Skip Navigation



Family Practice Advance Access published online on July 25, 2006
Family Practice, doi:10.1093/fampra/cml040
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrowOA All Versions of this Article:
23/5/529    most recent
cml040v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Brouwer, H. J.
Right arrow Articles by Van Weert, H. C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Brouwer, H. J.
Right arrow Articles by Van Weert, H. C.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© 2006 The Author(s)
Received July 18, 2006
Revised May 19, 2006
Accepted June 28, 2004

Article

Data quality improvement in general practice

H. J. Brouwer 1 *, P. J. E. Bindels 1, and H. C. Van Weert 1

1 Division of Clinical Information and Public Health, Department of General Practice, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
H. J. Brouwer, E-mail: h.j.brouwer{at}amc.uva.nl


  Abstract

Background. The importance of routine data generated by GPs has grown extensively in the last decade. These data have found many applications other than patient care. More attention has therefore been given to the issue of data quality. Several systematic reviews have detected ample space for improvement of data quality. A new review was conducted in order to find out which methods of improvement are effective.

Method. The Medline database was searched using an iteratively composed set of terms and MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) headings. Only papers that focused on explicit attempts at improving data quality of medical records in general practice were included.

Results. Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria. No study used patient-based comparison of records with external sources as the method to assess data quality improvement. Ten studies used internal indicators or markers of data quality instead. Attempts at data quality improvement often involve some sort of individualized feedback, and nearly all attempts seem to have some positive effect. Only one of the included studies fulfilled the basic methodological requirements of an intervention study. The most recent studies used a simple before-after design.

Conclusion. No intervention to improve data quality has been put to a rigorous enough test. We still lack empirical knowledge as to how improvement can be brought about.

Keywords: Family practice; general practice; primary health care; research.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Fam PractHome page
G. Gormley, D. Connolly, D. Catney, L. Freeman, L. J Murray, and A. Gavin
Reporting of research data by GPs: a cautionary tale for primary care researchers
Fam. Pract., June 1, 2008; 25(3): 209 - 212.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.