title: Identification of validated case definitions for chronic disease using electronic medical records: a systematic review protocol.
abstract: Primary care electronic medical record (EMR) data are being used for research, surveillance, and clinical monitoring. To broaden the reach and usability of EMR data, case definitions must be specified to identify and characterize important chronic conditions. The purpose of this study is to identify all case definitions for a set of chronic conditions that have been tested and validated in primary care EMR and EMR-linked data. This work will provide a reference list of case definitions, together with their performance metrics, and will identify gaps where new case definitions are needed.
  
  
  
  We will consider a set of 40 chronic conditions, previously identified as potentially important for surveillance in a review of multimorbidity measures. We will perform a systematic search of the published literature to identify studies that describe case definitions for clinical conditions in EMR data and report the performance of these definitions. We will stratify our search by studies that use EMR data alone and those that use EMR-linked data. We will compare the performance of different definitions for the same conditions and explore the influence of data source, jurisdiction, and patient population.
  
  
  
  EMR data from primary care providers can be compiled and used for benefit by the healthcare system. Not only does this work have the potential to further develop disease surveillance and health knowledge, EMR surveillance systems can provide rapid feedback to participating physicians regarding their patients. Existing case definitions will serve as a starting point for the development and validation of new case definitions and will enable better surveillance, research, and practice feedback based on detailed clinical EMR data.
  
  
  
  PROSPERO CRD42016040020.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Sepideh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Souri
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Nicola E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Symonds
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
authors.forename: Azin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rouhi
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Brendan C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Lethebe
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.|Department of Family Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Garies
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Ronksley
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Tyler S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Williamson
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Gabriel E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Fabreau
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Birtwhistle
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Hude
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Quan
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. kamcbrie@ucalgary.ca.|Department of Family Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. kamcbrie@ucalgary.ca.
authors.forename: Kerry A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: McBrien
mesh_terms: D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D000078202:Systematic Reviews as Topic
keywords: Big data; Case definitions; Chronic disease; Electronic medical record; Systematic review