The task of linking together information from one or more data sources representing the same entity (patient, customer, provider, business, etc.) If no unique identifier is available, probabilistic linkage techniques have to be applied Applications of record linkage Remove duplicates in a data set (internal linkage) Merge new records into a larger master data set Create patient oriented statist...

new biodegradable network polymers containing siloxane-linked polymeric prodrugs of 5-ammino-2-hydroxybenzoic acid (5-asa) in the main chain were prepared by ter polymerization of methacrylic acid (ma), 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (hema), and bis (trimethylsilyloxy) methylsilane (vbm) in the presence of some new cross-linking agents.the monomers and polymers were characterized by ft-ir and 1h-nm...

Visualisations have previously combined linking and brushing operations successfully. However, none to our knowledge have combined linking and focussing techniques. We describe the motivation behind developing such a technique, and show how our visualisation takes advantage of inherent links in a set of multiple overlapping hierarchies to build a mechanism that can produce linked focus + contex...

Administrative datasets containing client identifying information (names, birthdates, SSNs) are often used for a variety of research and evaluation projects. The projects often require the linking of two or more independently maintained client rosters in order to track service utilization across different systems. Unfortunately, a given client may be represented with slightly different identify...

OBJECTIVES This study sought to determine public opinion on alternatives to project-specific consent for use of their personal information for health research. DESIGN The authors conducted a fixed-response random-digit dialed telephone survey of 1,230 adults across Canada. MEASUREMENTS We measured attitudes toward privacy and health research; trust in different institutions to keep informat...

BACKGROUND Computerized record linkage is commonly used in cohort studies to ascertain the study outcome, and as such its accuracy classifying the outcome can be described using the standard epidemiological terms of sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV). METHOD We describe a 'duplicate method' to calculate the PPV of record linkage when each record can only be involved in one match ...

background: corneal collagen cross-linking with riboflavin, also known as collagen cross-linking (cxl), involves the application of riboflavin solution to the eye that is activated by illumination with ultraviolet a (uva) light. we survey here the topographic corneal changes one year after cxl in patients with corneal keratoconus. materials and methods: this prospective randomized clinical tria...