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[Preprint]. 2024 Jan 15:rs.3.rs-3443865.
doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3443865/v2.

Application of Spatial Analysis for Electronic Health Records: Characterizing Patient Phenotypes and Emerging Trends

Abolfazl Mollalo  1 , Bashir Hamidi  1 , Leslie Lenert  1 , Alexander V Alekseyenko  1
Affiliations

Application of Spatial Analysis for Electronic Health Records: Characterizing Patient Phenotypes and Emerging Trends

Abolfazl Mollalo et al. Res Sq. .

Update in

Abstract

Background: Electronic health records (EHR) commonly contain patient addresses that provide valuable data for geocoding and spatial analysis, enabling more comprehensive descriptions of individual patients for clinical purposes. Despite the widespread use of EHR in clinical decision support and interventions, no systematic review has examined the extent to which spatial analysis is used to characterize patient phenotypes.

Objective: This study reviews advanced spatial analyses that employed individual-level health data from EHR within the US to characterize patient phenotypes.

Methods: We systematically evaluated English-language peer-reviewed articles from PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases from inception to August 20, 2023, without imposing constraints on time, study design, or specific health domains.

Results: Only 49 articles met the eligibility criteria. These articles utilized diverse spatial methods, with a predominant focus on clustering techniques, while spatiotemporal analysis (frequentist and Bayesian) and modeling were relatively underexplored. A noteworthy surge (n = 42, 85.7%) in publications was observed post-2017. The publications investigated a variety of adult and pediatric clinical areas, including infectious disease, endocrinology, and cardiology, using phenotypes defined over a range of data domains, such as demographics, diagnoses, and visits. The primary health outcomes investigated were asthma, hypertension, and diabetes. Notably, patient phenotypes involving genomics, imaging, and notes were rarely utilized.

Conclusions: This review underscores the growing interest in spatial analysis of EHR-derived data and highlights knowledge gaps in clinical health, phenotype domains, and spatial methodologies. Additionally, this review proposes guidelines for harnessing the potential of spatial analysis to enhance the context of individual patients for future clinical decision support.

Keywords: clinical phenotypes; electronic health records; geocoding; geographic information systems; patient phenotypes; spatial analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest None declared. Additional Declarations: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA study selection flowchart.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Geospatial distribution of the included studies at the state level in the US
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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