title: Using the CER Hub to ensure data quality in a multi-institution smoking cessation study.
abstract: Comparative effectiveness research (CER) studies involving multiple institutions with diverse electronic health records (EHRs) depend on high quality data. To ensure uniformity of data derived from different EHR systems and implementations, the CER Hub informatics platform developed a quality assurance (QA) process using tools and data formats available through the CER Hub. The QA process, implemented here in a study of smoking cessation services in primary care, used the 'emrAdapter' tool programmed with a set of quality checks to query large samples of primary care encounter records extracted in accord with the CER Hub common data framework. The tool, deployed to each study site, generated error reports indicating data problems to be fixed locally and aggregate data sharable with the central site for quality review. Across the CER Hub network of six health systems, data completeness and correctness issues were prevalent in the first iteration and were considerably improved after three iterations of the QA process. A common issue encountered was incomplete mapping of local EHR data values to those defined by the common data framework. A highly automated and distributed QA process helped to ensure the correctness and completeness of patient care data extracted from EHRs for a multi-institution CER study in smoking cessation.
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Center for Health Research, Portland, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: Kari L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Center for Health Research, Portland, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kirillova
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Center for Health Research, Portland, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: Suzanne E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Gillespie
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, Center for Health Research, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hsiao
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, Center for Health Research, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
authors.forename: Valentyna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pishchalenko
authors.affiliation: Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
authors.forename: Akshatha Kalsanka
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Pai
authors.affiliation: OCHIN Inc, Portland, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: Jon E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Puro
authors.affiliation: VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, Washington, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Plumley
authors.affiliation: Baylor Health Care System, Center for Clinical Innovation, Dallas, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Rustam
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kudyakov
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Center for Health Research, Portland, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: Weiming
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Center for Health Research, Portland, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: Art
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Allisany
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Center for Health Research, Portland, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: MaryAnn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McBurnie
authors.affiliation: Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Kurtz
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Center for Health Research, Portland, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: Brian L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Hazlehurst
mesh_terms: D057186:Comparative Effectiveness Research; D066264:Datasets as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D011786:Quality Control; D016540:Smoking Cessation
keywords: Electronic medical records; Research data quality assurance