The Utility of Clinical Notes for Sexual Minority Health Research.
Journal:
American journal of preventive medicine
Published Date:
Nov 1, 2020
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Despite improvements in electronic medical record capability to collect data on sexual orientation, not all healthcare systems have adopted this practice. This can limit the usability of systemwide electronic medical record data for sexual minority research. One viable resource might be the documentation of sexual orientation within clinical notes. The authors developed an approach to identify sexual orientation documentation and subsequently derived a cohort of sexual minority patients using clinical notes from the Veterans Health Administration electronic medical record.