Using National Health Care Databases and Problem-Based Practice Analysis to Inform Integrated Curriculum Development

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Determining appropriate clinical problems for case-based learning is a challenge.
• Health care utilization data offer a valuable resource for identifying common medical conditions encountered in practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To illustrate how health care utilization data can be used for educational needs assessment.
• To demonstrate deriving instructional materials from public-use health care data.

Main Methods:

• Utilized National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) data, specifically the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: Emergency Department.
• Analyzed patient demographics, diagnoses, and interventions for conditions like fever presenting to emergency departments.
• Developed a case drill-down illustrating patient management pathways.

Main Results:

• NCHS data provide insights into common diagnoses, tests, procedures, and medications for specific chief complaints (e.g., fever).
• Demonstrated the derivation of instructional content from survey data.

Conclusions:

• Health care utilization data are a useful tool for identifying prevalent clinical problems for medical education.
• These data should complement, not replace, other sources to ensure coverage of rare, high-impact, and fundamental cases.