- Published
- 28 May 2024
- Journal article
A SARS-CoV-2 minimum data standard to support national serology reporting
- Authors
- Source
- Annals of Clinical Biochemistry
Abstract
Background
Healthcare laboratory systems produce and capture a vast array of information, yet do not always report all of this to the national infrastructure within the United Kingdom. The global COVID-19 pandemic brought about a much greater need for detailed healthcare data, one such instance being laboratory testing data. The reporting of qualitative laboratory test results (e.g. positive, negative or indeterminate) provides a basic understanding of levels of seropositivity. However, to better understand and interpret seropositivity, how it is determined and other factors that affect its calculation (i.e. levels of antibodies), quantitative laboratory test data are needed.
Method
36 data attributes were collected from 3 NHS laboratories and 29 CO-CONNECT project partner organisations. These were assessed against the need for a minimum dataset to determine data attribute importance. An NHS laboratory feasibility study was undertaken to assess the minimum data standard, together with a literature review of national and international data standards and healthcare reports.
Results
A COVID serology minimum data standard (CSMDS) comprising 12 data attributes was created and verified by 3 NHS laboratories to allow national granular reporting of COVID serology results. To support this, a standardised set of vocabulary terms was developed to represent laboratory analyser systems and laboratory information management systems.
Conclusions
This paper puts forward a minimum viable standard for COVID-19 serology data attributes to enhance its granularity and augment the national reporting of COVID-19 serology laboratory results, with implications for future pandemics.
Rights
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Cite as
Urwin, E., Martin, J., Sebire, N., Harris, A., Johnston, J., Masood, E., Milligan, G., Mairs, L., Chuter, A., Ferguson, M., Quinlan, P. & Jefferson, E. 2024, 'A SARS-CoV-2 minimum data standard to support national serology reporting', Annals of Clinical Biochemistry. https://doi.org/10.1177/00045632241261274