CLINICAL UTILITY OF AN INTERNATIONAL THYROID DATABASE

Assessment of thyroid function is prone to errors from several sources . Confusion is most often due to inappropriate use of tests, especiall y in patients with acute non-thyroid illness. With these problems in m ind we have designed an international prospective thyroid database in three countries, which registers clinical and laboratory data on new p atients with suspected thyroid disease. An additional aim was to asses s the use of a computerised decision support tool to interpret thyroid data. The database permits rapid access to temporal trends in thyroid tests, which is useful in monitoring therapy and in follow up for hyp erthyroidism. Marked contrasts in local clinical practices have highli ghted the challenge in providing a valid decision tool to serve all cl inical needs. Experience with multi-centre databases such as this hold promise in the drive to coordinate the disciplines of laboratory anal ysis and clinical decision making.