Development of Data Dictionary for neonatal intensive care unit: advancement towards a better critical care unit

Background: Critical care units (CCUs) with wide use of various monitoring devices generate massive data. To utilize the valuable information of these devices; data are collected and stored using systems like Clinical Information System (CIS), Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), etc. These systems are proprietary in nature, allow limited access to their database and have vendor specific clinical implementation. In this study we focus on developing an open source web-based meta-data repository for CCU representing stay of patient with relevant details.

Methods: After developing the web-based open source repository we analyzed prospective data from two sites for four months for data quality dimensions (completeness, timeliness, validity, accuracy and consistency), morbidity and clinical outcomes. We used a regression model to highlight the significance of practice variations linked with various quality indicators. Results: Data dictionary (DD) with 1447 fields (90.39% cate...