Studies from Seoul National University Hospital Describe New Findings in Health Insurance (Building Linked Big Data for Stroke in Korea: Linkage of Stroke Registry and National Health Insurance Claims Data)

Insurance Weekly News

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Researchers detail new data in Health Insurance. According to news reporting from Seoul, South Korea, by VerticalNews journalists, research stated, "Linkage of public healthcare data is useful in stroke research because patients may visit different sectors of the health system before, during, and after stroke. Therefore, we aimed to establish high-quality big data on stroke in Korea by linking acute stroke registry and national health claim databases."

Financial support for this research came from Ministry of Health and Welfare.

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Seoul National University Hospital, "Acute stroke patients (n=65,311) with claim data suitable for linkage were included in the Clinical Research Center for Stroke (CRCS) registry during 2006-2014. We linked the CRCS registry with national health claim databases in the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA). Linkage was performed using 6 common variables: birth date, gender, provider identification, receiving year and number, and statement serial number in the benefit claim statement. For matched records, linkage accuracy was evaluated using differences between hospital visiting date in the CRCS registry and the commencement date for health insurance care in HIRA. Of 65,311 CRCS cases, 64,634 were matched to HIRA cases (match rate, 99.0%). The proportion of true matches was 94.4% (n=61,017) in the matched data. Among true matches (mean age 66.4 years; men 58.4%), the median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score was 3 (interquartile range 1-7). When comparing baseline characteristics between true matches and false matches, no substantial difference was observed for any variable. We could establish big data on stroke by linking CRCS registry and HIRA records, using claims data without personal identifiers."

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "We plan to conduct national stroke research and improve stroke care using the linked big database."

For more information on this research see: Building Linked Big Data for Stroke in Korea: Linkage of Stroke Registry and National Health Insurance Claims Data. Journal of Korean Medical Science, 2018;33(53):e343.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting T.J. Kim, Dept. of Neurology, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, South Korea. Additional authors for this research include J.S. Lee, J.W. Kim, M.S. Oh, H. Mo, C.H. Lee, H.Y. Jeong, K.H. Jung, J.S. Lim, S.B. Ko, K.H. Yu, B.C. Lee and B.W Yoon.