Development and Validation of an Algorithm to Identify Patients with Multiple Myeloma Using Administrative Claims Data

Abstract

Cancer research using secondary data sources requires accurate identification of patients with specific cancer diagnoses. A recent review of cancer studies using secondary data sources, found 36% used just a single claim with a cancer diagnosis to identify the study sample while only 6.5% used a validated algorithm (1). The diagnostic process for cancer involves many laboratory blood tests, imaging, and surgical biopsies, therefore just one or two health service claims with the cancer diagnosis code may not be sufficient for correct identification of a cancer population. Multiple myeloma (MM)