Medical Record Abstracting

Principal Investigator

Name
Lois Lamerato

Institution
Henry Ford Health System

Email
llamera1@hfhs.org

About this CDAS Project

Study
PLCO (Learn more about this study)

Project ID
2006-0163

Initial CDAS Request Approval
Jul 1, 2006

Title
Medical Record Abstracting

Summary
The abstraction process for the PLCO study is a very important aspect of the study because it is the means by which study endpoints (e.g. stage of cancer) is determined. The goals of this project are to document the challenges and issues associated with obtaining quality data through medical record abstraction.

Aims

All aspects of the project are aimed at understanding the abstraction methods and processes with the goal of learning and documenting best practices. Various methods are used to study the changes in the abstraction process and the impact of those changes on data quality and usabilty, as well as efficiency. Specific activities include: Description of forms development and implementation Description of training objectives and training processes Description of credentialing process for abstractors Analysis of the frequency of specific errors in the abstraction data content.