Designing a Minimum Data Set for Burn Injuries in Iran

Burn injuries are the most common and destructive injuries worldwide, especially in the developing countries. Nevertheless, a standard tool to collect the data of burn injury is not developed yet. The current study aimed at designing a minimum data set (MDS) for burn injuries in Iran.
The current descriptive and cross sectional study was performed in 2014. Data were collected from public hospitals of Hormozgan province, Iran, the hospitals affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences, healthcare, emergency, and forensic medicine centers in Bandar Abbas, in addition to online databases. Records were randomly selected based on T20-T29 categories from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10. Data were collected using a checklist. The decision Delphi technique was applied to make a consensus about the data elements. The content validity and reliability of the questionnaire were assessed by expert’s opinions and test-retest method, respectively.
An MDS of burn injuries was developed. The MDS was divided into 2 categories of administrative and clinical with 6 and 17 sections and 161 and 311 data elements, respectively.
Comprehensive and uniform data elements about burn injuries was not available in Iran. Development of an MDS resulted in standardization and effective management of the data through providing uniform and comprehensive data elements for burn injuries and comparability of information in various levels and made effective decision-making and policy-making possible. In addition, the control of burn injuries resulted in the improvement of the quality of care and containment of costs.