Enhancing gout management by creating a register using automated queries in electronic health records

Objective: To develop an automatic gout register to improve gout management. Methods: We analysed the electronic health records (EHR) of all patients >18 years old from a tertiary academic hospital (2013-2022) based on six criteria: International Classification of Diseases 10 (ICD-10) gout diagnosis, urate-lowering therapy (ULT) prescription, uric acid crystal in joint aspiration and gout-related terms in problem lists, clinical or imaging reports. We assessed the positive and negative predictive value (PPV and NPV) of the query by chart reviews. Results: Of 2,110,902 out- and inpatients, 10,289 had at least one criterion for gout. The combination of joint aspiration OR diagnostic in the problem list OR ≥ 2 other criteria created a register of 5,138 patients, with a PPV of 92.4% (95%CI: 88.5 to 95.0), and an NPV of 94.3% (95%CI: 91.9 to 96.0). PPV and NPV were similar amongst outpatients and inpatients. Incidence was 2.9 per 1000 person-year and dropped by 30% from the COVID-19 pandemic onward. Patients with gout were on average 71.2 years old (SD 14.9), mainly male (76.5%), overweight (69.5%) and polymorbid (mean number of comorbidities of 3, IQR 1-5). More than half (57.4%) had received a urate lowering treatment, 6.7% had a gout that led to a hospitalisation or ≥2 flares within a year, and 32.9% received a rheumatology consultation. Conclusion: An automatic EHR-based gout register is feasible, valid and could be used to evaluate and improve gout management. Interestingly, the register uncovered a marked underdiagnosis or underreporting of gout since the COVID-19 pandemic. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This project was funded by the Private Foundation of the Geneva University Hospitals, a not-for-profit foundation. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The creation and use of the register for quality improvement programs has been approved by the Geneva ethics commission (CCER 2023-00129). I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors