ArticlePublic health action2011
Is transcription of data on antiretroviral treatment from electronic to paper-based registers reliable in Malawi?
Article in Public health action, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Quality of Electronic TB Register Data Compared with Paper-Based Records in the Kyrgyz Republic.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2023Article
- Three parallel information systems for malaria elimination in Swaziland, 2010-2015: are the numbers the same?Public health action · 2018Article
- Management of malaria in children with fever in rural Sierra Leone in relation to the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak.Public health action · 2017Article
- Barriers to using eHealth data for clinical performance feedback in Malawi: A case study.International journal of medical informatics · 2015Article
- Simplifying ART cohort monitoring: can pharmacy stocks provide accurate estimates of patients retained on antiretroviral therapy in Malawi?BMC health services research · 2012Article
- Simplified methods of determining treatment retention in Malawi: ART cohort reports vs. pharmacy stock cards.Public health action · 2012Article
- How far do we still need to go to provide health solutions for the poor?Public health action · 2011Article
- Public Health Action: a new home for operational research.Public health action · 2011Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
18 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
settingAntiretroviral treatment (ART) clinics at one central hospital, three district hospitals and one mission hospital in the central and southern regions of Malawi.
objectiveTo measure the extent of inaccuracies in the transcription of case registration and recorded deaths between electronic medical data (EMR) and paper registers. This was done to inform the Ministry of Health on the reliability of the paper-based system as backup in case of EMR failure.
designRetrospective analysis of routine programme data.
resultsA total of 31 763 registrations and 2922 deaths in the EMR were compared with those in the paper registers. In one hospital, up to 24% of overall case registrations were missing from the paper registers. At other sites, the differences were minor and included duplicate patients who should have been classified as 'transfer in' patients in the paper register. There were major differences in the number of registered deaths in two of the five facilities.
conclusionThere are varying degrees of agreement between the EMR and paper registers which compromise the use of the latter as a backup solution in case of EMR failure. The reasons for this unreliability and ways forward to address the problem are discussed.
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