title: Validity of deterministic record linkage using multiple indirect personal identifiers: linking a large registry to claims data.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Linking patient registries with administrative databases can enhance the utility of the databases for epidemiological and comparative effectiveness research. However, registries often lack direct personal identifiers, and the validity of record linkage using multiple indirect personal identifiers is not well understood.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Using a large contemporary national cardiovascular device registry and 100% Medicare inpatient data, we linked hospitalization-level records. The main outcomes were the validity measures of several deterministic linkage rules using multiple indirect personal identifiers compared with rules using both direct and indirect personal identifiers. Linkage rules using 2 or 3 indirect, patient-level identifiers (ie, date of birth, sex, admission date) and hospital ID produced linkages with sensitivity of 95% and specificity of 98% compared with a gold standard linkage rule using a combination of both direct and indirect identifiers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Ours is the first large-scale study to validate the performance of deterministic linkage rules without direct personal identifiers. When linking hospitalization-level records in the absence of direct personal identifiers, provider information is necessary for successful linkage.
authors.affiliation: From the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA (S.S., J.J.J., L.A.W., C.-Y.C.); Duke Clinical Research Institute and Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC (S.S.); and Department of Biostatistics, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (Y.Z.). soko@post.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Soko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Setoguchi
authors.affiliation: From the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA (S.S., J.J.J., L.A.W., C.-Y.C.); Duke Clinical Research Institute and Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC (S.S.); and Department of Biostatistics, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (Y.Z.).
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: From the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA (S.S., J.J.J., L.A.W., C.-Y.C.); Duke Clinical Research Institute and Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC (S.S.); and Department of Biostatistics, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (Y.Z.).
authors.forename: Jessica J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Jalbert
authors.affiliation: From the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA (S.S., J.J.J., L.A.W., C.-Y.C.); Duke Clinical Research Institute and Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC (S.S.); and Department of Biostatistics, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (Y.Z.).
authors.forename: Lauren A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: From the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA (S.S., J.J.J., L.A.W., C.-Y.C.); Duke Clinical Research Institute and Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC (S.S.); and Department of Biostatistics, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (Y.Z.).
authors.forename: Chih-Ying
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000592:standards*; D007297:Inpatients; D007344:Insurance Claim Reporting; D008297:Male; D008498:Medical Record Linkage / Q000379:methods*; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000592:standards*; D006278:Medicare; D011996:Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012042:Registries; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014481:United States
keywords: Medicare; databases, factual; information storage and retrieval; insurance claim reporting; medical record linkage; medical records systems, computerized; registries