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Methods Inf Med 1991; 30(03): 210-214
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1634840
Medical Records
Schattauer GmbH

Record Linkage Strategies: Part II. Portable Software and Deterministic Matching

A. Wajda
1   Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and Evaluation and Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
,
L. L. Roos
1   Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and Evaluation and Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
,
M. Layefsky
2   California Tumor Registry, Emeryville CA, USA
,
J. A. Singleton
3   Statistics and Evaluation Unit, Office of AIDS, Dept. of Health Services, Sacramento CA, USA
› Author AffiliationsThe authors gratefully acknowledge the help of the Manitoba Health Services Commission. This research was supported by National Health Research and Development Project No. 6607-1197-44, Career Scientist Award No. 6607-1314-48, the American Foundation for AIDS Research Grant No. 200018-7-SG, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research Grant No. 1P01 HS06503-01 and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Some of the material in this paper was presented at the Hospital Medical Records Institute Conference on Health Care Data Linkage, Ottawa, Ontario, October 1990 arid at Record Linkage Workshops in Hanover, New Hampshire and Boston, Mass., March 1991. Interpretations and viewpoints contained in this paper are the authors’ own and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Manitoba Health Services Commission, the Government of Manitoba, or Health and Welfare Canada. The authors also wish to thank Kerry Meagher, Phyllis Jivan, and Ruth Brazauskas for helping with the preparation of this manuscript.
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Publication History

Publication Date:
08 February 2018 (online)

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Abstract

Software to perform record linkage should have several characteristics: (1) portability in being able to function with researchers’ current arrangement of computer systems and languages, (2) flexibility in handling different linkage strategies, and (3) low cost in both computer time and researchers’ efforts. A linkage package (LINKS) is described which satisfies these criteria; LINKS provides tools for both deterministic and probabilistic linkage as well as test modules for assessing data quality and structure. Because each linkage project is different, the modular nature of the software allows for better control of the programming process and development of unique strategies. Since the user provides the weights and decision rules, he may modify data between steps and/or develop extra steps to supplement the basic modules. In two information-rich linkage projects involving California AIDS data, LINKS identified mortality using deterministic approaches and permitted comparisons with other software and strategies. Flexible software and a deterministic approach would have eliminated the expensive key entry used to add full names and social security numbers as additional identifiers to one of the California data files.

Key-words

Record Linkage - Software - Data Banks - AIDS
 

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