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Record linkage of health care insurance claims
1Healthcare Informatics, SmithKline Beecham, Collegeville, Pennsylvania 19426-2990, USA. timothy.w.victor@sbphrd.com
Objective:
This paper provides a detailed description of a method developed for purposes of linking records of individual patients, represented in diverse data sets, across time and geography.
Design:
The procedure for record linkage has three major components-data standardization, weight estimation, and matching. The proposed method was designed to incorporate a combination of exact and probabilistic matching techniques.
Measurements:
The procedure was validated using convergent, divergent, and criterion validity measures.
Results:
The output of the process achieved a sensitivity of 92 percent and a specificity that approached 100 percent.
Conclusions:
The procedure is a first step in addressing the current trend toward larger and more complex databases.