Causes of deaths data, linkages and big data perspectives. (July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rey, Grégoire; Bounebache, Karim; Rondet, Claire
• Is Part Of: Journal of forensic and legal medicine. Volume 57(2018)
• Page Start: 37
• Page End: 40
• Publication Date: 2018-07
• Subjects: Causes of death data -- Data linkages -- Big data; Medical jurisprudence -- Periodicals; Forensic sciences -- Periodicals; Forensic Medicine -- Periodicals; Médecine légale -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 614.1
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2016.12.004
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1752-928X

Abstract

Abstract: The study of cause-specific mortality data is one of the main sources of information for public health monitoring. In most industrialized countries, when a death occurs, it is a legal requirement that a medical certificate based on the international form recommended by World Health Organization's (WHO) is filled in by a physician. The physician reports the causes of death that directly led or contributed to the death on the death certificate. The death certificate is then forwarded to a coding office, where each cause is coded, and one underlying cause is defined, using the rules of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, now in its 10th Revision (ICD-10). Recently, a growing number of countries have adopted, or have decided to adopt, the coding software Iris, developed and maintained by an international consortium 1 . This whole standardized production process results in a high and constantly increasing international comparability of cause-specific mortality data. While these data could be used for international comparisons and benchmarking of global burden of diseases, quality of care and prevention policies, there are also many other ways and methods to explore their richness, especially when they are linked with other data sources. Some of these methods are potentially referring to the so-called "big data" field. These methods could be applied both to the production of the data, to the statistical processing of the data, and even more to process these data linked to other databases. In the present note, we depict the main domains in which this new field of methods could be applied. We focus specifically on the context of France, a 65 million inhabitants country with a centralized health data system. Finally we will insist on the importance of data quality, and the specific problematics related to death certification in the forensic medicine domain. Highlights: We depict the main domains in which this new field of methods could be applied. We focus specifically on the context of France, a 65 million inhabitants country with a centralized health data system. We will insist on the importance of data quality.