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Research Theme

Modernising Medical Microbiology and Big Infection Diagnostics

Home > Research Themes Overview > Modernising Medical Microbiology and Big Infection Diagnostics > Infections in Oxfordshire Research Database > IORD Projects > Changes in the incidence and importance of endocarditis as a diagnosis code in Oxfordshire hospitals

IORD Project

Changes in the incidence and importance of endocarditis as a diagnosis code in Oxfordshire hospitals

COMPLETED
IORD category: Specific Infections
Chief Investigator: Prof Sarah Walker
Sponsor: OUH
Research location: OUH NHS Trust
Approval date: 21 Jul 2016

In 2008 guidance recommended no longer using antibiotics to prevent people getting infections of the heart after having surgery at their dentists. This was because there was no strong evidence showing this was necessary, and to reduce overall use of antibiotics to avoid increasing antibiotic resistance in future. However, in 2015, a group looked at all admissions to NHS hospitals that had been recorded as being for heart infections. They found that these happened more frequently than would have been expected after the guidance was changed. The problem with these kind of analyses is that it is difficult to be confident about exactly what has caused a specific code to be recorded in a patient’s records. From other studies we know that there have been changes over time in how different diagnostic codes are used, reflecting changes in the way hospitals are managed and paid. We also know that extra codes are used much more frequently now than in the past. We plan to use the extra information about germs grown from patient samples and results of blood tests available in IORD to look in more detail at heart infections in Oxfordshire, and how these may have changed over time.

See publication: ‘Caveat emptor’: the cautionary tale of endocarditis and the potential pitfalls of clinical coding data—an electronic health records study

See also Study shows how Electronic Health Records have to be used carefully, to avoid mistakes in analysing infections, and the bacteria causing them

Modernising Medical Microbiology and Big Infection Diagnostics

  • Modernising Medical Microbiology and Big Infection Diagnostics
  • Sub-theme 1: Novel rapid, high-throughput diagnostic workflows for infection
  • Sub-theme 2: Big data-led infection diagnosis and management strategies
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