Use of beta-blocker is associated with lower mortality in patients with coronary artery disease with or without COPD.

Introduction: Beta-blockers are indicated for secondary prevention of coronary artery disease (CAD). However, in patients with co-morbidity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) an underuse of beta-blocker has been reported.

Materials And Methods: Prescription and demographic data and information on hospital discharge diagnoses from 13 Austrian health insurance funds for the years 2006-2007 were analyzed.

Effects of Shared Electronic Health Record Systems on Drug-Drug Interaction and Duplication Warning Detection.

Shared electronic health records (EHRs) systems can offer a complete medication overview of the prescriptions of different health care providers. We use health claims data of more than 1 million Austrians in 2006 and 2007 with 27 million prescriptions to estimate the effect of shared EHR systems on drug-drug interaction (DDI) and duplication warnings detection and prevention. The Austria Codex and the ATC/DDD information were used as a knowledge base to detect possible DDIs.

Fragmentation of diabetes treatment in Austria - an indicator for the need for shared electronic health record systems.

Shared electronic health record (EHR) systems aim to support continuity of care within the joint treatment of a patient by a community of cooperating care providers. By analyzing the fragmentation of care of Austrian diabetes patients, we aim to find evidence whether there is actually a need for shared EHR systems in this context. Our results show that almost three quarters of the observed diabetes patients visit two or more different care providers during their diabetes-related visits.

Subjective evaluation of sleep apnea is not sufficient in stroke rehabilitation.

Objective: Sleep apnea (SA) is common in stroke patients and is associated with poor functional outcome. Therefore, we studied the clinical value of the Berlin Questionnaire (BQ), a subjective screening method to detect stroke patients with SA in a neurorehabilitation care unit, and compared it with respirographic sleep studies. Another aim was to explore the association of SA with functional status in the subacute phase after stroke.

Analysis of EHRs for research, quality management and health politics.

Lifelong electronic health records can supply valuable information for research, quality management and health politics in addition to supporting treatment of patients. Based on experiences with scientific data analysis in a university hospital environment, requirements on cross-institutional analysis of electronic health records in a healthcare system are discussed. The concept of archetypes can play a key role in this context.