Keywords
data quality - electronic health records - clinical informatics - UMLS - cancer symptoms
Background and Significance
Background and Significance
Clinical decision support (CDS) is the most important “meaningful use” of electronic
health record (EHR) data to support workflow for providers and optimize high-quality
treatment for patients.[1] CDS systems (CDSS) provide an effective mode to equitably improve care delivery
by systematically examining EHR or patient-generated data. However, data quality challenges
must be considered when analyzing and interpreting EHR data, especially when delivering
an EHR-guided intervention.[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6] Incomplete or discordant data hinder both identifying patients from a target cohort
(phenotyping) and utilizing the data for delivery of care (decision support). Weiskopf
et al defined four prototypes for completeness, from which we focus on the first two:
documentation and breadth. Data are considered incomplete if they are not documented
(“documentation”) or only partially documented (“breadth”) as occurs when qualifiers
and modifiers are missing. Undocumented pertinent negative findings or incomplete
description of findings not only can result in incomplete data but are also important
factors when developing CDSS, as erroneous recommendations may be provided, potentially
risking patient safety or rendering the CDSS futile.[3]
[4]
Concordance assesses the agreement between elements in the EHR or between the EHR
data and another source.[2] EHR data are discordant when there is disagreement between elements, observations,
or values that are documented in the EHR and may occur when multiple providers document
differing observations due to factors such as timing of assessment, change in patient
status, or errors in documentation or clinical assessment.[2]
[5] A baseline assessment of EHR data quality is necessary prior to harnessing it for
clinical research purposes.[7]
[8]
Symptom management is an integral component of high-quality cancer care because appropriate
identification and management of symptoms improves quality of life and reduces adverse
effects of disease and cancer-related treatment.[9] Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) affects up to 80% of cancer patients,[10] and high-quality clinical practice guidelines are readily available to classify
the emetogenicity of chemotherapy and provide recommendations to prevent and treat
CINV.[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15] Nonetheless, these guidelines are not always followed in clinical practice, and
provision of guideline-concordant care may occur even less consistently in pediatric
oncology settings.[16]
[17]
[18]
[19] Barriers to providing guideline-concordant care include difficulty identifying at-risk
patients, lack of systematic symptom screening, and incomplete knowledge of the most
up-to-date guidelines.
CINV is a common and yet preventable cancer symptom, and we hypothesize that EHR data
can be used to identify patients at risk of CINV, deliver a CDSS, and improve adherence
to clinical practice guidelines.[1]
[2]
[7]
[16] Further, given the known disparities in provision of guideline-concordant supportive
care,[20]
[21] we hypothesize that a CINV-focused CDSS is a key component to mitigate these disparities.
This type of CDSS could feasibly be built from EHR-derived data, including chemotherapy
regimen, age, and concomitant medications to deliver the CDSS to the prescribing clinician
for prevention of CINV. Further, with integration of patient-reported data, this CDSS
might also feasibly deliver guidance to modify a patient's current CINV regimen based
on symptom reports including the presence, severity, frequency, and temporality of
symptoms. Finally, the use of billing data, including International Classification
of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10) codes, might offer utility to conduct retrospective
evaluation of patients, symptoms, and outcomes, although, historically, ICD codes
have been limited in this capacity.[22]
Prior to developing and deploying a CDSS, we must identify and characterize EHR data
quality. Some prior studies have assessed the completeness of problem lists in EHRs,
but little is known about the data quality challenges for symptoms, especially for
complex diseases such as cancer.[23] We therefore conducted a comprehensive assessment of the completeness and concordance
of CINV documentation in the EHR to assess the data quality.
Methods
Data Source
We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the EHR data of pediatric and young
adult oncology patients at a large, urban hospital that includes a stand-alone children's
hospital, and inpatient and outpatient cancer clinics all within an National Cancer
Institute (NCI) designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. This study was approved by
the Institutional Review Board at Columbia University; a waiver of informed consent
was granted (IRB- AAAR9461).
Sample
All patients age 26 years or younger who received a highly emetogenic chemotherapy
regimen (HEC), defined by pediatric and adult clinical practice guidelines available
during the study period,[11]
[24] for treatment of cancer from 2016 to 2018 inclusive were included in the analysis.
[Appendix A] provides the list of HECs that qualified for inclusion. Age 26 was chosen as the
upper age limit for two reasons: first, there are some data to suggest that provision
of guideline-concordant supportive care is less common in pediatric oncology compared
with medical oncology settings,[16] and we therefore chose an overlapping age group, some of whom would be treated in
medical oncology, to see if there were differences in documentation and data quality.
