To assess whether a commonly used ICD-10 code could serve as a reliable proxy for identifying RSV-positive patients, LOGEX conducted a validation study using microbiological test results from participating hospitals. If proven accurate, this approach would significantly reduce the data collection burden for hospitals, allowing future analyses to rely on routinely available administrative data.
The validation required hospitals to share RSV test results at multiple points during the season. This process was both time-consuming and technically challenging. Thanks to the effort of participating sites, the data was successfully collected and analysed.
After thorough analysis, we can report some great news: the results show a high level of concordance between the ICD-10 code and laboratory-confirmed RSV status in children aged 0–2 years. Discrepancies were limited to a small percentage of cases, varying slightly by country and season, but remaining within acceptable margins.
Figure 1: Number of LRTI and RSV-LRTI (ICD-10) hospital admissions over study period.
Figure 2: Number of RSV-ICD-10 LRTI hospital admissions, per age category.
Based on these findings, the ICD-10 code can now be used with confidence for RSV-related analyses in this age group. Microbiological data will continue to be collected twice per season to monitor consistency and detect any changes in testing practices or coding accuracy.
This validation enables more efficient data use and supports robust, scalable insights into RSV burden across European hospitals.