American Heart Journal
Volume 157, Issue 6 , Pages 995-1000 , June 2009

Linking inpatient clinical registry data to Medicare claims data using indirect identifiers

  • Bradley G. Hammill, MS

      Affiliations

    • Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC
    • ,
  • Adrian F. Hernandez, MD, MHS

      Affiliations

    • Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC
    • Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC
    • ,
  • Eric D. Peterson, MD, MPH

      Affiliations

    • Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC
    • Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC
    • ,
  • Gregg C. Fonarow, MD

      Affiliations

    • University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
    • ,
  • Kevin A. Schulman, MD

      Affiliations

    • Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC
    • Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC
    • ,
  • Lesley H. Curtis, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC
    • Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC
    • Corresponding Author InformationReprint requests: Lesley H. Curtis, PhD, Center for Clinical and Genetic Economics, Duke Clinical Research Institute, PO Box 17969, Durham, NC 27715.

Received 16 January 2009 ,Accepted 3 April 2009.

References 

  1. Fonarow GC, Abraham WT, Albert NM, et al. Influence of a performance-improvement initiative on quality of care for patients hospitalized with heart failure: results of the Organized Program to Initiate Lifesaving Treatment in Hospitalized Patients With Heart Failure (OPTIMIZE-HF). Arch Intern Med. 2007;167:1493–1502
  2. Mehta RH, Roe MT, Chen AY, et al. Recent trends in the care of patients with non–ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndromes: insights from the CRUSADE initiative. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166:2027–2034
  3. Peterson ED, Roe MT, Mulgund J, et al. Association between hospital process performance and outcomes among patients with acute coronary syndromes. JAMA. 2006;295:1912–1920
  4. Tu JV, Willison DJ, Silver FL, et al. Impracticability of informed consent in the Registry of the Canadian Stroke Network. N Engl J Med. 2004;350:1414–1421
  5. Fonarow GC, Abraham WT, Albert NM, et al. Organized Program to Initiate Lifesaving Treatment in Hospitalized Patients With Heart Failure (OPTIMIZE-HF): rationale and design. Am Heart J. 2004;148:43–51
  6. Bradley CJ, Given CW, Luo Z, et al. Medicaid, Medicare, and the Michigan Tumor Registry: a linkage strategy. Med Decis Making. 2007;27:352–363
  7. Lillard LA, Farmer MM. Linking Medicare and national survey data. Ann Intern Med. 1997;127:691–695
  8. Warren JL, Klabunde CN, Schrag D, et al. Overview of the SEER-Medicare data: content, research applications, and generalizability to the United States elderly population. Med Care. 2002;40(8 Suppl):IV-18
  9. Herzog TN, Scheuren FJ, Winkler WE. Data quality and record linkage techniques. New York: Springer; 2007;
  10. Research Data Assistance Center . Record layout for Medicare denominator file. Available at: http://www.resdac.umn.edu/ddde/sex.htm2008;Last accessed April 24, 2009
  11. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services . Revision of common working file (CWF) editing for same-day, same-provider acute care readmissions. Available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/MM3389.pdf2008;Last accessed October 12, 2008
  12. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services . Medicare managed care contract report (January 1, 2004). Available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HealthPlanRepFileData/Downloads/MMCC-2004.zip2008;Last accessed October 12, 2008
  13. Méray N, Reitsma JB, Ravelli AC, et al. Probabilistic record linkage is a valid and transparent tool to combine databases without a patient identification number. J Clin Epidemiol. 2007;60:883–891
  14. Newgard CD. Validation of probabilistic linkage to match de-identified ambulance records to a state trauma registry. Acad Emerg Med. 2006;13:69–75

 This work was supported by grant U18HS10548 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (Rockville, MD) and a research agreement between GlaxoSmithKline (Research Triangle Park, NC) and Duke University (Durham, NC). Dr Hernandez is a recipient of an American Heart Association Pharmaceutical Roundtable grant (0675060N). Drs Curtis and Schulman were supported in part by grants U01HL066461 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and R01AG026038 from the National Institute on Aging. Dr Fonarow is supported by the Ahmanson Foundation (Beverly Hills, CA) and the Corday Family Foundation (Los Angeles, CA). The OPTIMIZE-HF registry is registered at clinicaltrials.gov as study number NCT00344513.

 David J. Cohen, MD, MSc served as guest editor on this manuscript.

PII: S0002-8703(09)00269-5

doi: 10.1016/j.ahj.2009.04.002

American Heart Journal
Volume 157, Issue 6 , Pages 995-1000 , June 2009

Article Tools