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BACKGROUND: PROPOSED PANEL ABSTRACT: This panel will feature talks from New York City (NYC) researchers who are developing and evaluating methods to use electronic health records (EHR) data to monitor the health of an urban population. Data from EHRs are now widely used by clinical and public health researchers to study determinants of health outcomes and quality of care among patient populations, but population health surveillance systems incorporating EHR data are only beginning to emerge. EHR data, particularly in ambulatory care settings, offer the potential for almost real-time determination of health status of populations in care, for targeting interventions, and for monitoring the impact of population health initiatives. However, substantial methodological challenges exist, including incomplete population coverage, lack of interoperability across data systems, and variable data quality.
METHODS: NYC Health Department presenters will discuss ongoing efforts to build a new EHR-based surveillance system, known as NYC Macroscope, as well as their portfolio of projects aimed at evaluating the nascent system regarding validity and reliability.
RESULTS: Specifically, two evaluation approaches will be described: (1) a comparison of aggregate EHR results to two reference surveys, NYC Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES) 2013-2014 and NYC Community Health Survey 2013; and (2) an individual-level medical chart review. Presentations will focus on methodological lessons being learned during this process and preliminary interpretation of evaluation results. Particular attention will be given to study design/methods of NYC HANES as the gold-standard reference survey.
CONCLUSIONS: The goal of this session is to stimulate exchange among stakeholders conducting population health research with EHR data. Moderator: Lorna Thorpe, Professor, CUNY School of Public Health Speaker 1: Sharon E. Perlman, Division of Epidemiology, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene TOPIC 1: Future Directions in Population Health Surveillance: NYC HANES and Its Use in Validating EHR Data Speaker 2: Remle Newton-Dame, Primary Care Information Project, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene TOPIC 2: Moving Innovation to Practice: EHR-Based Surveillance Data in Public Health Practice in NYC and Across the Nation Speaker 3: Katharine H. McVeigh, Bureau of Epidemiology Services, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene TOPIC 3: Validating EHR-derived Indicators of Population Health Status: Preliminary Results from the NYC Macroscope