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. 2001 May-Jun;8(3):281-8.
doi: 10.1136/jamia.2001.0080281.

Record linkage of health care insurance claims

T W Victor  1 , R M Mera
Affiliations

Record linkage of health care insurance claims

T W Victor et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2001 May-Jun.

Abstract

Objective: This paper provides a detailed description of a method developed for purposes of linking records of individual patients, represented in diverse data sets, across time and geography.

Design: The procedure for record linkage has three major components-data standardization, weight estimation, and matching. The proposed method was designed to incorporate a combination of exact and probabilistic matching techniques.

Measurements: The procedure was validated using convergent, divergent, and criterion validity measures.

Results: The output of the process achieved a sensitivity of 92 percent and a specificity that approached 100 percent.

Conclusions: The procedure is a first step in addressing the current trend toward larger and more complex databases.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Input record and atomic parts.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Figure 2 Weight calculation process.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Record linkage process.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Distribution of frequency weights.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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