THE COLUMBIA REGISTRY OF INFORMATION AND UTILIZATION MANAGEMENT TRIALS

Objective: To systematically locate, register, and abstract informatio n used in comparing effects of various information services (computeri zed and noncomputerized) and utilization management interventions on t he process and outcome of patient tare. Design: Manual and electronic database searches located reports that met three main criteria: 1) ran domized controlled trial; 2) information or utilization management int ervention in the study group with no similar intervention in the contr ol group; and 3) effect of the intervention on the process and/or outc ome of patient care had been measured. Published reports were register ed in the Columbia Registry. Results: Nearly 600 reports were collecte d from 24 countries and 189 different publications. Frequently tested interventions included patient or physician education, telephone follo w-up, patient or physician reminders, and home care services. Frequent ly reported effect variables included hospitalization rate, length of stay, immunization rate, and mortality rate. Standardized formal tools were developed for the separation and abstraction of practical inform ation and methodologic details from the collected trial reports. Concl usions: The registry provides a new source of information for meta-ana lyses, traditional reviews, and executive summaries of quality improve ment of health services. The streamlined knowledge engineering process of quality evaluation and abstraction of critical information can gen erate helpful information for practitioners and researchers simultaneo usly.