title: The application of medical informatics to the veterinary management programs at companion animal practices in Alberta, Canada: a case study.
abstract: Companion animals closely share their domestic environment with people and have the potential to, act as sources of zoonotic diseases. They also have the potential to be sentinels of infectious and noninfectious, diseases. With the exception of rabies, there has been minimal ongoing surveillance of, companion animals in Canada. We developed customized data extraction software, the University of, Calgary Data Extraction Program (UCDEP), to automatically extract and warehouse the electronic, medical records (EMR) from participating private veterinary practices to make them available for, disease surveillance and knowledge creation for evidence-based practice. It was not possible to build, generic data extraction software; the UCDEP required customization to meet the specific software, capabilities of the veterinary practices. The UCDEP, tailored to the participating veterinary practices', management software, was capable of extracting data from the EMR with greater than 99%, completeness and accuracy. The experiences of the people developing and using the UCDEP and the, quality of the extracted data were evaluated. The electronic medical record data stored in the data, warehouse may be a valuable resource for surveillance and evidence-based medical research.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Ecosystem and Public Health, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 4N1. Electronic address: rmanholt@ucalgary.ca.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Anholt
authors.affiliation: Veterinary Public Health Institute, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Schwarzenburgstr. 155, CH-3003 Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Berezowski
authors.affiliation: Business Infusions, Suite 317, 612-500 Country Hills Blvd NE, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T3K 5K3.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maclean
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 4Z6.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.affiliation: AQL Management Consulting, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6J 2R8.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Jamal
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Ecosystem and Public Health, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 4N1; Centre for Coastal Health, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada V9R 5S5.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stephen
mesh_terms: D000416:Alberta; D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000379:methods*; D057805:Pets; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012984:Software; D014730:Veterinary Medicine / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Companion animals; Data extraction; Data quality; Electronic medical record; Informatics; Surveillance