G, Catania MA, Giaquinto C, Mazzaglia G, Fornari C, Herings R, Gini R,Hippisley-Cox
J, Molokhia M, Pedersen L, Fourrier-Réglat A, Sturkenboom M,Fieschi M. Design and
evaluation of a semantic approach for the homogeneous identification of events
in eight patient databases: a contribution to the European EU-ADR project. Stud
Health Technol Inform. 2010;160:1085-9.
and validation of a computerised system that exploits data from electronic health
records and biomedical databases for the early detection of adverse drug reactions.
Eight different databases, containing health records of more than 30 million European
citizens, are involved in the project. Unique queries cannot be performed across diffe-
rent databases because of their heterogeneity: Medical record and Claims databases,
four different terminologies for coding diagnoses, and two languages for the informa-
tion described in free text. The aim of our study was to provide database owners with
a common basis for the construction of their queries. Using the UMLS, we provided
a list of medical concepts, with their corresponding terms and codes in the four ter-
minologies, which should be considered to retrieve the relevant information for the
events of interest from the databases.
embolism in medical patients treated in the setting of primary care: A nationwide
case-control study in Italy. Thromb Res. 2010 Aug 13.
outpatients is still not clear and it remains to be clarified whether medical diseases
involve the same risk if managed at home or in hospital. The aim of this study was to
evaluate in the setting of outpatient family medicine the relationship between VTE and
medical conditions known to be at risk during a hospital stay. DESIGN AND SETTING:
The study involved a nationwide retrospective observation according to a nested case-
control method; 400 general practitioners throughout Italy constituted the network
for data collection. Between 2001 and 2004, all cases recorded as having VTE were
entered; ten control patients without VTE,matched by sex, physician, and age, were
selected from the database for each case. RESULTS: The eligible population comprised
372,000 patients and 1,624 incident VTE were recorded. Univariate analysis indicated
hospitalization (OR 5.02; 95% CI 4.01-6.29), cancer (OR 3.06; 95% CI 2.47-3.79), acu-
te infectious disease (OR 2.93; 95% CI 1.94-4.43), neurological disease (OR 2.60; 95%
CI 1.56-4.33), congestive heart failure (CHF) (OR 2.48; 95% CI 1.68-3.69), paralysis (OR
1.87; 95% CI 1.51-2.32), COPD (OR 1.58; 95% CI 1.29-1.95), stroke (OR 1.62;95% CI
1.24-2.12), superficial venous thrombosis (OR 1.51; 95% CI 1.11-2.04, and rheumatic
diseases (OR 1.49; 95% CI 1.28-1.74) as significantly associated with an increased risk
for VTE. After adjustment, only transient or definitive paralysis, cancer, acute infectious
disease, congestive heart failure, neurological diseases, and previous hospitalization re-
mained associated. CONCLUSIONS: This large study indicates that VTE outpatients seen
by general practitioners in Italy have a high prevalence of the same medical diseases
associated with VTE among patients treated in hospital.