| Title | Linking of the three Dutch prenatal registries to combine data on pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal period |
| Author(s) | N. Méray, A.C.J. Ravelli, J.B. Reitsma, G.J. Bonsel |
| Source | Proceedings of the 11th World Congress on Medical Informatics (MEDINFO 2004), Pages 1756-1756 |
| Publisher | IOS Press, Amsterdam |
| Publication Date | 2004 |
| Abstract | Medical registries or national databases are important tools to monitor the quality of health care. They are also essential for medical research and policy. The information can be difficult to retrieve as the data belonging to the same individual can be spread over several registries. The absence of a unique identification number makes the problem more complex. Medical Record Linkage provides the possibility to combine the information within and between medical registries [1,2,3]. We have used this method to link the three Dutch National Prenatal Registries. It is now possible to analyze pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal indicators independent of the caregiver of all children born in the last ten years in the Netherlands. |