A process model for acquiring international administrative routine data for health services research

Objectives: To describe a practical and standardized approach for acquiring international administrative routine data from different data owners for research.Methods: Best practice approach based on the experiences gained during the EU-funded ADVOCATE ("Added Value for Oral Care") project that involved the collection of routinely collected administrative data from health insurance providers, health funds or health authorities in six European countries.Results: A general process for data acquisition that contains four phases was developed: First, the conditions for data usage and access are determined. These conditions are subsequently tested by sharing and analyzing a data sample (quality and validity audit). After optimizing the process model, full-scale data access and analysis are performed.Conclusions: The general data acquisition approach has successfully been applied in the ADVOCATE project to acquire claims data from eight data owners, which prescribed different usage conditions in each case. The approach aims to make a contribution to a standardized process model for acquiring administrative routine data for research and providing researchers with a methodological framework.Ziel: Konzeption eines anwendbaren und standardisierten Ansatzes zur Akquise internationaler administrativer Routinedaten von verschiedenen Dateneigentümern für die Forschung.Methoden: Best-Practice-Ansatz auf Grundlage der Erfahrungen aus dem EU-Projekt ADVOCATE (Added Value for Oral Care), bei dem administrative Routinedaten von Krankenkassen, Krankenversicherungen oder Gesundheitsbehörden aus sechs europäischen Ländern erhoben wurden.Ergebnisse: Es wurde ein allgemeines, vierstufiges Verfahren zur Datenakquise entwickelt: Zunächst werden die Bedingungen für die Datennutzung und den Datenzugriff festgelegt. Diese Bedingungen werden anschließend durch den Austausch und die Analyse einer Stichprobe mit anschließender Datenqualitätsprüfung getestet. Nach der Optimierung des Prozesses erfolgt der vollständige Datenzugriff und die Analyse.Schlussfolgerungen: Das entwickelte Verfahren zur Datenakquise wurde erfolgreich im ADVOCATE- Projekt angewandt, um administrative Routinedaten von acht Dateneigentümern zu akquirieren, die jeweils unterschiedliche Nutzungsbedingungen vorschrieben. Ziel des Ansatzes ist es, einen Beitrag zu einem standardisierten Verfahren zur Akquise von Routinedaten für die Forschung zu leisten

Academic detailing in oral healthcare - results of the ADVOCATE Field Studies

Background: Academic detailing (AD) is a defined form of educational outreach that can be used to influence decision making and reduce unwarranted variation in healthcare delivery. This paper describes the results of the proof of concept phase of the ADVOCATE Field Studies. This study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability and usefulness of AD reinforced with feedback data, to promote prevention-oriented, patient-centred and evidence-based oral healthcare delivery by general dental practitioners (GDPs). Methods: In the Field Studies, six groups of GDPs (n = 39) were recruited in The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. Each group had four meetings reinforced with feedback data for open discussions on dental practice and healthcare delivery. Conventional and directed content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data collected from focus group interviews, debriefing interviews, field notes and evaluation forms. Results: A total of nine themes were identified. Seven themes related to the process of the Field Studies and covered experiences, barriers and facilitators to AD group meetings, data collection and the use of an electronic dashboard for data presentation and storage. Two themes related to the outcomes of the study, describing how GDPs perceived they made changes to their clinical practice as a result of the Field Studies. Conclusions: The ADVOCATE Field Studies approach offers a novel way of collecting and providing feedback to care providers which has the potential to reduce variation oral healthcare delivery. AD plus feedback data is a useful, feasible approach which creates awareness and gives insight into care delivery processes. Some logistic and technical barriers to adoption were identified, which if resolved would further improve the approach and likely increase the acceptability amongst GDPs