Article

There is no civilian traumatic brain injury database that captures
patients in all settings of the care continuum.
The linkage of such databases
would yield valuable insight into possible care interventions.
Thus, the
objective of this article is to describe the creation of an algorithm used to
link the Traumatic Brain Injury Model System (TBIMS) to trauma data in state and
national trauma databases. DESIGN: The TBIMS data from a single center was
randomly divided into two sets. One subset was used to generate a probabilistic
linking algorithm to link the TBIMS data to the center's trauma registry. The
other subset was used to validate the algorithm. Medical record numbers were
obtained and used as unique identifiers to measure the quality of the linkage.
Novel methods were used to maximize the positive predictive value. RESULTS: The
algorithm generation subset had 121 patients. It had a sensitivity of 88% and a
positive predictive value of 99%. The validation subset consisted of 120 patients
and had a sensitivity of 83% and a positive predictive value of 99%. CONCLUSIONS:
The probabilistic linkage algorithm can accurately link TBIMS data across systems
of trauma care. Future studies can use this database to answer meaningful
research questions regarding the long-term impact of the acute trauma complex on
health care utilization and recovery across the care continuum in traumatic brain
injury populations.

Langue : ANGLAIS