A Data Quality Assessment Guideline for Electronic Health Record Data Reuse

Introduction: We describe the formulation, development, and initial expert review of 3x3 Data Quality Assessment (DQA), a dynamic, evidence-based guideline to enable electronic health record (EHR) data quality assessment and reporting for clinical research.

Methods: 3x3 DQA was developed through the triangulation results from three studies: a review of the literature on EHR data quality assessment, a quantitative study of EHR data completeness, and a set of interviews with clinical researchers. Following initial development, the guideline was reviewed by a panel of EHR data quality experts.

Results: The guideline embraces the task-dependent nature of data quality and data quality assessment. The core framework includes three constructs of data quality: complete, correct, and current data. These constructs are operationalized according to the three primary dimensions of EHR data: patients, variables, and time. Each of the nine operationalized constructs maps to a methodological recommendation for EHR data quality assessment. The initial expert response to the framework was positive, but improvements are required.

Discussion: The initial version of 3x3 DQA promises to enable explicit guideline-based best practices for EHR data quality assessment and reporting. Future work will focus on increasing clarity on how and when 3x3 DQA should be used during the research process, improving the feasibility and ease-of-use of recommendation execution, and clarifying the process for users to determine which operationalized constructs and recommendations are relevant for a given dataset and study.