A Standardized Guideline for Assessing Extracted Electronic Health Records Cohorts: A Scoping Review.

Assessing how accurately a cohort extracted from Electronic Health Records (EHR) represents the intended target population, or cohort fitness, is critical but often overlooked in secondary EHR data use. This scoping review aimed to (1) identify guidelines for assessing cohort fitness and (2) determine their thoroughness by examining whether they offer sufficient detail and computable methods for researchers. This scoping review follows the JBI guidance for scoping reviews and is refined based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklists. Searches were performed in Medline, Embase, and Scopus. From 1,904 results, 30 articles and 2 additional references were reviewed. Nine articles (28.13%) include a framework for evaluating cohort fitness but only 5 (15.63%) contain sufficient details and quantitative methodologies. Overall, a more comprehensive guideline that provides best practices for measuring the cohort fitness is still needed.