title: Opportunities and challenges in linking information across databases in pediatric cardiovascular medicine.
abstract: Multicenter databases are increasingly utilized in pediatric cardiovascular research. In this review, we discuss the rational for using these types of data sources, provide several examples of how large datasets have been utilized in clinical research, and describe different mechanisms for linking databases to enable studies not possible with individual datasets alone.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Duke University School of Medicine, and the Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC.
authors.forename: Sara K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Pasqual
authors.forename: Jennifer S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Marshall L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: Samir S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Jeffrey P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Jacobs
keywords: congenital heart disease; outcomes research