National Fatality Review Case Reporting System: Twenty Years of Data Collection.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Data Science

Background:

• The National Fatality Review Case Reporting System (NFR-CRS) is a vital tool for child death review and fetal/infant mortality review teams.
• It collects multidisciplinary review data, focusing on social and community risk factors influencing mortality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the evolution and recent enhancements of the NFR-CRS.
• To assess improvements in data quality and identify system limitations.

Main Methods:

• The NFR-CRS is a web-based data collection system that has undergone continuous development over 20 years.
• Recent enhancements include new sections for life stressors (e.g., racism, poverty) and revised cause-of-death reporting.
• A data quality initiative launched in 2015 aimed to improve data completeness, consistency, accuracy, and timeliness.

Main Results:

• The NFR-CRS has demonstrated improved data quality in completeness, consistency, accuracy, and timeliness since 2015.
• Recent enhancements have focused on capturing contextual information and aligning data with identified risk factors.
• Limitations include non-population-based data, evolving data fields, and significant missing/unknown data.

Conclusions:

• Despite limitations, the NFR-CRS is a valuable research tool for understanding child and infant mortality.
• Its utility is enhanced when integrated with other data sources.
• Ongoing improvements aim to strengthen its role in public health surveillance and research.