title: Mass-gathering medicine: creation of an online event and patient registry.
abstract: INTRODUCTION/PROBLEM: A review of the mass-gathering medicine literature confirms that the research community currently lacks a standardized approach to data collection and reporting in relation to large-scale community events. This lack of consistency, particularly with regard to event characteristics, patient characteristics, acuity determination, and reporting of illness and injury rates makes comparisons between and across events difficult. In addition, a lack of access to good data across events makes planning medical support on-site, for transport, and at receiving hospitals, challenging. This report describes the development of an Internet-hosted, secure registry for event and patient data in relation to mass gatherings.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive; development and pilot testing of a Web-based event and patient registry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Several iterations of the registry have resulted in a cross-event platform for standardized data collection at a variety of events. Registry and reporting field descriptions, successes, and challenges are discussed based on pilot testing and early implementation over two years of event enrollment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Mass-Gathering Medicine Event and Patient Registry provides an effective tool for recording and reporting both event and patient-related variables in the context of mass-gathering events. Standardizing data collection will serve researchers and policy makers well. The structure of the database permits numerous queries to be written to generate standardized reports of similar and dissimilar events, which supports hypothesis generation and the development of theoretical foundations in mass-gathering medicine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. adam.lund@ubc.ca
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lund
authors.forename: Sheila A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Turris
authors.forename: Neda
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Amiri
authors.forename: Kerrie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carson
mesh_terms: D003441:Crowding; D003625:Data Collection / Q000592:standards*; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005392:First Aid; D006801:Humans; D008399:Mass Behavior; D009862:Online Systems; D012042:Registries