Paper Info
Title
Differences in nationwide cohorts of acupuncture users identified using structured and free text medical records.
Abstract
Integrative medicine including complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has become more available through mainstream health providers. Acupuncture is one of the most widely used CAM therapies, though its efficacy for treating various conditions requires further investigation. To assist with such investigations, we set out to identify acupuncture patient cohorts using a nationwide clinical data repository. Acupuncture patients were identified using both structured data and unstructured free text notes: 44,960 acupuncture patients were identified using structured data consisting of CPT codes;. Using unstructured free text clinical notes, we trained a support vector classifier with 86% accuracy and was able to identify an additional 101,628 acupuncture patients not identified through structured data (a 226% increase). In addition, characteristics of the patients identified through structured and unstructured data were compared, which show differences in geographic locations and medical service usage patterns. Patients identified with structured data displayed a consistently higher use of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) medical system.
Year
Venue
Field
2014
AMIA
Integrative medicine,Clinical data repository,Alternative medicine,Family medicine,Physical therapy,Unstructured data,Medical record,Acupuncture,Health administration,Current Procedural Terminology,Medicine
DocType
Volume
ISSN
Conference
2014
1942-597X
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
2
0.37
4
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Doug Redd120.37
Jinqiu Kuang220.37
Qing T. Zeng3276.89