History of the Rochester Epidemiology Project.

The Rochester Epidemiology Project is a unique medical records-linkage system that encompasses the care delivered to residents of Rochester and Olmsted County, Minnesota. It is the creation of Dr. Leonard T. Kurland, who envisioned the population-based data resource that would result from combining the clinical documentation developed by the Mayo Clinic with that obtained by other community providers, most notably the Olmsted Medical Group and its affiliated Olmsted Community Hospital. Kurland built on the Mayo unit medical record system that was designed by Dr. Henry S. Plummer in 1907 and on the medical and surgical indexing systems introduced by Dr. Joseph Berkson in 1935. By affording access to details of the medical care given to local residents, the Rochester Epidemiology Project is able to provide accurate incidence data for almost any serious condition and to support population-based analytic studies of disease causes and outcomes. Thus, epidemiologic studies of a wide array of disorders have been possible and have culminated in almost 900 publications since the system was organized in 1966. Olmsted County is one of the few places in the world where the occurrence and natural history of diseases can be accurately described and analyzed in a defined population for a half century or more.

[1]  R. Madhok,et al.  Downturn in hip fracture incidence. , 1996, Public health reports.

[2]  G. Bonsel,et al.  Reliability and validity of a comprehensive health status measure in a heterogeneous population of children admitted to intensive care. , 1996, Journal of clinical epidemiology.

[3]  W. O'Fallon,et al.  Predictors of hip fractures in elderly men , 1995, Journal of bone and mineral research : the official journal of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

[4]  L. Melton,et al.  Trends in colorectal cancer over a half century in Rochester, Minnesota, 1940 to 1989. , 1995, Annals of epidemiology.

[5]  C E Reed,et al.  Long-term survival of a cohort of community residents with asthma. , 1994, The New England journal of medicine.

[6]  L. Melton,et al.  Prevalence of anemia in medical practice: community versus referral patients. , 1994, Mayo Clinic proceedings.

[7]  S. Gabriel,et al.  Risk of connective-tissue diseases and other disorders after breast implantation , 1994 .

[8]  W. O'Fallon,et al.  The contribution of non-insulin-dependent diabetes to lower-extremity amputation in the community. , 1994, Archives of internal medicine.

[9]  L. Melton,et al.  Hip fracture incidence before and after the fluoridation of the public water supply, Rochester, Minnesota. , 1993, American journal of public health.

[10]  W. Hauser,et al.  Incidence of Epilepsy and Unprovoked Seizures in Rochester, Minnesota: 1935–1984 , 1993, Epilepsia.

[11]  C E Reed,et al.  A community-based study of the epidemiology of asthma. Incidence rates, 1964-1983. , 1992, The American review of respiratory disease.

[12]  A R Zinsmeister,et al.  Epidemiology of colonic symptoms and the irritable bowel syndrome. , 1991, Gastroenterology.

[13]  D J Ballard,et al.  Clinical risk factors for Alzheimer's disease , 1991, Neurology.

[14]  R. Frye,et al.  Prevalence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus in residents of Rochester, Minnesota. , 1990, Mayo Clinic proceedings.

[15]  W. Hauser,et al.  Risk of Age‐Related Fractures in Patients with Unprovoked Seizures , 1989, Epilepsia.

[16]  L. Melton,et al.  Fifty-year trend in incidence rates of bronchogenic carcinoma by cell type in Olmsted County, Minnesota. , 1988, Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

[17]  W. Hauser,et al.  Epilepsy, Antiepileptic Drugs, and the Risk of Spontaneous Abortion , 1988, Epilepsia.

[18]  W. Hauser,et al.  Cancer incidence in a cohort of patients with seizure disorders. , 1986, Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

[19]  W. Hauser,et al.  Heart Disease Mortality and Morbidity in Patients with Epilepsy , 1984, Epilepsia.

[20]  L. Kurland,et al.  The patient record in epidemiology. , 1981, Scientific American.

[21]  A. Relman.  Determining how much medical care we need. , 1980, The New England journal of medicine.

[22]  L. Melton,et al.  Urban-rural differential in breast cancer incidence and mortality in Olmsted County, Minnesota, 1935-1974. , 1980, International journal of epidemiology.

[23]  W. Hauser,et al.  Congenital malformations and seizure disorders in the offspring of parents with epilepsy. , 1978, International journal of epidemiology.

[24]  J. Berkson,et al.  A System of Codification of Medical Diagnoses for Application to Punch Cards, With a Plan of Operation. , 1936, American journal of public health and the nation's health.

[25]  E. Kokmen,et al.  Impact of referral bias on clinical and epidemiological studies of Alzheimer's disease. , 1996, Journal of clinical epidemiology.

[26]  C G Chute,et al.  An evaluation of computer assisted clinical classification algorithms. , 1994, Proceedings. Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical Care.

[27]  R. Madhok,et al.  Trends in the utilization of primary total hip arthroplasty, 1969 through 1990: a population-based study in Olmsted County, Minnesota. , 1993, Mayo Clinic proceedings.

[28]  Joseph Zinkin.  Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease , 1954 .

[29]  J. Berkson,et al.  Multiple sclerosis in a rural community. , 1950, Research publications - Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease.