Methodological Assessment of Medical Records Reviews in Articles in the Journal of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine.
- Author:
Hyunwook JEONG
1
;
Tae Young YU
;
Youngho JIN
;
Tae Oh JEONG
;
Jae Baek LEE
Author Information
1. Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical School, Chonbuk National University, Korea. emjin@chonbuk.ac.kr
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Medical records;
Retrospective studies;
Methodology
- MeSH:
Checklist;
Emergencies*;
Emergency Medicine*;
Medical Records*;
Retrospective Studies;
Selection Bias
- From:Journal of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine
2005;16(4):481-485
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to enhance the quality of data by performing a methodological assessment of medical records reviews. METHODS: We reviewed the articles published in the Journal of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine between January 2001 and December 2003 that used a retrospective medical records review as the study method. We assessed data collector's training, descriptions of inclusion/ exclusion criteria, definitions of important variables, use of standardized case record forms, monitoring the data collectors' performance, blind data collecting, inter-rater reliability/ test of inter-rater agreement, intra-rater reliability/test of intra-rater agreement, selection bias from consent, and rules regarding management of missing data. RESULTS: There were 111 articles that used retrospective medical records reviews during the study period. In 111 (100%) articles, inclusion/exclusion criteria were described, in 98 (88.3%), important variables were defined, and in 4 (3.6%), standardized case record forms were used. However no articles addressed the other items on the checklist. CONCLUSION: Study conductors should design studies to enhance the quality of data, and detailed descriptions are necessary to improve the reproducibility of the study.
