ArticleScientific reports2021
Validation of algorithms for selecting rheumatoid arthritis patients in the Tuscan healthcare administrative databases.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Accuracy of Diagnostic Codes and Algorithms Used to Identify Rheumatoid Arthritis and Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis in Administrative Claims and Electronic Health Records: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Arthritis care & research · 2026Pooled it
- Risk of systemic rheumatic diseases in people with irritable bowel syndrome: a global-federated cohort analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Burden of Emergency Department Visits and Their Outcomes Among Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis: Insights From the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample.ACR open rheumatology · 2025Article
- A novel method to monitor rheumatoid arthritis prevalence using hospital and medication databases.Arthritis research & therapy · 2024Article
- Development and Validation of a META-Algorithm to Identify the Indications of Use of Biological Drugs Approved for the Treatment of Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases from Claims Databases: Insights from the VALORE Project.Clinical epidemiology · 2024Article
- Assessing disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis patients and drug-utilization patterns of biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs in the Tuscany region, Italy.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- Trajectories of Adherence to Biologic Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs in Tuscan Administrative Databases: The Pathfinder Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Article
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19 authors.
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Abstract
Validation of algorithms for selecting patients from healthcare administrative databases (HAD) is recommended. This PATHFINDER study section is aimed at testing algorithms to select rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients from Tuscan HAD (THAD) and assessing RA diagnosis time interval between the medical chart date and that of THAD. A population was extracted from THAD. The information of the medical charts at the Rheumatology Unit of Pisa University Hospital represented the reference. We included first ever users of biologic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) between 2014 and 2016 (index date) with at least a specialist visit at the Rheumatology Unit of the Pisa University Hospital recorded from 2013 to the index date. Out of these, we tested four index tests (algorithms): (1) RA according to hospital discharge records or emergency department admissions (ICD-9 code, 714*); (2) RA according to exemption code from co-payment (006); (3) RA according to hospital discharge records or emergency department admissions AND RA according to exemption code from co-payment; (4) RA according to hospital discharge records or emergency department admissions OR RA according to exemption code from co-payment. We estimated sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predicted values (PPV and NPV) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) and the RA diagnosis median time interval (interquartile range, IQR). Two sensitivity analyses were performed. Among 277 reference patients, 103 had RA. The fourth algorithm identified 96 true RA patients, PPV 0.78 (95% CI 0.70-0.85), sensitivity 0.93 (95% CI 0.86-0.97), specificity 0.84 (95% CI 0.78-0.90), and NPV 0.95 (95% CI 0.91-0.98). The sensitivity analyses confirmed performance. The time measured between the actual RA diagnosis date recorded in medical charts and that assumed in THAD was 2.2 years (IQR 0.5-8.4). In conclusion, this validation showed the fourth algorithm as the best. The time interval elapsed between the actual RA diagnosis date in medical charts and that extrapolated from THAD has to be considered in the design of future studies.
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