Mapping the journey of cancer patients through the health care system. Part 2: Methodological approaches and basic findings.
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.
Sloan
Jeff A
JA
Faculty of Nursing, University of Manitoba.
Scott-Findlay
Shannon
S
Nemecek
Anne
A
Blood
Paul
P
Trylinski
Cheryl
C
Whittaker
Heather
H
El Sayed
Samy
S
Clinch
Jennifer
J
Khoo
Kong
K
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