Research Overwhelms Electronic Patient Information Systems

Until recently, it was difficult for researchers to access hospital and clinical information on patients for research purposes. Now, with electronic information systems, the collection of patient data for research is possible—except that the demand for such information has overwhelmed the electronic data sources. The systems in existence, however, which is used for accreditation and other purposes, is simply too primitive to keep up with increasing demands. Enter the Analytical Healthcare Repository (AHR), a collaborative framework designed to centralize the information on patients for analytical purposes.

The AHR is designed to give doctors and researchers active information on a variety of patients centralized to a single source. It offers a new approach to analytical healthcare applications and addresses the full spectrum of analytical needs a researcher might have by delivering a data warehouse comprised of electronic medical record data (EMR). Genomic information and patient billing data are included as well. The use of EMR is supported by public systems like JCAHO, which require the showing of quality and safety standards. This has pushed hospitals into reporting via some sort of EMR.

Hospitals, however, lack the comprehensive quality recording and the infrastructure necessary to support a diverse set of analytical applications needed for the management and distribution of data. Data is often missing or inaccurate and it is difficult for researchers to find cohorts for their studies. This makes the AHR especially enticing. From the identification of cohorts to aggregate operations assessments and quality performance analyses, the AHR is designed for centralizing data aggregation and research applications that can meet the growing demands while using a minimal amount of resources.