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Table 1 The information sources used for data gathering

From: A study to design minimum data set of COVID-19 registry system

Information resources

Data collection methods

Details

Articles

Literature review

In PubMed database and Google search engine the terms “COVID-19” and “SARS-CoV-2” were searched to retrieve related articles

The inclusion criteria to select articles were English language, article’s relevance to the objectives, and the possibility of accessing the full text

After searching and downloading the article, at the first the title and the abstract were reviewed to choose the relevant articles. At the second stage the full text of selected articles were considered

Data collection tools (forms, data sets, …)

Internet searching

The COVID-19 questioners and reporting forms were googled through the “COVID-19”, “SARS-COV-2”, “Coronavirus disease” terms and in combination with the “Data collection form”, “Data gathering form”, “Minimum data set”, “Data set”, “Data dictionary”, “Questionnaire”, “Form” terms in Persian and English languages

The search period was until April 15, 2020

 

Request information from experts

A preliminary study showed that some Iranian universities of medical sciences were using a specific paper-based form to register COVID-19 information. Most of the forms were used locally and not available through the internet. However, since the most of Iranian health information management experts who were using the forms are member of social networks such as WhatsApp and Telegram, the project team could access to the some of them

National health information systems

On-site review of information systems

The content and structure of the following Iranian health information systems were reviewed

Management of Communicative Disease Prevention and Control system, MCMC system, SIB, and HIS

Patient medical record

Document review

The structure of medical records in Iranian hospitals is hybrid. Part of the patient’s data is documented on paper, and the other part is stored in information systems such as HIS electronically

We investigated the data elements of paper-based medical record forms. Furthermore, the process of medical record documentation was reviewed

Experts (medical specialists)

Interview

The attitudes of some medical specialists (pulmonologist, infectious disease, radiologist, and internal medicine) on the minimum data set of COVID-19 have been obtained using the interview