Nemetz P N, Tangalos E G, Kurland L T
Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic.
APMIS. 1990 Sep;98(9):765-85. doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1990.tb04998.x.
The existence of high quality, population-based, medical data facilitates the practice of modern epidemiology with its concomitant benefits for clinical practice and public health policy. Two exceptional examples of such databases are provided by Malmo, Sweden, and Olmsted County, Minnesota. This paper outlines briefly the similarities between these two geographic entities, and focuses, in particular, on the central role of the autopsy in Olmsted County. Changing temporal and spatial patterns of autopsy are reviewed as well as two important related issues: the role of consent and the medico-legal autopsy. The paper concludes with a summary of some of the more noteworthy contributions of autopsy-based epidemiological research in Olmsted County, and offers several recommendations for the establishment of a select network of special population-based study areas. These epidemiological "laboratories", through the interchange of data and tissue specimens, could make significant contributions to the study of diseases both nationally and internationally. Their interactive efforts and high quality data bases would help to increase the efficiency of the expenditure of scarce societal resources in epidemiology and health care.
高质量的、基于人群的医学数据的存在，有利于现代流行病学的实践，同时也给临床实践和公共卫生政策带来好处。瑞典的马尔默和美国明尼苏达州的奥尔姆斯特德县提供了两个这样的杰出数据库实例。本文简要概述了这两个地理区域的相似之处，并特别关注了奥尔姆斯特德县尸检的核心作用。文中回顾了尸检在时间和空间上不断变化的模式，以及两个重要的相关问题：同意的作用和法医尸检。本文最后总结了奥尔姆斯特德县基于尸检的流行病学研究的一些更值得注意的贡献，并就建立一个精选的基于特殊人群的研究区域网络提出了若干建议。这些流行病学“实验室”通过数据和组织样本的交换，可为国内和国际疾病研究做出重大贡献。它们的互动努力和高质量数据库将有助于提高在流行病学和医疗保健方面稀缺社会资源的使用效率。
