Interactieve medische informatie van het Huisartsen Netwerk Utrecht en de Almere Zorggroep

Abstract

Introduction: Electronic medical record systems have great potential for monitoring and improving the quality of health services. In the Netherlands, GP-infonet (General Practitioner Information Network), a central medical information database, is available from 35 general practitioners (GPs) in Utrecht and 118 GPs in Almere. The database covers two patient populations: Utrecht with almost 58,000 persons and Almere with over 140,000 persons. These data can be retrieved interactively via the Web. Objective: We determined the incidence, prevalence, and prescription rates of several diagnoses in the two GP networks of GP-infonet. In addition, we estimated the extent to which these figures could be generalised for the whole of the Netherlands. Methods: Annual incidence and prevalence rates were calculated per 1000 person-years. Prescription rates were calculated for chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes mellitus in terms of the number of prescriptions per 100 episodes. These figures were compared with those from the Second Dutch National Survey of General Practice (2-DNSGP). The capacity of the data as far as generalisation is concerned was determined by comparing characteristics of the GPs and the patient population in Utrecht and Almere with the Dutch population using national figures. Results: Group practices and female GPs were over-represented in Utrecht and Almere. Distribution of age and gender in the patient population of Utrecht was similar to the Dutch population, while the population of Almere was relatively younger. Incidence and prevalence rates of Utrecht and Almere were comparable to 2-DNSGP, while prescription rates in Utrecht were somewhat higher than in 2-DNSGP. Prescription rates in Almere deviated from both Utrecht and 2-DNSGP. Conclusion: The information available on GP-infonet is representative - certainly as far as Utrecht is concerned - for the whole of the Netherlands and incidence and prevalence values are largely valid. However the registration and the processing of prescription rates in combination with diagnosis codes needs to be improved, especially in Almere. This could lead to the interactive data retrieval perhaps facilitating epidemiological studies and could further improve quality of registration and patient care in the network.