Data processing and analysis in real‐world traditional Chinese medicine clinical data: challenges and approaches

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a clinical-based discipline in which real-world clinical practice plays a significant role for both the development of clinical therapy and theoretical research. The large-scale clinical data generated during the daily clinical operations of TCM provide a highly valuable knowledge source for clinical decision making. Secondary analysis of these data would be a vital task for TCM clinical studies before the randomised controlled trials are conducted. In this article, we discuss the challenges and issues, such as structured data curation, data preprocessing and quality, large-scale data management and complex data analysis requirements, in the data processing and analysis of real-world TCM clinical data. Furthermore, we also discuss related state-of-the-art research and solutions in China. We have shown that the clinical data warehouse based on the collection of structured electronic medical record data and clinical terminology would be a promising approach for generating clinical hypotheses and helping the discovery of clinical knowledge from large-scale real-world TCM clinical data.

Clinical data quality problems and countermeasure for real world study

“…The designed template can ensure the clinical effectiveness of data collection, data availability, integrity, and standardization. As a platform centered on patients with integration of the hospital information system, laboratory information system, picture archiving and communication system, and other data resources, evaluation of effects and follow-up information in clinical research data can meet the requirements of normal medical work and efficiency demands [10][11][12][13]. The key points of clinical data quality include the aspects shown in Fig.…”

Development and validation of method for defining conditions using Chinese electronic medical record

“…However, well-established and widely validated NLP techniques for dealing with Chinese EMRs are not currently available. Studies of NLP for Chinese EMRs are limited, with most having been developed for one or several specific sections or fields of the EMR [14–16]. Additionally, clinical expertise is needed to define conditions (such as liver diseases, symptoms and comorbidities) according to practice pathways because the EMRs in China document longitudinal clinical information on patients, but do not document diagnoses in a standardized or systematic way.…”

Methods and technologies of traditional Chinese medicine clinical information datamation in real world

“…Under the guidance of this paradigm, developed the TCM clinical research information sharing system (sharing system). The sharing system is the powerful tool of TCM clinical information datamation and the support platform of clinical complex massive data management and utilization, which include a system (the application system of digital clinical terms), three platforms (medical service platform, data management platform, clinical research platform) and four functional modules (data acquisition module, quality control module, data integration module, data analysis module) [2][3]. In the sharing system, the structured electronic medical record system is a technology tool of the comprehensive datamation of TCM clinical diagnosis and treatment information.…”