Data Analytics & Population Health Flashcards

Which term describes the use of EHR data to identify geographic clusters of patients with unusually high disease rates?

Answer: Spatial epidemiology

Spatial epidemiology maps disease occurrence geographically to detect clusters and identify environmental or social contributors to health disparities.

In EHR analytics, 'data latency' refers to:

Answer: The delay between data generation and its availability for analysis

Data latency is the lag between when clinical events occur or are documented and when that data becomes queryable in analytics systems.

A value-based care organization tracks the 'cost per member per month' (PMPM). What does this metric primarily measure?

Answer: Average total healthcare expenditure per enrolled member each month

PMPM divides total healthcare costs by the number of enrolled members per month, providing a standardized measure of population-level spending.

Which method is used in population health to evaluate whether two patient groups are comparable when randomization is not possible?

Answer: Propensity score matching

Propensity score matching uses predicted probability of group assignment to create comparable groups in observational studies, reducing selection bias.

Which data governance practice ensures that the same clinical concept—such as 'blood pressure'—is defined and measured consistently across all EHR analytics reports?

Answer: Common data model (CDM) adoption

Common data models like OMOP or PCORnet standardize how clinical concepts are defined and stored, ensuring consistent measurement across studies and reports.

Which analytic technique segments a patient population into groups based on shared clinical and demographic characteristics without a predefined outcome label?

Answer: Unsupervised clustering

Unsupervised clustering algorithms (e.g., k-means) group patients by similarity without needing labeled outcomes, useful for discovering natural patient subpopulations.

A health informatics team is building an alert to flag patients overdue for colorectal cancer screening. Which EHR component is the primary source for this logic?

Answer: Clinical decision support (CDS) rule engine

Clinical decision support rule engines process patient data against evidence-based criteria to generate timely, context-specific alerts and reminders.