title: A normalization method for combination of laboratory test results from different electronic healthcare databases in a distributed research network.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Distributed research networks (DRNs) afford statistical power by integrating observational data from multiple partners for retrospective studies. However, laboratory test results across care sites are derived using different assays from varying patient populations, making it difficult to simply combine data for analysis. Additionally, existing normalization methods are not suitable for retrospective studies. We normalized laboratory results from different data sources by adjusting for heterogeneous clinico-epidemiologic characteristics of the data and called this the subgroup-adjusted normalization (SAN) method.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subgroup-adjusted normalization renders the means and standard deviations of distributions identical under population structure-adjusted conditions. To evaluate its performance, we compared SAN with existing methods for simulated and real datasets consisting of blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, hematocrit, hemoglobin, serum potassium, and total bilirubin. Various clinico-epidemiologic characteristics can be applied together in SAN. For simplicity of comparison, age and gender were used to adjust population heterogeneity in this study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In simulations, SAN had the lowest standardized difference in means (SDM) and Kolmogorov-Smirnov values for all tests (p < 0.05). In a real dataset, SAN had the lowest SDM and Kolmogorov-Smirnov values for blood urea nitrogen, hematocrit, hemoglobin, and serum potassium, and the lowest SDM for serum creatinine (p < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Subgroup-adjusted normalization performed better than normalization using other methods. The SAN method is applicable in a DRN environment and should facilitate analysis of data integrated across DRN partners for retrospective observational studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Informatics, Ajou University School of Medicine, Ajou University, Suwon, Korea.|Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Dukyong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.affiliation: Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics, New York, NY, USA.|Janssen Research and Development LLC, Titusville, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Martijn J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Schuemie
authors.affiliation: Seoul National University Biomedical Informatics, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Ju Han
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Dong Ki
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Mibyeong Research Center, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: Man Young
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Informatics, Ajou University School of Medicine, Ajou University, Suwon, Korea.
authors.forename: Eun Kyoung
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.affiliation: Centre for u-Healthcare, Gachon University Gil Hospital, Korea.
authors.forename: Eun-Young
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.affiliation: Centre for u-Healthcare, Gachon University Gil Hospital, Korea.
authors.forename: Dong Kyun
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Informatics, Ajou University School of Medicine, Ajou University, Suwon, Korea.
authors.forename: Soo Yeon
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Informatics, Ajou University School of Medicine, Ajou University, Suwon, Korea.
authors.forename: Dahye
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.affiliation: Center for Medical Informatics, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Korea.
authors.forename: Yeonsoo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Informatics, Ajou University School of Medicine, Ajou University, Suwon, Korea.|Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Rae Woong
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D002984:Clinical Laboratory Information Systems / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D057186:Comparative Effectiveness Research / Q000379:methods*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D016208:Databases, Factual / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D007755:Laboratories, Hospital / Q000592:standards; D017891:Pharmacoepidemiology / Q000379:methods*; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012984:Software
keywords: distributed research networks; electronic health records; laboratory test; normalization; pharmacoepidemiology