I received a large number of helpful responses to a previous posting about
using routine data to obtain information about the health of minority
ethnic groups. I promised to summarise responses, which I have briefly
done below - apologies to anyone whose points I have not summarised
accurately. Email me privately if you want more details of any individual
point.

Ben Jones ([log in to unmask]) agreed that ethnic
coding was yet to become widespread in primary care in the UK. He added
that although the collection of ethnic data has been mandatory in
secondary care for 6-7 years the quality of data is generally poor. The
English Exeter system records country or place of birth which in Liverpool
is completed in about 60% of cases. Although country of birth has
limitations, it is still useful. Ben had a low opinion of name searching.

Giovanni Polato ([log in to unmask]) said that name searching had proved
misleading in London, where Black African Muslims were incorrectly
identified as being of South Asian origin. He recommended a useful report
on analysing routine health information on ethnic minorities. This can be
found at:

http://www.lho.org.uk/holp/reports/pdf/bme_ha.pdf

Diljit Dhariwal ([log in to unmask]) was also sceptical about
name searching because of the issues of mixed marriages, and mentioned
work using a patient profiling form in primary care.

Carole Cummins, who did early work on Nam Pehchan, drew attention to the
fact that the Data Protection Act might make work with name searches more
difficult.

Kevin Sheridan ([log in to unmask]) shared positive experiences of using
a visual inspection of names on the electoral register and recommended the
health care needs assessment UK ethnic minorities published at:

http://hcna.radcliffe-online.com/bemgframe.htm

Kevin also drew attention to the limitations of names as a means of
identifying ethnicity (my own surname provides a similar example), but
emphasised the need to find some way of quickly identifying ethnicity and
consequent service needs given the rapid turnover of populations in
London.

Tim Allison ([log in to unmask]) had done work on validating non-
computerised name searching (ie visual inspection by a researcher from an
appropriate ethnic minority)

Bart Laws, Research Director for the New England Coalition for Health
Equity provided an article on US classifications of race and ethnicity and
mentioning searching for “Hispanic” names. I can provide this to anyone
who is interested.

Arthur Moutakis ([log in to unmask]) said that data on ethnicity was not
routinely collected in Australia – which seems surprising, at least to me.

Thanks also to others who responded, including Mark Johnson and Taher Ali
Qassim.

Colin Fischbacher