The completeness of electronic medical record data for patients with Type 2 Diabetes in primary care and its implications for computer modelling of predicted clinical outcomes

• We analysed primary care practitioner computerised patient records for completeness.
• Data completeness for laboratory and blood pressure data is high.
• Recording of patient weight is poor and requires attention.
• Some patient characteristics are associated with data completeness.
• Practitioners support some simple strategies to improve data completeness.

AimTo describe the completeness of routinely collected primary care data that could be used by computer models to predict clinical outcomes among patients with Type 2 Diabetes (T2D).MethodsData on blood pressure, weight, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and glycated haemoglobin levels for regular patients were electronically extracted from the medical record software of 12 primary care practices in Australia for the period 2000–2012. The data was analysed for temporal trends and for associations between patient characteristics and completeness. General practitioners were surveyed to identify barriers to recording data and strategies to improve its completeness.ResultsOver the study period data completeness improved up to around 80% complete although the recording of weight remained poorer at 55%. T2D patients with Ischaemic Heart Disease were more likely to have their blood pressure recorded (OR 1.6, p = 0.02). Practitioners reported not experiencing any major barriers to using their computer medical record system but did agree with some suggested strategies to improve record completeness.ConclusionThe completeness of routinely collected data suitable for input into computerised predictive models is improving although other dimensions of data quality need to be addressed.

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