J Pathol Transl Med.  2016 May;50(3):204-210. 10.4132/jptm.2016.03.04.

Analysis of Surgical Pathology Data in the HIRA Database: Emphasis on Current Status and Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection Specimens

• Byeon SJ
• Kim WH

• KMID: 2164597
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4132/jptm.2016.03.04

Abstract

BACKGROUND
In Korea, medical institutions make claims for insurance reimbursement to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA). Thus, HIRA databases reflect the general medical services that are provided in Korea. We conducted two pathology-related studies using a HIRA national patient sample (NPS) data (selection probability, 0.03). First, we evaluated the current status of general pathologic examination in Korea. Second, we evaluated pathologic issues associated with endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD).
METHODS
The sample data used in this study was HIRA-NPS-2013-0094.
RESULTS
In the NPS dataset, 163,372 pathologic examinations were performed in 103,528 patients during the year 2013. Considering sampling weight (33.3), it is estimated that 5,440,288 (163,372 × 33.3) pathologic examinations were performed. Internal medicine and general surgery were the most common departments requesting pathologic examinations. The region performing pathologic examinations were different according to type of medical institution. In total, 490 patients underwent ESD, and 43.4% (213/490) underwent ESD due to gastric carcinoma. The results of the ESD led to a change in disease code for 10.5% (29/277) of non-gastric carcinoma patients. In addition, 21 patients (4.3%) underwent surgery following the ESD. The average period between ESD and surgery was 44 days.
CONCLUSIONS
HIRA sample data provide the nation-wide landscape of specific procedure. However, in order to reduce the statistical error, further studies using entire HIRA data are needed.

Keyword

Statistics; Sample size; Pathology; Surgery

MeSH Terms

Dataset
Humans
Insurance
Insurance, Health
Internal Medicine
Korea
Pathology
Pathology, Surgical*
Sample Size

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