Clinical information for research; the use of general practice databases
Clinical information for research; the use of general practice databases
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DOI：
10.1093/pubmed/21.3.299
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发表时间：
1999-09-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Farmer, R
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Lawrenson, R;Williams, T;Farmer, R
过去10年来，全科计算机在联合王国得到广泛使用，目前有30多个不同的系统。市售数据库基于两个最广泛使用的系统- VAMP Medical和Meditel。这些数据库提供了180万至400万患者的纵向和横断面数据。尽管有这些数据，但它们在流行病学和保健服务研究方面的使用有限。它们是基于人群的信息的独特来源，值得更好地认识。全科医学数据库的优势包括它们是基于人群的，与诊断，年龄和性别相关的优秀处方数据。问题是，他们的主要目的是病人护理和数据库人口不断变化，以及在任何观察性研究中发生的偏倚和混淆的常见问题。使用全科医学数据库的障碍包括访问费用、数据库的规模以及数据库的结构不便于分析。正确利用这些数据库需要强大的计算机，精通编写计算机程序以便于分析的工作人员和熟练使用这些程序的流行病学家。如果这些结构性问题得以克服，那么这些数据库将成为流行病学研究的宝贵数据来源。
General practice computers have been widely used in the United Kingdom for the last 10 years and there are over 30 different systems currently available. The commercially available databases are based on two of the most widely used systems - VAMP Medical and Meditel. These databases provide both longitudinal and cross-sectional data on between 1.8 and 4 million patients. Despite their availability only limited use has been made of them for epidemiological and health service research purposes. They are a unique source of population-based information and deserve to be better recognized.The advantages of general practice databases include the fact that they are population based with excellent prescribing data linked to diagnosis, age and gender. The problems are that their primary purpose is patient care and the database population is constantly changing, as well as the usual problems of bias and confounding that occur in any observational studies. The barriers to the use of general practice databases include the cost of access, the size of the databases and that they are not structured in a way that easily allows analysis. Proper utilization of these databases requires powerful computers, staff proficient in writing computer programs to facilitate analysis and epidemiologists skilled in their use. If these structural problems are overcome then the databases are an invaluable source of data for epidemiological studies.