What if we COULD have BETTER STUDIES with Better Coding?!

ICD10 Watch by CARL NATALE

Can low-testosterone therapy give us a reason to embrace ICD-10 implementation?

Posted on Tue, May 27, 2014 - 08:00 am

Last year, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) released a study that linked testosterone therapy with heart disease.

The study examined 8,700 records of men in the Veteran's Affairs system from 2005 to 2011. It found:

• Of the 1200 men who received low-testosterone therapy, about one in four had an increased risk of almost 30 percent of having cardiac problems such as stroke, heart attack or death.
• Of the 7,500 men who did not get extra testosterone, about one in five had cardiac problems such as stroke, heart attack or death.

It should be noted that the test subjects were older men. So their cardiac risk factor was high anyway.

I'm not looking to debate the validity of this study or the risks associated with testosterone therapy. But it's worth noting that this study was made possible by the presence of a large pool of patients and some data collection.

If we have access to a large number of medical records with detailed , standardized medical codes attached, more studies like the VA study become possible. Then physicians could make better decisions about patient care.

It's worth thinking about while we're making our plans to delay ICD-10 implementation another year.

• Carl Natale's blog