Identifying patients with neuropathic pain using electronic patient records

Chronic neuropathic pain is challenging to treat and a condition for which further research is needed. Primary care records may allow more appropriate patients to be recruited for clinical studies. In an article by Camille Gajria and colleagues published in the journal Informatics in Primary Care, the authors examined whether electronic primary care records could be used to identify patients with neuropathic pain. The study used data from around 100,000 patients in the London Borough of Brent. The prevalence of diagnoses associated with chronic neuropathic pain was around 13 per 1000, with the elderly, women and white patients experiencing the greatest burden of disease. The study confirmed that electronic patient records can be used to identify patients with chronic neuropathic pain; and that to make full use of data from these records, standardisation of clinical coding and consensus on diagnostic criteria are needed.

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