A Collection of Data Quality Indicators for Health Research: Rationale for an Update.

Abstract

Structured data are the capital of empirical health research. The value of these data relates to their quality and to their fit for use. A German guideline for the management of data quality in registries and cohort studies lists 51 quality indicators organized into the categories organization, integrity, and trueness. An update of the guideline will take into account the current view on dimensions of data, the appropriate structure for the definition of an indicator, and the collection of quality indicators itself. In the next version, the collection will explicitly address measures of metadata quality. The first step of a literature review revealed a high number of potential sources of evidence. These will be categorized into the topics dimensions, structure, and indicators respectively. Special attention will be paid to new challenges of data quality control arising from big data and artificial intelligence.