Second, 26 years is the cutoff age for young adults to be on parental insurance, and
disparities in high-quality care delivery have previously been documented by socioeconomic
factors, such as insurance status.[25]
[26] In fact, we recently reported that patients receiving emetogenic chemotherapy with
commercial insurance were significantly more likely to receive guideline-concordant
antiemetic prophylaxis compared with those with Medicaid (odds ratio [OR]: 2.4; 95%
confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.0–4.8).[19] All available EHR data from the first clinical encounter for HEC were included for
each eligible patient.
Appendix A
Chemotherapeutic agents classified as highly emetogenic
Emetogenicity
|
Chemotherapeutic agent 1
|
AND agent 2 (if applicable)
|
High
|
Cisplatin
|
n/a
|
Carboplatin*
|
n/a
|
Dacarbazine
|
n/a
|
Dactinomycin*
|
n/a
|
Procarbazine
|
n/a
|
Cyclophosphamide
|
Doxorubicin
|
Cyclophosphamide
|
Etoposide*
|
Ifosfamide
|
Etoposide*
|
Thiotepa ≥ 300 mg/m2*
|
n/a
|
Cytarabine 3 g/m2/dose*
|
n/a
|
Cyclophosphamide ≥ 1 g/m2*
|
n/a
|
Methotrexate ≥ 12 g/m2
|
n/a
|
* Denotes regimens that are HEC for pediatric patients and MEC for adults.
Procedures
We queried the institutional data request system and identified all patients who received
HEC between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2018. Computerized provider order entry
for all chemotherapy was the institutional mode of prescribing chemotherapy, and the
Allscripts application was the EHR vendor for the duration of the study period. For
each unique patient, we abstracted sociodemographic and clinical variables as well
as clinical documentation directly from the EHR into a de-identified dataset. Data
abstracted included the following: age, sex, diagnosis, chemotherapeutic regimen,
race, ethnicity, location of chemotherapy administration (inpatient/outpatient), clinical
setting (pediatric oncology/adult oncology), insurance (Medicaid/Medicare/Commercial),
and all clinical documentation from the primary clinical team (from this institution,
this includes physicians, nurse practitioners, and registered nurses [RN]) for the
duration of the first follow-up encounter following administration of HEC. The EHR
sections of interest are provided in [Appendix B].
Appendix B
Sections of electronic health record examined for data abstraction
EHR system
|
Title of note
|
Section of interest
|
Variable within note
|
Outpatient visits
|
Prescriber documentation
|
Follow-up visit (pediatric and adult oncology)
Home medication list
|
History of present illness (HPI)
Problem list (active)
GI medication prescriptions (home)
|
• CINV assessed(Y/N)
• CINV present (Y/N)
• Free text from HPI
• ICD-10 code for CINV (Y/N)
• ICD-10 code for primary disease (Y/N)
• ICD-10 code for antineoplastic visit (Y/N)
|
Inpatient visits
|
Prescriber documentation
|
Pediatric oncology note
Ob/Gyn encounter note
Medicine resident progress note
Hem/oncology attending follow-up note
|
History of present illness
Problem list (active)
Clinical summary (ICD-0 codes)
|
• CINV assessed(Y/N)
• CINV present (Y/N)
• Free text from HPI
• ICD-10 code for CINV (Y/N)
• ICD-10 code for primary disease (Y/N)
• ICD-10 code for antineoplastic visit (Y/N)
|
Nursing documentation
|
Ambulatory hem/oncology nursing assessment
Shift assessment
Flow sheets
Nursing chemotherapy/biotherapy record
Medication administration record
Nursing discharge note
|
GI symptoms
Emesis (volume)
Emesis (episode)
Chemotherapeutic and antiemetic agents administered in clinic
|
• Nausea/vomiting present (Y/N)
• Medication given (Y/N) (Drug)
• Chemotherapy type
• Confirm class of emetogenicity is HEC
• Appropriate regimen administered in clinic (Y/N)
|
Abbreviations: CINV, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting; EHR, electronic health
record; GI, gastrointestinal; HEC, highly emetogenic chemotherapy regimen; hem, hematology;
Ob/Gyn, obstetrics and gynecology.
