POTENTIAL OF COMPUTERIZED MEDICAL RECORDS FOR EPIDEMIOLOGIC RESEARCH

This study of the occurrence of tumors in dogs was carried out in orde r to see whether veterinary medical records can be used for epidemiolo gical research. The relationship between tumour occurrence and breed, sex, and age was investigated by using the electronic tumorcards for 1 6049 dogs from three veterinary practices. Striking results include th e difference in tumour occurrence between sprayed bitches (11.31%) and intact bitches (6.58%), and the high percentage of mongrels with a tu mour (78.15%). Such unexpected results may be the result of selection processes underlying the composition of the population. Because these registers do not use a standard diagnostic classification system, it i s difficult to identify all dogs with a specific diagnosis. This means that registers cannot be used for aetiological epidemiological resear ch. However, they do contain valuable information for veterinary healt h care research and can be used as a source of cases for case-control studies, provided that a suitable mans of standardization is used.