Bradi Granger, Katherine Pereira and Rachel Richesson recently published an article entitled "Assessing electronic health record phenotypes against gold-standard diagnostic criteria for diabetes mellitus" in the September issue of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. Other co-authors include experts from Duke University School of Medicine, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine, Duke University, and Duke Translational Medicine Institute.

Abstract: We assessed the sensitivity and specificity of 8 electronic health record (EHR)-based phenotypes for diabetes mellitus against gold-standard American Diabetes Association (ADA) diagnostic criteria via chart review by clinical experts. Researchers using EHR-based phenotype definitions should clearly specify the characteristics that comprise the definition, variations of ADA criteria, and how different phenotype definitions and components impact the patient populations retrieved and the intended application. Careful attention to phenotype definitions is critical if the promise of leveraging EHR data to improve individual and population health is to be fulfilled.