Neu, Sarah http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8123-376X
Locke, Jennifer A.
Zhang, Bo
Saskin, Refik
Herschorn, Sender
Funding for this research was provided by:
University of Toronto Functional Urology program
Article History
Received: 24 July 2023
Accepted: 16 January 2024
First Online: 13 March 2024
Declarations
:
: S Neu, JA Locke, B Zhang, R Saskin and S Herschorn declares that they have no conflict of interest.
: This study was completed using ICES data. In Ontario, all necessary healthcare services, physician services and prescription medication information are recorded and held at ICES (Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences) (ExternalRef removed). ICES is an independent, non-profit research institute whose legal status under Ontario’s health information privacy law allows it to collect and analyze health care and demographic data, without individual patient consent, for health system evaluation and improvement. We linked the following validated data sets: the Canadian Institute for Health Information Discharge Abstract Database (CIHI<b>-</b>DAD), which contains records for all hospitalizations; the Canadian Institute for Health Information National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS), which contains records for emergency department visits; and the Ontario Health Insurance Plan database (OHIP), which tracks claims paid for physician billings, laboratories, and out-of-province providers (physicians, allied health, and hospitals). These datasets were linked using unique, encoded identifiers, and were analyzed at ICES. Individual informed consent was waived owing to the anonymous, aggregated nature of the data.