title: The University of Texas Houston Stroke Registry (UTHSR): implementation of enhanced data quality assurance procedures improves data quality.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Limited information has been published regarding standard quality assurance (QA) procedures for stroke registries. We share our experience regarding the establishment of enhanced QA procedures for the University of Texas Houston Stroke Registry (UTHSR) and evaluate whether these QA procedures have improved data quality in UTHSR.
  
  
  METHODS
  All 5093 patient records that were abstracted and entered in UTHSR, between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2011, were considered in this study. We conducted reliability and validity studies. For reliability and validity of data captured by abstractors, a random subset of 30 records was used for re-abstraction of select key variables by two abstractors. These 30 records were re-abstracted by a team of experts that included a vascular neurologist clinician as the "gold standard". We assessed inter-rater reliability (IRR) between the two abstractors as well as validity of each abstractor with the "gold standard". Depending on the scale of variables, IRR was assessed with Kappa or intra-class correlations (ICC) using a 2-way, random effects ANOVA. For assessment of validity of data in UTHSR we re-abstracted another set of 85 patient records for which all discrepant entries were adjudicated by a vascular neurology fellow clinician and added to the set of our "gold standard". We assessed level of agreement between the registry data and the "gold standard" as well as sensitivity and specificity. We used logistic regression to compare error rates for different years to assess whether a significant improvement in data quality has been achieved during 2008-2011.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The error rate dropped significantly, from 4.8% in 2008 to 2.2% in 2011 (P < 0.001). The two abstractors had an excellent IRR (Kappa or ICC ≥ 0.75) on almost all key variables checked. Agreement between data in UTHSR and the "gold standard" was excellent for almost all categorical and continuous variables.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Establishment of a rigorous data quality assurance for our UTHSR has helped to improve the validity of data. We observed an excellent IRR between the two abstractors. We recommend training of chart abstractors and systematic assessment of IRR between abstractors and validity of the abstracted data in stroke registries.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Sciences, The University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Mohammad.H.Rahbar@uth.tmc.edu
authors.forename: Mohammad H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Rahbar
authors.forename: Nicole R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Gonzales
authors.forename: Manouchehr
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ardjomand-Hessabi
authors.forename: Amirali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tahanan
authors.forename: Melvin R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Sline
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Renganayaki
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pandurengan
authors.forename: Farhaan S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Vahidy
authors.forename: Jessica D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Tanksley
authors.forename: Ayodeji A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Delano
authors.forename: Rene M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Malazarte
authors.forename: Ellie E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Sean I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Savitz
authors.forename: James C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Grotta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000991:Antithrombins / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001330:Electronic Data Processing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D008875:Middle Aged; D011786:Quality Control; D012042:Registries; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020521:Stroke / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013781:Texas / Q000453:epidemiology; D014495:Universities
chemical_list: D000991:Antithrombins