Development of a Otologic Surgery Registry Using Hearing Threshold Data Linked to Medical Record Database in Japan: A...

Area of Science:

• Otolaryngology
• Medical Informatics
• Health Data Science

Background:

• Routinely collected medical data are crucial for disease registries.
• Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), medical claims, and department information systems (ORL-DIS) are key data sources.
• Developing integrated registries enhances disease surveillance and research capabilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish an otologic surgery registry in Japan by integrating EMRs, medical claims, and ORL-DIS data.
• To assess the agreement between registry-determined evaluations (RDE) and surgeon-determined evaluations (SDE) for hearing tests.
• To evaluate the registry's utility in analyzing surgical outcomes and facilitating future otologic research.

Main Methods:

• Developed a stapes surgery registry by linking data from ORL-DIS, EMRs, and medical claims.
• Focused on pre- and postoperative hearing evaluations, calculating Pure-Tone Averages (PTA) for air conduction (AC) and bone conduction (BC).
• Assessed agreement between SDE and RDE using Bland-Altman plots, calculating mean differences and 95% limits of agreement (95% LoA).

Main Results:

• Included 164 patients (187 cases).
• Demonstrated high agreement between SDE and RDE for preoperative AC-PTA (mean difference: -1.61 dB; 95% LoA: -12.5 to 9.29 dB) and BC-PTA (mean difference: -1.05 dB; 95% LoA: -13.9 to 11.8 dB).
• Observed moderate agreement for postoperative improvements and significant reduction in manual errors due to data integration.

Conclusions:

• Successfully established the first otologic surgery registry in Japan integrating audiometric data from EMRs.
• The registry serves as a valuable resource for surgical outcome analysis.
• Provides a framework for future otologic research and data-driven advancements.