title: Mapping the journey of cancer patients through the health care system. Part 2: Methodological approaches and basic findings.
abstract: This is the second in a series of articles from a line of research whose intent was to construct a complete history of interactions with the health care system. This paper provides details of the methods developed to collect and collate the scattered information regarding the event history (trajectory) that a cancer patient experiences in traveling through the Manitoba health care system from one year prior to diagnosis through to two years post-diagnosis. Survival data were obtained through 1994. Basic population data obtained from this work are also presented, including survival information through to four years post-diagnosis. Issues regarding standardized data recording and detail level of clinical events in the chart record are discussed. This part of the research demonstrates that diverse data sources in the health care system can be linked with a high degree of accuracy and completeness of data.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, University of Manitoba.
authors.forename: Jeff A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Sloan
authors.forename: Shannon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Scott-Findlay
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nemecek
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Blood
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Trylinski
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Whittaker
authors.forename: Samy
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: El Sayed
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Clinch
authors.forename: Kong
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Khoo
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002173:Cancer Care Facilities; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D016208:Databases, Factual / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008350:Manitoba / Q000453:epidemiology; D008495:Medical Oncology; D008498:Medical Record Linkage / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012042:Registries; D016019:Survival Analysis