New Curtin University-led research has found a way to identify Western Australian communities that are at high risk of chronic kidney disease by using data linkage technology to help prevent deaths.
Published in the Journal of Applied Clinical Informatics, the research team used LinXmart, a data linkage technology developed at Curtin, to link information from WA’s four main pathology labs as well as public and private hospital data, while at the same time protecting a patient’s privacy. This data set can identify communities that have a higher prevalence of chronic kidney disease by analysing linked blood test results.
Lead PhD researcher David Lim, from the Curtin School of Population Health, said chronic kidney disease affected one in 10 adults globally, and currently 90 per cent of cases went undetected until they reached more advanced stages of the disease.
“Chronic kidney disease is projected to be the fifth leading cause of death worldwide by the year 2040. Factors that cause a decline in kidney function include age, smoking, low socioeconomic status, cardiovascular disease, weight, family history and medications, and one of the main ways to identify the disease is by assessing the level of the creatinine and protein in the blood,” Mr Lim said.
“In a small number of health systems around the world, there are integrated health databases used for research purposes, but in majority of cases there are still some major challenges with accessing patient data, including missing or inconsistent data and privacy concerns with data sharing and linkage.
“By using this technology and linking data from different health systems, such as pathology labs and hospital records, we are able to identify the burden of chronic kidney disease in the WA population, including incidence, prevalence, rate of progression and economic cost to the health system, without obtaining personal information such as name, date of birth, gender and address.”
Mr Lim explained that analysing this new data could help to identify chronic kidney disease before it progressed to an advanced stage.
“The majority of patients with end-stage chronic kidney disease require dialysis, which is a huge cost burden for the health system. By identifying these patients earlier and engaging with health policy makers and clinicians and doctors in the highly affected areas, we could help to reduce this burden and improve the outcomes for those living with, or at risk of developing the disease,” Mr Lim said.
“More research needs to be done to determine which locations and communities are considered high risk, but this data linkage technology has great potential for the WA health system and could be used to better understand the prevalence of other diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, which have a huge impact on our population.”
This project is a collaborative partnership between Curtin University, WA Country Health Service, WA Department of Health, WA Primary Health Alliance and supported by the Digital Health CRC Limited (DHCRC). DHCRC is funded under the Commonwealth’s Cooperative Research Centres.
The full paper, titled, ‘Unlocking potential within health systems using privacy-preserving record linkage: exploring chronic kidney disease outcomes through linked data modelling,’ can be found online here.
