errors attributable to physician users and errors in the system. Prompts were used in 63% of encounters. Errors resulting from incorrectly marking forms occurred in 1.8% of prompts. System errors occurred in 7.2% of prompts. Most system errors were failures to capture data and may represent human errors in the scanning process. ATDs are an effective way to collect coded data from physicians. Further automation of the scanning process may reduce system errors.

Ambulatory Care Information Systems↗

Pulmonary hypertension in sickle cell hemoglobinopathy: a clinicopathologic study of 20 cases.

Pulmonary hypertension is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality of patients with sickle cell hemoglobinopathy (SCH). Although a clinically recognized complication of sickle cell disease (SCD), there are few published pathologic studies of pulmonary findings in these patients. The aim of this study was to define the pulmonary pathologic changes and to investigate correlation between the pathologic changes, the antemortem diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension, and the severity of SCH. Cases of SCH were identified from the autopsy database using Snomed codes. Clinical and echocardiograph data were collected for correlation with the pathologic data. A total of 20 adult patients (12 males and 8 females) were identified. Hemoglobin electrophoresis results were available for 16 patients, with hemoglobin S fraction percentages ranging from 23% to 97.8%. Eleven patients had SCD, 5 patients had sickle cell trait (SCT), and the remaining 4 patients without hemoglobin electrophoresis were included in the SCT group. The mean age of the SCT group was higher than that of the SCD group (P = 0.03). Histologically, all 20 patients demonstrated changes in pulmonary vasculature considered diagnostic of pulmonary hypertension grade I to grade IV, associated with plexiform lesions in 60% of patients. Medial hypertrophy and intimal hyperplasia/fibrosis, considered potentially reversible lesions, were seen in all patients. A weak association was found between SCD and plexiform lesions. Fibroelastic degeneration of small arteries, arterioles, and venules was identified in almost all (95%) cases. Clinically, tricuspid regurgitation was detected by echocardiogram in 10 of 20 (50%) patients; 6 of these 10 had significant regurgitation to allow estimation of systolic pressure. Sudden death occurred in 8 patients, with males having a significantly higher incidence. Cardiomegaly was present in 95% of patients, however, autosplenectomy and hepatic cirrhosis/hemochromatosis were observed almost exclusively in patients with SCD. Cirrhosis was found to have a strong positive association with SCD. This study demonstrates pulmonary hypertensive changes in all 20 autopsied patients who had SCH but died from various causes. We conclude that a high prevalence of pulmonary hypertension is associated with SCH with consequent high mortality. Therefore, patients with SCH would benefit from a regular periodic assessment for pulmonary hypertension regardless of age, sex, and severity of hemoglobinopathy.

Adult↗

Rapid identification of yeasts by semi-automated and conventional methods.

Five different methods for the identification of significant yeast from clinical specimens were compared for their reliability, rapidity and cost-effectiveness. Three commercial methods consisted of semi-automated Abbott's yeasts identification system using MS-2 (Abbott Laboratories, Diagnostic Division, Irving, Texas), API 20C (Analytab Products, Inc., Plainview, NY) and Uni-Yeast-Tek (Flow Labs, Inc., MacLean, VA). Two conventional methods included the modified dye-plur plate auxanographic and rapid tube assimilation method. The 242 coded clinical isolates used in this study included 20 species of Candida, Cryptococcus, Saccharomyces Geotrichum, Rhodotorula, Torulopsis and Trichosporon. The identification accuracies with all the systems ranges between 92.3% to 97.5%. Results were available with Abbott's MS-2 within 24 h, with rapid tube assimilation method in 6-48 h and in 72 h with other systems. Rapid tube assimilation and dye-pour-plate auxanographic methods were least expensive, with labour and material costing around $1.00 per identification, whereas the commercial system cost a little over $5.00.

Autoanalysis↗

Genetic Susceptibility to Incisional Hernia Evaluation of Hernia Polygenic Risk Scores.

OBJECTIVES: Incisional hernia (IH) affects 13-30% of people after abdominal surgery, resulting in substantial morbidity and costs. While clinical risk factors have been studied extensively, genomic risk for IH is incompletely understood. We aimed to evaluate the impact of polygenic risk scores (PRS) on IH risk prediction. METHODS: We created and evaluated three PRS for abdominal hernia, ventral hernia and latent hernia susceptibility for prediction of IH in an institutional biobank. The primary outcome was defined as the diagnosis or repair of an IH based on ICD-9/10-CM/PCS and CPT codes. Clinical covariates included age, sex, body mass index (BMI), smoking status, index procedure type, and perioperative surgical site infection. A phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) was performed to assess clinical associations with increased PRS. We then tested the ability of the PRS to improve prediction for IH by modeling clinical covariates with and without PRS in patients who underwent abdominal surgery. Model performance was assessed using 10 iterations of 5-fold cross-validation to estimate Brier scores and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), which were compared using cross-model Bayesian analysis of variance. RESULTS: In 55,809 subjects, assessed PRS was significantly associated with incisional, umbilical, and ventral hernia on PheWAS, with 1.19 greater odds of developing IH per 1-SD increase in PRS (95% CI: 1.13-1.25, P < 0.001). Of 9,909 subjects who underwent qualifying abdominal surgery, 706 developed IH. In this cohort, the latent hernia susceptibility PRS was associated with a 16% increased hazard of developing IH per 1-SD increase (HR 1.16; 95% CI: 1.07-1.26; P < 0.001). Compared to a predictive model using clinical covariates (Brier score = 0.047, 95% CI: 0.046-0.048; AUROC = 0.660, 95% CI: 0.653-0.666), addition of the PRS showed similar Brier score and AUROC estimates (Brier score = 0.047, 95% CI: 0.046-0.048; AUROC: 0.667, 95% CI: 0.661-0.673) at five years. Cross-model Bayesian analysis demonstrated >99% probability of practical equivalence when trying to detect a difference of &#x2265; 0.02. CONCLUSION: All three PRS for hernia were independently associated with IH, suggesting that genomic factors contribute significantly to IH development. However, none of the three PRS meaningfully improved clinical IH risk prediction in patients who underwent abdominal surgery. This suggests that clinical comorbidities and surgical techniques may be equally as important as genomic architecture.

Bayesian analysis↗

Use of acyclovir in herpetic ocular infection.

Acyclovir has veen shown to have potent antiviral activity against both herpes simplex and herpes zoster viruses, especially the former, with low cellular toxicity, preferentially affecting virally infective cells by inhibiting viral DNA synthesis [1,2]. In experimental herpes simplex corneal infection, acyclovir has been found to be effective [3,4] and in early clinical trials it has been found to be at least as good as idoxuridine [5-7]. Acyclovir has also been found to have antiviral activity against the herpes zoster virus in tissue culture [1] and to affect favorably the course of the disease in immunosuppressed patients [8]. This paper describes the use of acyclovir in patients with either herpes simplex or herpes zoster ocular infections. Topical acyclovir has been compared with adenine arabinoside in the treatment of herpes simplex corneal ulceration in a coded clinical trial. The use of acyclovir will also be described in patients with complicated herpes simplex eye disease. Our initial results with topical acyclovir in herpes zoster keratouveitis are also described.

Acyclovir↗