Secondary Health Data Linkage for Health Services Research: Prevalence and determinants of avoidable emergency department utilization

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The field of Emergency and Acute Medicine is currently growing into a medical specialty discipline in Germany. A subspecialization on top of a clinical specialization has been established in Berlin 2015. Concurrently research structures are evolving and are of utmost importance. The documentation of routine data in Germany is not well standardized and no reliable data are available on Emergency Department (ED) utilization and pathways of care before and after an Emergency Department visit in Germany.As opposed to Germany, reporting and linkage of secondary health care data is common practice in Anglo-American countries. Australia especially implemented a nationwide Emergency Department Information System (EDIS) and data linkage to other data sources is well-established.In this research project linked secondary health care data involving ED data will be analyzed in Australia with the focus to estimate the prevalence and to assess determinants of avoidable ED visits in order to develop evidence-based interventions to disburden EDs.Another important focus of the research project will be to identify impeding and facilitating factors for a successful implementation of an Emergency Department information and data linkage system to identify solutions that can be transferred to an evolving linkage system in Germany.The visiting researcher will thus gather specific expertise in the field of standardization, analysis and reporting of linked health care data concerning the field of Emergency and Acute Medicine. The acquired proficiencies will facilitate the timely and successful implementation of this important methodological approach in the German system in general, and specifically in the current research group at the Department of Emergency and Acute Medicine at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, Germany.