Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Medical Informatics
Date Submitted: Feb 24, 2020
Open Peer Review Period: Feb 24, 2020 - Apr 20, 2020
Date Accepted: Jun 15, 2020
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Fueling Dementia Research in Appalachia via Appalachian Informatics Platform
ABSTRACT
Background:
Caring for the growing dementia patient population with complex healthcare needs in West Virginia has been challenging due to its large, sizably rural-dwelling geriatric population and limited resource availability.
Objective:
To illustrate the application of an informatics platform to drive dementia research and quality care through a preliminary study of benzodiazepine (BZD) prescription patterns and its effects on healthcare utilization by geriatric patients.
Methods:
The Maier Institute Data Mart containing clinical and billing data on patients aged ≥ 65 (n=98,970) seen within our clinics/hospital was created. Relevant variables were analyzed to identify BZD prescription patterns and calculate related charges and emergency department (ED) utilization.
Results:
Nearly one third dementia patients received ≥ 1 BZD prescription, 20% more than those without dementia. More women than men received at least one BZD prescription. On average, patients with dementia and ≥ 1 BZD prescription sustained higher charges and visited the ED more often than those without one.
Conclusions:
The Appalachian informatics platform has the potential to enhance dementia care/research through a deeper understanding of dementia, data enrichment, risk identification, and care gap analysis.
Citation
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Copyright
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