Evaluation of structured data from electronic health records to identify clinical classification criteria attributes for systemic lupus erythematosus.
OBJECTIVE
Our objective was to develop algorithms to identify lupus clinical classification criteria attributes using structured data found in the electronic health record (EHR) and determine whether they could be used to describe a cohort of people with lupus and discriminate them from a defined healthy control cohort.


METHODS
We created gold standard lupus and healthy patient cohorts that were fully adjudicated for the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) and European League Against Rheumatism/ACR (EULAR/ACR) classification criteria and had matched EHR data. We implemented rule-based algorithms using structured data within the EHR system for each attribute of the three classification criteria. Individual criteria attribute and classification criteria algorithms as a whole were assessed over our combined cohorts and the overall performance of the algorithms was measured through sensitivity and specificity.


RESULTS
Individual classification criteria attributes had a wide range of sensitivities, 7% (oral ulcers) to 97% (haematological disorders) and specificities, 56% (haematological disorders) to 98% (photosensitivity), but all could be identified in EHR data. In general, algorithms based on laboratory results performed better than those primarily based on diagnosis codes. All three classification criteria systems effectively distinguished members of our case and control cohorts, but the SLICC criteria-based algorithm had the highest overall performance (76% sensitivity, 99% specificity).


CONCLUSIONS
It is possible to characterise disease manifestations in people with lupus using classification criteria-based algorithms that assess structured EHR data. These algorithms may reduce chart review burden and are a foundation for identifying subpopulations of patients with lupus based on disease presentation to support precision medicine applications.
['Walunas|Theresa L|TL|0000-0002-7653-3650', 'Ghosh|Anika S|AS|', 'Pacheco|Jennifer A|JA|', 'Mitrovic|Vesna|V|', 'Wu|Andy|A|', 'Jackson|Kathryn L|KL|', 'Schusler|Ryan|R|', 'Chung|Anh|A|', 'Erickson|Daniel|D|', 'Mancera-Cuevas|Karen|K|', 'Luo|Yuan|Y|', 'Kho|Abel N|AN|', 'Ramsey-Goldman|Rosalind|R|']
D000328:Adult D057286:Electronic Health Records D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic D008297:Male D012216:Rheumatic Diseases D012219:Rheumatology D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity D014481:United States
systemic lupus erythematosus autoimmune diseases epidemiology