We defined the follow-up encounter for each patient after receiving HEC as either
(1) for patients who received HEC in the inpatient setting, the acute phase of chemotherapy
(from start of chemotherapy until 24 hours following completion of chemotherapy),
or through discharge from the hospital, whichever came first or (2) for patients who
received HEC in the outpatient setting, the subsequent clinical encounter where they
were seen at the hospital, or outpatient clinic after receiving the first chemotherapy
cycle with HEC. All documented assessments from the follow-up encounter were identified
and abstracted from the EHR. Other variables abstracted included whether the documentation
was entered by a prescriber (e.g., physician, nurse practitioner) or an RN and the
number of documents assessed per patient.
From each follow-up encounter, the abstracted clinical documentation and structured
data were assessed for the presence or absence of CINV. The symptom was first coded
as “assessed” if there was a specific comment about the presence or absence of nausea,
vomiting, or similar terms. This presence of documentation was the primary definition
of completeness. [Table 1] provides the definition of outcome measures. CINV was then coded as “present” if
there was any mention in text or discrete structured data point, such as a symptom
assessment, that acknowledged the presence of nausea, vomiting, and retching, or if
there was a documented emesis event on the RN flow sheet. If CINV was present, we
abstracted any text regarding the severity, temporality, or other relevant descriptors
of the symptom; this information informed the “breadth” of completeness. We also abstracted
three categories of ICD-10 codes from prescriber clinical notes: primary oncologic
diagnosis, encounter for or encounter following chemotherapy, and CINV-related codes.
The ICD-10 codes are structured data points pulled from the billing section of the
EHR into the prescriber notes. One researcher (M.B.) familiar with the EHR system
abstracted the data, and two researchers (M.B. and M.A.) independently abstracted
and coded 20% of all cases to ensure reliability. Any disagreements were resolved
through discussion and, if necessary, through a third reviewer.
Table 1
Outcome measures
Outcome
|
Definition
|
Completeness (prescriber and RN)
|
If CINV was assessed in the documentation by prescriber or RN (yes/no)
|
Completeness (secondary, “breadth”)
|
Details about qualifiers and modifiers of the CINV symptom (abstracted text)
|
Presence of CINV (prescriber and RN)
|
If completeness = yes, was CINV documented as present?
|
Concordance (prescriber)
|
If assessments by both the prescriber and the RN were available, were the two assessments
in agreement?
|
Concordance (ICD-10)
|
If the ICD-10 codes agreed with data abstracted from the prescriber's documentation
within the EHR for (a) primary oncologic diagnosis, (b) visit for chemotherapeutic
encounter, and (c) presence of CINV symptoms
|
Abbreviations: CINV, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting; ICD-10, International
Classification of Diseases 10th Revision; EHR, electronic health record; RN, registered
nurse.
Data Analysis
Following data abstraction from the EHR, descriptive statistics were computed to assess
frequency of documented assessment (completeness) and presence/absence of CINV. The
proportion of patients for whom the assessment for CINV (present/absent) was concordant
between prescriber and RN notes, as well between prescriber documentation and ICD-10
codes for oncologic diagnosis, visit for chemotherapy, and CINV, was calculated. Bivariate
analysis was conducted using chi-squared and logistical regression to assess the association
between the clinical and demographic variables and the outcomes of interest (i.e.,
CINV assessment, CINV present as reported by prescriber and RN, ICD-10 codes, and
concordance by provider type and ICD-10 codes). Associations with p-value < 0.05 were considered significant. All analyses were conducted using SAS version
9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, North Carolina, United States).
From the assessments that were coded as CINV present, qualifiers and modifiers were
compiled to determine the breadth of the CINV documentation, the secondary definition
of completeness. We explored the assessments to determine if they included four domains
of symptoms (presence, temporality, frequency, and severity) that are used in both
pediatric and adult validated tools to measure CINV.[27]
[28]
Results
EHR Assessment of CINV
We identified 127 patients who received their first cycle of HEC over a 3-year period,
defined as an episode. The characteristics of the sample are described in [Table 2]. In total, 127 episodes (one episode per patient) were reviewed, including 390 prescriber
notes and 480 RN notes or flow sheets. Prescriber documentation was primarily abstracted
from the oncology prescriber note(s), specifically the history of present illness
(HPI) section, an unstructured data domain. Nursing documentation was abstracted from
six unique locations including flow sheets (structured data), shift assessments (structured
data), and nursing-specific notes (unstructured data).
