Medicare claims data might provide an efficient source for outcomes research in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, in the absence of laboratory data, one would need to identify patients with CKD from diagnosis codes associated with health care claims. The validity of this approach to identify patients with CKD has not been sufficiently studied.
Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02120, USA. wwinkelmayer@partners.org
