data

data,

n.pl facts and figures; data are processed and interpreted to yield information.

data aggregation

(ag´grgā´shn),
n a collection of protected health information used to conduct data analysis relating to the health care operations of the entity.

database,

n an organized collection of data. A medical database is all the information that exists in the practice at any time.

data processing,

n the collection of data, processing of the data to obtain usable information, and communication of this usable information.

data set,

n a hardware device that converts digital pulses (square waveform) into modulated frequencies (sinusoidal wave) for transmission, a process called modulation. It also converts modulated frequencies into voltage pulses, a process called demodulation. Also called
modem.

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data

plural of datum. A collection of information or facts. See also information.

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data adjustment

for useful results data often need to be modified before analysis; for example for age, for sex or for difficulty or for number of attempts.

data analysis

submission of data to statistical analysis; includes sorting into categories and determining relationships between variables.

data capture

a mechanism for collecting specified segments or categories of data from a stream of automatically recorded data some of which may be irrelevant for the specific purpose.

categorical data

are qualitative and suited to classification into categories. Further divisible into nominal (names), ordinal (levels of quality, development), dichotomized (mutually exclusive).

continuous data

data which have an infinite number of possible values.

diagnostic data

lists of diagnoses and data of clinical signs, clinical pathology results and pathology lesions used in the making of diagnoses.

dimensional data

numerical or quantitative data. May be explicit and therefore continuous, or grouped into approximate groups, e.g. nearest whole number, i.e. discrete data.

discrete data

data that have finite (usually whole integer) value and therefore fall naturally into groups of similar values; opposite to continuous data.

incidence data

data related to the occurrence of specific disease incidents.

non-normal data

data whose frequency distribution is markedly different to that of normal data (see below).

normal data

data which manifests graphically as a bell-shaped curve distributed symmetrically about the peak value.

ordinal data

a type of data containing limited categories with a ranking from the lowest to the highest, e.g. very mild, moderate, severe.

paired data

see paired data.

passive data

data acquired from records collected for some other purpose.

pre-existing data

data in existence before the commencement of a study. Of limited value unless they are exactly the data required, have been collected adequately, and a group of pre-existing controls with their corresponding data can be identified.

prevalence data

disease occurrences are recorded against the size of the population at risk at the time.

raw data

data as they are collected and before any calculation, ordering, etc. has been done.

screening data

data obtained by periodic diagnostic testing of randomly selected samples of a population.

secondary data

the use of data for purposes other than that for which it was intended.

sentinel data

data collected from sentinel animals or other recording units.