Virtual patient identifier (vPID): Improving patient traceability using anonymized identifiers in Japanese healthcare insurance claims database.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Japan's national-level healthcare insurance claims database (NDB) is a collective database that contains the entire information on healthcare services being provided to all citizens. However, existing anonymized identifiers (ID1 and ID2) have a poor capability of tracing patients' claims in the database, hindering longitudinal analyses. This study presents a virtual patient identifier (vPID), which we have developed on top of these existing identifiers, to improve the patient traceability.

Methods

vPID is a new composite identifier that intensively consolidates ID1 and ID2 co-occurring in an identical claim to allow to collect claims of each patient even though its ID1 or ID2 may change due to life events or clerical errors. We conducted a verification test with pr

SUBMITTER: Sato J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10205637 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature