Reusing Electronic Dental Record Data for research: A Data Mapping Study

Kaihong Liu, PhD, Amit Acharya, PhD, Sherita Alai, MS, Titus Schleyer, DMD, PhD
Motivations:
National Dental Practice-Based Research Network (NDPBRN) is a new research initiative by NIDCR Research data collection is an important aspect of NDPBRN research process Currently, most NDPBRN studies use Case Report Form (CRF) to collect, store, and enter research data manually This manual process is not only time consuming and costly but also delay of data transmission and error prone Anecdotal evidence shows many NDPBRN research data items exist in an Electronic Dental Record (EDR) system used by NDPBRN dental practitioners during routine clinical care In addition, published study shows over 79% of dental practitioners in the US use a EDR system to manage clinical information Reuse these EDR data can potentially improve the efficiency of clinical research and save money, resources University of Pittsburgh

Objectives: To investigate which and how many NDPBRN research-data items can be found in the EDR system To assess the feasibility of using data in EDR system for clinical research study Study Design and Results:
Mapping between Two Data Resources: (1) DIM a comprehensive content taxonomy for EDR system in general dentistry (2) Cancer Data Standard Registry and Repository (caDSR) is used for all PBRN research study data annotations

Conclusions:
A large percentage (40%) of the data that dental practices gather on a day-to-day basis can potentially be used for research to improve patient care, and to generate new knowledge It will require future research about data quality, accessibility, and the suitability of EDR data for research For more information contact Kaihong Liu at kaihong@pitt.edu
This research is supported by the NIH grants R21-DE-19683 and R21-DE-21178

Center for Dental Informatics