Skip to Main Content

An official website of the United States government

Government Funding Lapse

Because of a lapse in government funding, the information on this website may not be up to date, transactions submitted via the website may not be processed, and the agency may not be able to respond to inquiries until appropriations are enacted. The NIH Clinical Center (the research hospital of NIH) is open. For more details about its operating status, please visit  cc.nih.gov. Updates regarding government operating status and resumption of normal operations can be found at OPM.gov.

About this Publication
Title
Lessons in Medical Record Abstraction from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) National Screening Trial.
Pubmed ID
26238207 (View this publication on the PubMed website)
Publication
Rev Recent Clin Trials. 2015; Volume 10 (Issue 3): Pages 200-5
Authors
Bazzi L, Lamerato LE, Varner J, Shambaugh VL, Cordes JE, Ragard LR, Marcus PM
Affiliations
  • Department of Public Health Sciences, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI USA. llamera1@hfhs.org.
Abstract

The most rigorous and accurate approach to evaluating clinical events in cancer screening studies is to use data obtained through medical record abstraction (MRA). Although MRA is complex, the particulars of the procedure-such as the specific training and quality assurance processes, challenges of implementation, and other factors that influence the quality of abstraction--are usually not described in reports of studies that employed the technique. In this paper, we present the details of MRA activities used in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial, which used MRA to determine primary and secondary outcomes and collect data on other clinical events. We describe triggers of the MRA cycle and the specific tasks that were part of the abstraction process. We also discuss training and certification of abstracting staff, and technical methods and communication procedures used for data quality assurance. We include discussion of challenges faced and lessons learned.

Related CDAS Studies
Related CDAS Projects