Abstract
Background/Aims The population seeking dental care at the Marshfield Clinic has grown substantially in recent years, partly as a result of increased capacity with the construction of new Marshfield Clinic dental clinics. The influx of additional dental data presents a great opportunity to enhance our dental research within the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation and facilitate external collaborations. In order to collaborate in multi-site dental research studies, creation of a standardized data structure (analogous to the HMORN Virtual Data Warehouse) will be an enormous asset.
Methods An initial table structure and mapping was proposed based on researcher needs and available data elements. Through collaborations with couple of other HMORN sites, common elements between sites were identified and adjustments were made to the proposed table layout. Patients seen at Marshfield Clinic dental facilities were included in the patient population.
Results The table structure is currently composed of data comprising dental enrollment, dental medication orders, treatment plans, intervention, prescription and medical histories, tooth surface, and risk assessment tables. The Marshfield Clinic served more than 3,500 dental patients in 2007 – this number has increased to approximately 45,000 seen during 2011; we anticipate that our dental patient population will likely continue to grow, as further dental facilities are added (1 facility in 2003; 7 as of 2011; 2 more are planned for 2012). Of the dental patients seen in 2011, 70.3% (31,880/45,322) of them also had a medical visit in Marshfield Clinic’s integrated electronic health record system.
Conclusions This dental table structure that will be shared across the sites involved will allow collaboration with these sites in future dental studies. The data elements used herein are common to dental care delivery throughout the country. The substantial overlap between dental and medical care in the Marshfield Clinic system offers great opportunities for Oral-Systemic research.
