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Improving Data Quality in Mass-Gatherings Health Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2017

Andrew Guy Open the ORCID record for Andrew Guy [Opens in a new window] ,
Ross Prager ,
Sheila Turris  and
Adam Lund
Andrew Guy
Affiliation:
MD Undergraduate Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Ross Prager
Affiliation:
MD Undergraduate Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Sheila Turris
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada School of Nursing, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Adam Lund*
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Emergency Department, Royal Columbian Hospital, New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
*
Correspondence: Adam Lund, BSc, MD, Med, FRCPC Royal Columbian Hospital Emergency Department 330 E Columbia St. New Westminster, BC V3L 3W7 Canada E-mail: adam.lund@ubc.ca
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Abstract

Mass gatherings attract large crowds and can strain the planning and health resources of the community, city, or nation hosting an event. Mass-Gatherings Health (MGH) is an evolving niche of prehospital care rooted in emergency medicine, emergency management, public health, and disaster medicine. To explore front-line issues related to data quality in the context of mass gatherings, the authors draw on five years of management experience with an online, mass-gathering event and patient registry, as well as clinical and operational experience amassed over several decades.

Here the authors propose underlying human, environmental, and logistical factors that may contribute to poor data quality at mass gatherings, and make specific recommendations for improvement through pre-event planning, on-site actions, and post-event follow-up. The advancement of MGH research will rely on addressing factors that influence data quality and developing strategies to mitigate or enhance those factors. This is an exciting time for MGH research as higher order questions are beginning to be addressed; however, quality research must start from the ground up to ensure optimal primary data capture and quality.

GuyA, PragerR, TurrisS, LundA. Improving Data Quality in Mass-Gatherings Health Research. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2017;32(3):329–332.

Keywords

data accuracyemergency medicinemass-gatherings healthmass-gathering medicineresearch methodology
Type
Special Reports
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , June 2017 , pp. 329 - 332
Copyright
© World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2017 

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Footnotes

Conflicts of interest: none

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