Table 2
Summary of patient characteristics (n = 127)
Variable
|
N (%)
|
Sex
|
Male
|
68 (53.5%)
|
Female
|
59 (46.5%)
|
Insurance (primary)
|
Commercial
|
52 (40.9%)
|
Noncommercial
|
75 (59.1%)
|
Age group
|
0–5 mo
|
5 (3.9%)
|
6 mo–11 y
|
51 (40.2%)
|
12–17 y
|
27 (21.3%)
|
18 < 26 y
|
44 (34.7%)
|
Race
|
White
|
80 (63%)
|
Not white
|
47 (37%)
|
Ethnicity
|
Non-Hispanic
|
85 (66.9%)
|
Hispanic or other
|
42 (33.1%)
|
Location
|
Inpatient
|
92 (72.4%)
|
Outpatient
|
35 (27.6%)
|
Provider location
|
Pediatric
|
98 (77.2%)
|
Adult
|
29 (22.8%)
|
Chemo type
|
Cisplatin
|
34 (26.8%)
|
Noncisplatin
|
93 (73.2%)
|
Cancer type
|
Solid tumor
|
62 (48.8%)
|
Lymphoma
|
38 (29.9%)
|
Central nervous system
|
15 (11.8%)
|
Leukemia
|
12 (9.5%)
|
Cancer status
|
First occurrence
|
115 (90.6%)
|
Relapse
|
12 (9.4%)
|
Completeness of Documentation
We identified a documented CINV assessment, defined in our study as completeness,
in the EHR for 112 patients (88%). Prescribers documented an assessment for 95 patients
(75%), and CINV was present in 61 (64%) patients. Factors associated with an increased
likelihood of documenting CINV assessment included chemotherapy regimen and sex. Receiving
a cisplatin-based therapy as the HEC regimen was significantly associated with having
CINV assessment documented in the EHR (OR: 4.3; 95% CI: 1.2–15.3). Male sex was significantly
associated with lower odds of having CINV assessment documented compared with female
sex (OR: 0.37; 95% CI: 0.15–0.88). All other factors, including clinical setting,
were not significant in bivariate analysis.
Nursing assessment of CINV was documented in 72 patients (57%). Patient location during
the follow-up encounter was significantly associated with RN documented assessment,
with those seen in the inpatient setting less likely to have a documented CINV assessment
(OR: 0.04; 95% CI: 0.01–0.32). All other factors were not significant in bivariate
analysis. Of the 72 patients for whom assessment was documented, 40 (56%) reported
the presence of CINV. Twenty-five (63%) of the cases in which CINV was documented
as present were from inpatient structured flow sheets reporting the number of emesis
episode(s); in these documented assessments, no further descriptors about the symptom
were available in the documentation.
Concordance of Documentation
In 60 (47%) patient EHRs, both a prescriber and an RN documented a CINV assessment;
we compared concordance of the documented assessment in these 60 cases. Of these,
43 (72%) reported concordant assessments. [Table 3] provides examples of the 17 discordant assessments (28%). Of the 43 concordant assessments,
34 (79%) agreed that CINV was present, and the remaining 9 (21%) agreed that CINV
was not present. [Fig. 1] visually depicts the completeness and concordance of the 127 episodes.
Table 3
Examples of discordant documentation
Prescriber documentation
|
RN documentation
|
No acute events overnight. Afebrile, no cough or runny nose. No problems with constipation
or diarrhea. No nausea/vomiting. Tolerating chemotherapy well so far. Appetite ok.
No bleeding. No pain
|
Patient vomited immediately after first attempt of prednisone dosing at 1,700. Second
dose of prednisone attempted at 1,800 with medication crushed in ice cream. Patient
did not tolerate and vomited. Mother present at bedside
|
No significant events overnight. Afebrile. No vomiting or diarrhea. Constipation:
no BM since Tuesday. Appetite has been good. No cough, runny nose, or other URI Sxs.
No reports of hematuria. No other bleeding signs or Sxs reported. No problems with
pain. No other problems or concerns reported
|
NO TEXT, CHECKED 1 EPISODE EMESIS
|
Started chemo 3/21, w/delayed vomiting Yesterday and today. Seemed to have jaw pain,
but teething. Seems fussy changing position. Remains afebrile
|
NO TEXT, CHECKED NO SYMPTOMS
|
C/o nausea, but no vomiting. Is still eating and drinking
|
Nausea: none and Zofran given ATC at home. Vomiting: none
|
LP done on Friday 3/17. First dose of carboplatin given the same day. Since discharge
has had frontal headache, Saturday slept a lot, no eating and no drinking. Was afebrile.
