Detecting possible vaccine adverse events in clinical notes of the electronic medical record.
The Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) is a collaboration between the CDC and eight large HMOs to investigate adverse events following immunization through analyses of clinical data. We modified an existing system, called MediClass, that uses natural language processing to identify clinical events recorded in electronic medical records (EMRs). We customized MediClass so it could detect possible vaccine adverse events (VAEs) generally, and gastrointestinal-related VAEs in particular, in the text clinical notes of encounters recorded in the EMR of a large HMO. Compared to methods that use diagnosis and utilization codes assigned to encounters by clinicians and administrators, the MediClass system can both find more adverse events and improve the positive predictive value for detecting possible VAEs.
Center for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Portland, OR 97215, USA. Brian.hazlehuhrst@kpchr.org
Brian
B
Hazlehurst
Allison
A
Naleway
John
J
Mullooly
D016907:Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems; D001330:Electronic Data Processing / Q000379:methods*; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D009323:Natural Language Processing; D014612:Vaccines / Q000009:adverse effects*
D014612:Vaccines