{
  "abstract": "Objectives Our primary objectives were (1) to develop and validate an administrative data algorithm for the identification of hand trauma cases using clinical diagnoses documented in medical records as the reference standard and (2) to estimate the incidence of hand trauma in a universal public healthcare system from 1993 to 2023 using a population-based research cohort constructed using a validated case identification algorithm.Design A population-based retrospective validation study.Setting Ontario, Canada, from 2022 to 2023 (validation) and from 1993 to 2023 (estimation).Participants Our reference standard was the known hand trauma status of 301 patients (N=147 with hand trauma) who presented to an urban tertiary-care hand trauma centre in Toronto, Ontario.Primary and secondary outcome measures (1) The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of the optimal algorithm to identify hand trauma using provincial health administrative data and (2) age-standardised and sex-standardised incidence rates of hand trauma among men and women, by age, and by area of patient residence.Results The optimal algorithm had a sensitivity of 73.8% (95% CI 66.6% to 81.0%), specificity of 80.1% (95% CI 73.8% to 86.5%), positive predictive value of 78.1% (95% CI 71.2% to 85.0%) and negative predictive value of 76.1% (95% CI 69.5% to 82.7%). Over the study period, the age-standardised and sex-standardised incidence of hand trauma increased from 384 to 530 per 100 000. The greatest increase was observed in males and individuals aged 0–19 and 80+, with higher incidence rates in Southern compared with Northern Ontario.Conclusions Our algorithm enabled identification of hand trauma cases using health administrative data suitable for population-level surveillance and health services research, revealing a rising burden of hand trauma from 1993 to 2023. These findings can support improved surveillance, resource allocation and care delivery for this public health problem.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada",
        "Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic Surgery, Hand Program, Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada"
      ],
      "name": "Chloe R Wong"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada",
        "Toronto Western Hospital Family Health Team, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada",
        "Family Medicine, North York General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada"
      ],
      "name": "Karen Tu"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "ICES, Toronto, Ontario, Canada"
      ],
      "name": "Alejandro Hernandez"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Surgery, Division of General Surgery, University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada",
        "Department of Surgery, Division of General Surgery, Women’s College Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada"
      ],
      "name": "David R Urbach"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Surgery, Division of Neurosurgery, University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada",
        "Department of Surgery, Division of Neurosurgery, St Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada"
      ],
      "name": "Christopher Witiw"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands"
      ],
      "name": "Bettina Hansen"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada"
      ],
      "name": "Alice Ko"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Michael DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada"
      ],
      "name": "Pascale Tsai"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada",
        "Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic Surgery, Hand Program, Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada"
      ],
      "name": "Heather Baltzer"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Development and validation of a case identification algorithm for hand trauma patients using health administrative data and the epidemiology of hand trauma in a universal healthcare system",
  "uid": "8958919a-3dd1-5b0d-b15b-0e8fa5dc6742"
}