Headache worse on Sunday despite Tylenol, caffeine (hot tea). Brought to ED. Given
fluid bolus and morphine but still with headache. Headache worse when standing, much
better lying down. No vision changes. No changes in nueri exam. No vomiting. Some
nausea, on zofran ATC post carboplatin
|
NO NAUSEA OR VOMITING; ABDOMEN SOFT AND NONDISTENDED
|
Abbreviations: ATC, around the clock; BM, bowel movement; C/o, complains of; ED, emergency
department; RN, registered nurse; Sxs, symptoms; URI, upper respiratory infection.
Fig. 1 Completeness and concordance of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) assessments.
We then examined the concordance of prescriber's CINV assessment with the ICD-10 billing
codes for CINV. Twenty (16%) patient/prescriber encounters included an ICD-10 code
for CINV compared with the 61 (64%) cases in which prescribers documented CINV symptoms
in unstructured notes. Of the 95 patients in whom CINV was assessed by the prescriber,
47 (50%) of the documented assessments agreed with the ICD-10 code for that encounter.
Of the 20 patients in whom the ICD-10 code for CINV was present, 17 (85%) agreed with
the provider assessment. ICD-10 codes for chemotherapy encounters were correctly documented
in 81 patients (64%), whereas ICD-10 codes for primary oncologic diagnosis were correctly
documented in 100% of the 127 patients in the cohort.
Breadth of CINV Documentation
Of the patients for whom a CINV assessment was documented by either prescriber or
RN, few (n = 9) provided full information on the breadth of the symptom, including presence,
temporality, frequency, and severity. [Fig. 2] outlines the CINV terms identified from these EHR data and from validated CINV assessment
tools[27]
[28] to conceptualize the necessary components for complete (documented and breadth)
CINV documentation.
Fig. 2 Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) data elements for complete documentation
using terminologies.
Discussion
In this study, we found that the EHR documentation of CINV in children, adolescents,
and young adults receiving HEC was neither uniformly complete nor concordant among
health care professionals. These findings are important to understand the utility
and limitations of CINV documentation in the EHR for future development of CDSS to
improve adherence to CINV guidelines. Further, the findings highlight the need for
team-based strategies for improving multidisciplinary collaborative documentation
to improve data quality.
The results of our study demonstrate that CINV documentation in the EHR is not always
complete and varies by provider type, as 75% of prescribers and 58% of RNs documented
an assessment, the primary definition in our study for completeness. CINV should always
be assessed, particularly when a patient is receiving HEC, and it cannot be assumed
that missing data are the same as absence of symptoms. In a cohort of patients who
recently received HEC and with the highest risk of CINV with expected prevalence as
high as 80%,[29]
[30]
[31]
[32] it is unlikely that only 34% (RN documentation) and 48% (prescriber documentation)
of the 127 included patients had any CINV symptoms, the proportion of those who had
a CINV documented assessment and were reported to have symptoms. Indeed, the low proportion
of CINV symptoms suggests the data quality is not plausible, compared with the known
high prevalence of CINV.[33] These components of poor data quality suggest that other factors, such as workflow
challenges that inhibit complete documentation, may be partly responsible.[34]
Further, the concordance of CINV assessments between prescribers and RNs, in patients
whose data were available, was 72%. The discordance may be more suggestive of the
fragmentation of documentation rather than truly discordant assessments when comparing
RN documentation with prescriber documentation. This is further supported by our finding
that there was no difference in completeness of CINV documentation by clinical setting,
pediatric oncology compared with adult oncology. It is likely that CINV was correctly
and even more completely assessed by many clinicians, and a potential solution may
be consideration of EHR systems that support documentation as a synthesis rather than
discreet task completion.[35]
In EHR documentation where CINV was reported, incompleteness of documentation was
notable with few documented assessments completely reporting the breadth of the symptom:
the temporality, severity, and frequency. Validated CINV assessment tools include
these characteristics, and guideline recommendations vary depending on them.[12]
[13]
[27]
[28] Incomplete breadth of documentation of CINV may be related to lack of a validated
assessment tool capturing the data and integrated into the EHR. Complete documentation
of CINV symptoms by clinicians may not be feasible to implement and sustain in a busy
clinical workflow, and a promising solution is through integration of patient-reported
outcome measures into the EHR to improve the completeness of symptom assessments.[36]
[37]
[38] A collaborative data entry between providers and patients may further mitigate other
data quality challenges, such as inaccuracy and plausibility.[2]
[7]
[38]
Although the observed documentation of CINV symptoms cannot currently inform an accurate
CDSS to modify antiemetic regimens based on CINV guidelines for refractory or breakthrough
nausea, our findings do provide preliminary guidance to develop a prophylactic CDSS
based on known patient and treatment factors. As outlined in [Fig. 2], with existing terminologies, specifically RxNorm, SNOMED-CT mapped through UMLS,
CDSS can feasibly be developed to implement guideline-concordant antiemetic prophylaxis.
