Approaches to Link Geospatially Varying Social, Economic, and Environmental Factors with Electronic Health Record Data to Better Understand Asthma Exacerbations.

We describe how EHR-derived data can be enhanced via linking of external sources of social, economic and environmental data when patient-related geospatial information is available, and we illustrate an approach to better understand the geospatial patterns of asthma exacerbation rates in Philadelphia. Specifically, we relate the spatial distribution of asthma exacerbations observed in EHR-derived data to that of known and potential risk factors (i.e., economic deprivation, crime, vehicular traffic, tree cover). Areas of highest risk based on integrated social and environmental data were consistent with an area with increased asthma exacerbations, demonstrating that data external to the EHR can enhance our understanding of negative health-related outcomes. PMID: 30815202 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Source: AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings - Category: Bioinformatics Tags: AMIA Annu Symp Proc Source Type: research