The Cohort Builder

Introduction

  • The Cohort Builder section allows you to define the patients that you want to use for analysis;
  • The Cohort Builder generates a count of patients that meet the criteria you set in your selections;
  • You can save and load cohort definitions, as well as loading an existing cohort definition and saving it under a different name after editing it.

Basics: Creating a New Cohort

  1. Select NEW; the system will warn that this will remove all existing selections and once confirmed will provide a new default cohort definition (all patients are included);
  2. Make the selections that define the cohort from each the sections described below​;
  3. When selected, select RUN and the cohort will be calculated;
    1. Each section acts as an OR function, meaning that a patient can have drug A or Drug B;
    2. Between sections is and AND function – so they need (Drug A OR Drug B) AND (Female, under 65) AND (Medicare OR Medicaid)​.
  4. The Total at the bottom of the Summary Table will be updated to show the final count for the cohort;
  5. Adjust selections and reRUN until you are happy that you have the definition you require;
  6. Name and Save your cohort for use (see instructions for Naming and Saving)​;
  7. The Summary Total starts at 0/0 which means the cohort has not been RUN;
    1. 1000000/1000000 means all patients are included in the cohort​;
    2. 250000/10000000 means 250,000 patients out of 1000000 are included​;
    3. 0/0 means the cohort has not been RUN.

Basics: Loading a Cohort

  1. Select desired cohort name from dropdown list;
  2. Select LOAD;
  3. Once cohort has loaded, select RUN;
  4. Cohort is now ready for use.
  1. Once cohort loads the selections and their line totals will be populated;
    1. These line totals represent the number of patients in each individual selection that meet the cohort’s other criteria;
  2. The total number of unique patients in the cohort is shown in the Total at the bottom;
  3. Once loaded you can modify selections as required. If you wish to save a modified cohort that you have loaded, hit SAVEAS and the modified cohort will be saved with the same name as when it was loaded – over-writing the definition.​

Basics: Rename and Save

  1. Once you have completed your selections select RENAME;
  2. In the dialogue box enter the new name of your cohort and the select the X to close the box (please note that speical characters are not excepted);
  3. Select SAVE and your cohort will be saved ready for re-use;
  4. Once SAVED, refresh the browser tab (reload or F5) and your cohort will be saved ready to be loaded for use.