Similar efforts are currently underway and offer additional guidance toward utilization
of existing EHR data of children and adolescents with cancer to guide implementation
of guideline-concordant CINV management.[39]
Further, because the majority of patients had a documented assessment of the presence/absence
of CINV, the utility of these data should be explored further. For example, a CDSS
might utilize existing documentation, integrated with patient-reported CINV using
standardized measures, to guide high-quality, guideline-based decision-making. This
approach may also be scalable when applied to other commonly reported cancer symptoms
or among other populations, such as older people with cancer.[7]
[40] Importantly, this requires expansion of existing terminologies to focus on cancer-related
symptoms and ensure they allow for documentation of complete breadth of symptoms.
Strengths and Limitations
This study provides foundational knowledge for EHR documentation to completely and
accurately describe a common and important cancer-related symptom and identifies EHR
design gaps in coordinating documentations among care provider team members of different
roles. We acknowledge the limited generalizability of this study due to using data
from a single institution, a single EHR system, and a sample limited to pediatric,
adolescent, and young adult patients. The findings, specifically the completeness
assessment, may vary by hospital as well as by EHR system. However, the thorough examination
of at least two domains of data quality can inform additional research on data quality
of cancer symptoms and also guide development of CDSS. Future studies should examine
differences across institutions and/or EHR systems to test the validity of this approach
in multiple settings. Because CINV is a universal cancer symptom and we leveraged
standardized terminologies, we anticipate that the preliminary figure outlining the
necessary terminologies to fully capture CINV symptoms ([Fig. 2]) will largely be generalizable across sites that utilize EHR systems as well as
across other demographic groups (e.g., older adults with cancer).
We also focused on two domains of data quality: completeness and concordance. Other
domains—correctness, plausibility, and currency of data—are associated with challenges
utilizing EHR data for secondary use, and examination of these domains would more
fully inform future use of CINV documentation.[3] We briefly comment on plausibility, comparing the rates of positive CINV symptoms
to published prevalence data, but we did not thoroughly examine this domain. Both
plausibility and correctness, without another validation source, such as paper charts
or patient-reported measures for comparison, could not be fully assessed. Finally,
evaluation of the data currency often requires review of data logs, and access to
EHR audit records was not attainable for this study.
Conclusion
This study characterizes the EHR data quality of CINV assessment and provides a framework
for a comprehensive data-driven approach, needed for future CDSS, to capture a common
cancer symptom in the EHR. The findings highlight the data quality limitations to
completely capturing symptoms using clinical terminologies, a weakness that needs
further research to enable accurate phenotyping and predictive modeling of cancer
symptoms.
Clinical Relevance Statement
Clinical Relevance Statement
This research is important both to highlight the importance of high-quality clinical
documentation and to guide documentation improvements, specifically when reporting
patient symptoms.
Multiple Choice Questions
Multiple Choice Questions
-
How can incomplete data negatively impact future development of CDS in guiding CINV
symptom management? Select all that apply.
-
Incomplete data about the presence of symptoms might trigger an inappropriate nudge
for escalation of care.
-
Incomplete data about the presence of symptoms might trigger an inappropriate nudge
for no escalation of care.
-
Data quality would not affect a CDS algorithm.
Correct Answer: The correct answer is options a and b.
-
Does the discordance of CINV data quality identified in some of the included patient
documentation signify an error by the prescriber and/or RN? Choose the best answer.
-
Yes, either the prescriber or the nurse inaccurately documented CINV symptoms.
-
No, the timings of the assessments are different and so the discordance is expected.
-
Not necessarily—it is possible that the RN or the prescriber did not document correctly,
but it is also plausible that there is a good reason for discordance, such as different
timing of assessments.
Correct Answer: The correct answer is option c.