Epidemiology of nontuberculous mycobacterial infections in the U.S. Veterans Health Administration.

Objective: We identified patients with non-tuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) disease in the US Veterans Health Administration (VHA), examined the distribution of diseases by NTM species, and explored the association between NTM disease and the frequency of clinic visits and mortality.

Methods: We combined mycobacterial isolate (from natural language processing) with ICD-9-CM diagnoses from VHA data between 2008 and 2012 and then applied modified ATS/IDSA guidelines for NTM diagnosis. We performed validation against a reference standard of chart review.

Importation, Antibiotics, and Clostridium difficile Infection in Veteran Long-Term Care: A Multilevel Case-Control Study.

Background: Although clinical factors affecting a person's susceptibility to Clostridium difficile infection are well-understood, little is known about what drives differences in incidence across long-term care settings.

Objective: To obtain a comprehensive picture of individual and regional factors that affect C difficile incidence.

Design: Multilevel longitudinal nested case-control study.