Zain Chaudhry1, Fahmida Mannan2, Angela Gibson-White3, Usama Syed4, Shirin Ahmed5, Azeem Majeed6. 1. Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London. zain.chaudhry@gmail.com. 2. Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London. fahmida.mannan10@imperial.ac.uk. 3. Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London. agibsonwhite@yahoo.co.uk. 4. Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London. usama.syed10@imperial.ac.uk. 5. King's College London. shirin.ahmed@kcl.ac.uk. 6. Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London. a.majeed@imperial.ac.uk.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Hospital administrative data, such as those provided by the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) database in England, are increasingly being used for research and quality improvement. To date, no study has tried to quantify and examine trends in the use of HES for research purposes. OBJECTIVE: To examine trends in the use of HES data for research. METHODS: Publications generated from the use of HES data were extracted from PubMed and analysed. Publications from 1996 to 2014 were then examined further in the Science Citation Index (SCI) of the Thompson Scientific Institute for Science Information (Web of Science) for details of research specialty area. RESULTS: 520 studies, categorised into 44 specialty areas, were extracted from PubMed. The review showed an increase in publications over the 18-year period with an average of 27 publications per year, however with the majority of output observed in the latter part of the study period. The highest number of publications was in the Health Statistics specialty area. CONCLUSION: The use of HES data for research is becoming more common. Increase in publications over time shows that researchers are beginning to take advantage of the potential of HES data. Although HES is a valuable database, concerns exist over the accuracy and completeness of the data entered. Clinicians need to be more engaged with HES for the full potential of this database to be harnessed.
BACKGROUND: Hospital administrative data, such as those provided by the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) database in England, are increasingly being used for research and quality improvement. To date, no study has tried to quantify and examine trends in the use of HES for research purposes. OBJECTIVE: To examine trends in the use of HES data for research. METHODS: Publications generated from the use of HES data were extracted from PubMed and analysed. Publications from 1996 to 2014 were then examined further in the Science Citation Index (SCI) of the Thompson Scientific Institute for Science Information (Web of Science) for details of research specialty area. RESULTS: 520 studies, categorised into 44 specialty areas, were extracted from PubMed. The review showed an increase in publications over the 18-year period with an average of 27 publications per year, however with the majority of output observed in the latter part of the study period. The highest number of publications was in the Health Statistics specialty area. CONCLUSION: The use of HES data for research is becoming more common. Increase in publications over time shows that researchers are beginning to take advantage of the potential of HES data. Although HES is a valuable database, concerns exist over the accuracy and completeness of the data entered. Clinicians need to be more engaged with HES for the full potential of this database to be harnessed.
Entities:
Keywords:
Database; Episode of Care; Public Health; Secondary Care
Authors: Siegfried Karl Wagner; Fintan Hughes; Mario Cortina-Borja; Nikolas Pontikos; Robbert Struyven; Xiaoxuan Liu; Hugh Montgomery; Daniel C Alexander; Eric Topol; Steffen Erhard Petersen; Konstantinos Balaskas; Jack Hindley; Axel Petzold; Jugnoo S Rahi; Alastair K Denniston; Pearse A Keane Journal: BMJ Open Date: 2022-03-16 Impact factor: 2.692