BACKGROUND Medicine assumes that vital statistics are accurate, but they are only as good as the death certificates. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the accuracy of death certificates in reporting vital statistics with an emphasis on cardiac deaths. DESIGN A population-based retrospective study within one community hospital. PATIENTS During the study period, 1,619 patients expired during hospitaliz...

Dear Editor, Death indicators and causes of death are both closely associated with socio-cultural, economic, and structural factors and determinants of health, with all of which being at the core of the planning, monitoring, and assessment of intervention programs in any healthcare system (1). In Iran, the diagnosis and official registration of deaths are carried out by two independent organiz...

AIMS To determine the number of unsuspected disease processes found in a series of cases of sudden unexpected death occurring outside hospital and to enumerate how many of these were not recorded on the death certificate. METHODS In a series of 1000 routine coroners' necropsies for sudden unexpected death, major findings that had not been known about in life were recorded. Macroscopic finding...

Medical Certificate of Cause of Death, commonly called Death Certificate, is the most frequently issued certificate, at least by a government employed medical officer, if not by a private practitioner. It is common knowledge that many medical officers, even some of those with incomparable medical knowledge and expertise, do not fill up this document of immense medical and legal importance corre...

The Rhode Island HEALTH Web Data Query System (RI HEALTH WDQS) allows health professionals, community agenccies, Rhode Island Health Department personnel, and the general public to access Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and Death Certificate Data online. This resource can provide health professionals and community organizations with valuable...

The experience of how GDPH develop information product maps for birth certificate and death certificate processes is presented. Significant information quality issues specific to vital records are also illustrated.