Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40217558›Full record

ArticleActa epileptologica2025

Using electronic medical records to analyze outpatient visits of persons with epilepsy during the pandemic-experience from a low middle income country.

Rajeswari Aghoram, Pradeep P Nair, Anudeep Neelagandan

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Acta epileptologica, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Rajeswari AghoramNeurology, Super Specialty Block, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Pondicherry, 605006, India. rajeswari.a@gmail.com.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4403-4902
Pradeep P NairNeurology, Super Specialty Block, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Pondicherry, 605006, India.
Anudeep NeelagandanHospital information systems, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Pondicherry, 605006, India.

Funding

Indian Council of Medical Research RFC No. ECD/Adhoc/87/2021-2022
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundElectronic medical records (EMR) can be utilized to understand the impact of the disruption in care provision caused by the pandemic. We aimed to develop and validate an algorithm to identify persons with epilepsy (PWE) from our EMR and to use it to explore the effect of the pandemic on outpatient service utilization.

methodsEMRs from the neurology specialty, covering the period from January 2018 to December 2023, were used. An algorithm was developed using an iterative approach to identify PWE with a critical lower bound of 0.91 for negative predictive value. Manual internal validation was performed. Outpatient visit data were extracted and modeled as a time series using the autoregressive integrated moving average model. All statistical analyses were performed using STATA version 14.2 (Statacorp, USA).

resultsFour iterations resulted in an algorithm, with a negative predictive value 0.98 (95% CI: 0.95-0.99), positive predictive value of 0.98 (95% CI: 0.85-0.99), and an F-score accuracy of 0.96, which identified 4474 PWE. The outpatient service utilization was abruptly reduced by the pandemic, with a change of -902.1 (95%CI: -936.55 to -867.70), and the recovery has also been slow, with a decrease of -5.51(95%CI: -7.00 to -4.02). Model predictions aligned closely with actual visits with median error of -3.5%.

conclusionsWe developed an algorithm for identifying people with epilepsy with good accuracy. Similar methods can be adapted for use in other resource-limited settings and for other diseases. The COVID pandemic appears to have caused a lasting reduction of service utilization among PWE.

Indexed as

Electronic medical recordsInterrupted time series analysisManual validation

Identifiers

PMID40217558
PMCPMC11960259

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