NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: chronic disease, electronic health record

Objective(s): To create a longitudinal data repository for primary care chronic disease information that will form the basis of surveillance reports, research projects and feedback to participating medical practices.

Project Description: The aim of this project is to create a longitudinal data repository for primary care chronic disease that will form the basis of surveillance reports, research projects and feedback to participating practices. A regional and a central data source will be a resource for research in primary care to answer questions about the treatment and management of chronic diseases. This data will be used to explore the prevalence and incidence as well as risk factors related to chronic diseases such as: 1) prevalence of co-morbidity and the effect of co-morbidity on management and disease control; and 2) drug use in chronic disease. This database will allow for comparison of regions across Canada. At a local level, the regional data may also be used to provide clinicians with confidential individual feedback on their own practices. The project will use anonymous data collected from Yellowknife’s emergency medical records. The information of interest includes: all health data and information such as demographic information, conditions, medications, encounters, and other data relevant to chronic and acute conditions (such as laboratory data, physical exam data, referrals data). This data will be included into a central database on a secure server located at the High Performance Computing Virtual Laboratory at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. The study’s information is advertised to patients through posters and handouts. The patients are able to refuse to participate. The privacy and anonymity of each patient is controlled through multiple means including: a unique identification system; software processing system that reduces the risk of re-identification; confidentiality agreements are signed by everyone involved in the project; and s operating procedures and privacy policies followed by all researchers. Specific questions regarding privacy may be directed toward the research team. The researcher will provide a quarterly report comparing their practice results and the results for all regional and national practices combined. The quarterly reports will be distributed by the Yellowknife Health and Social Service senior management to participating management and health providers in order to: 1) establish a quality assurance accountability system; 2) promote quality of care through enhanced chronic disease registry capability; 2) improve data quality in the Electronic Medical Records by highlighting areas of deficit. Further the reports will be shared with the Department of Health and Social Services in order to inform the regional policy and decision makers about patterns of chronic diseases and the incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases in order to inform policy decisions aimed to improve the health care of the people in the Northwest Territories. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from February 20, 2015 to December 31, 2015.