Eleven integrated health systems have combined data from their electronic health record systems to create a registry containing de-identified information on about 1.1 million people with diabetes, CMIO reports (Byers, CMIO, 6/6).
Researchers discussed the registry -- called Surveillance, Prevention and Management of Diabetes Mellitus DataLink, or Supreme-DM DataLink -- in an article published in CDC's Preventing Chronic Disease journal.
Creating the Registry
To create the registry, researchers looked at 15.8 million EHRs from 11 integrated health systems:
- Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pa.;
- Group Health Cooperative in Seattle;
- HealthPartners in Minneapolis;
- Henry Ford Health System in Detroit;
- Kaiser Permanente facilities in six regions of the U.S.; and
- Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin.
Researchers then identified roughly 1.1 million patients with diabetes by analyzing:
- Inpatient and outpatient diagnosis codes;
- Laboratory test results; and
- Pharmaceutical distributions (Barr, Modern Healthcare, 6/8).
Registry Details
Thirty-three diabetes researchers maintain the registry, which includes information on patients':
- Test results;
- Prescription records;
- Hospital and ambulatory visits; and
- Vital statistics (Goedert, Health Data Management, 6/8).
Researchers say the database could help health care providers conduct epidemiologic surveillance, population-based care management studies, clinical trials and other research (Rodak, Becker's Hospital Review, 6/8).