Electronic Health Records In Clinical Research

By Comprehend Systems

The first reference to the creation and usefulness of a patient electronic medical record may have been the visionary writing of Robert Ledley and Lee Lusted in 1959, The Use of Electronic Computers to Aid Medical Diagnosis. The authors speculated about the use of computers to “record and recall desired aspects of a particular patient’s total medical record” (Ledley & Lusted, 1959). Interestingly enough, the concerns of the authors around the validity of input information, the standardization of coding procedures, as well as privacy and confidentiality are the same issues that challenge the healthcare community more than 50 years later.

Between 1959 and 2000, speculation and research into the usefulness of electronic health records continued to grow. By 2005, scientists from around the world were debating over the impact of the electronic storage, dissemination, use, and security of information in medicine and laying out the roadmap for its implementation (The 2020 Science Group, 2005). Despite the many concerns around the practical application of electronic health records (EHR) in a variety of settings it is agreed that if used correctly, they will revolutionize clinical research as well as patient care (Powell & Buchanan, 2005). In particular, utilizing EHRs in clinical research can simplify retrospective and prospective studies, reduce medical errors, improve protocol/study feasibility, and aid in subject identification/patient recruitment.