Development of a Novel Algorithm to Identify People with High Likelihood of Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency in a US Healthcare Claims Database

Figure 1

Schematic of a novel algorithm to categorize people by their likelihood of having AGHD using administrative claims data. The algorithm considered diagnosis codes, diagnostic tests, and treatments for each person in the study population. The flowchart consists of a number of guiding rules (diamonds), which result in the placement of each person into one of three groups by their likelihood of having AGHD. Each diamond is dependent on a set of codes (ICD10CM/ICD09CM for diagnoses, CPT for tests, and ATC for treatments), which, combined with logical rules dependent on age, number of prescriptions, or diagnoses, were used to determine whether each person obeys the rule, as indicated by a green (yes) or dashed orange (no) arrow. AGHD, adult growth hormone deficiency; ATC, anatomical therapeutic chemical; CPT, current procedural terminology; GH, growth hormone; GHD, growth hormone deficiency; ICD09CM, International Classification of Diseases, ninth revision, Clinical Modification; ICD10CM, International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision, Clinical Modification.