Background: Administrative healthcare databases are widespread and are often standardized with regard to their content and data coding, thus they can be used also as data sources for surveillance and epidemiological research. Chronic dialysis requires patients to frequently access hospital and clinic services, causing a heavy burden to healthcare providers. This also means that these patients are routinely tracked on administrative databases, yet very few case definitions for their identification are currently available. The aim of this study was to develop two algorithms derived from administrative data for identifying incident chronic dialysis patients and test their validity compared to the reference standard of the regional dialysis registry. Methods: The algorithms are based on data retrieved from hospital discharge records (HDR) and ambulatory specialty visits (ASV) to identify incident chronic dialysis patients in an Italian region. Subjects are included if they have at least one event in the HDR or ASV databases based on the ICD9-CM dialysis-related diagnosis or procedure codes in the study period. Exclusion criteria comprise non-residents, prevalent cases, or patients undergoing temporary dialysis, and are evaluated only on ASV data by the first algorithm, on both ASV and HDR data by the second algorithm. We validated the algorithms against the Emilia-Romagna regional dialysis registry by searching for incident patients in 2014. Results: Algorithm 1 identified 680 patients and algorithm 2 identified 676 initiating dialysis in 2014, compared to 625 patients included in the regional dialysis registry. Sensitivity for the two algorithms was respectively 90.8% and 88.4%, positive predictive value 84.0% and 82.0%, and percentage agreement was 77.4% and 74.1%. Conclusions: These results suggest that administrative data have high sensitivity and positive predictive value for the identification of incident chronic dialysis patients. Algorithm 1, which showed the higher accuracy and has a simpler case definition, can be used in place of regional dialysis registries when they are not present or sufficiently developed in a region, or to improve the accuracy and timeliness of existing registries.

The present study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Greek version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy—Student version (JSE-S) and its association with potential predictors among Greek-speaking undergraduate medical students. This study adopted a cross-sectional, comparative–descriptive research design. The study was conducted during October and November 2023. Cronbach’s α for the JSE-S was 0.846. Cronbach’s α values for the factors “perspective taking”, “compassionate care”, and “standing in the patient’s shoes” were 0.800, 0.715, and 0.748, respectively. The intraclass correlation coefficient for the JSE-S score in the test–retest study was 0.827 (95% CI = 0.647 to 0.915, p-value < 0.001), indicating a high level of reliability. The participants showed moderate empathy levels. Females scored higher than males on the Greek version of the JSE-S (108.8 vs. 102.8, p-value < 0.001). Moreover, students enrolled in the fourth academic year showed higher empathy mean scores than those enrolled in the first year (108.6 vs. 103.6, p-value = 0.012). Statistically significant empathy differences by specialty preferences or faith in God/supreme power were not found. The present study provided satisfactory evidence that the Greek JSE-S is a psychometrically sound measurement instrument. Empathy differences by gender were found in line with prior literature.