This User’s Guide is intended to support the design, implementation, analysis, interpretation, and quality evaluation of registries created to increase understanding of patient outcomes. For the purposes of this guide, a patient registry is an organized system that uses observational study methods to collect uniform data (clinical and other) to evaluate specified outcomes for a population defined by a particular disease, condition, or exposure, and that serves one or more predetermined scientific, clinical, or policy purposes. A registry database is a file (or files) derived from the registry. Although registries can serve many purposes, this guide focuses on registries created for one or more of the following purposes: to describe the natural history of disease, to determine clinical effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of health care products and services, to measure or monitor safety and harm, and/or to measure quality of care. Registries are classified according to how their populations are defined. For example, product registries include patients who have been exposed to biopharmaceutical products or medical devices. Health services registries consist of patients who have had a common procedure, clinical encounter, or hospitalization. Disease or condition registries are defined by patients having the same diagnosis, such as cystic fibrosis or heart failure. The User’s Guide was created by researchers affiliated with AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program, particularly those who participated in AHRQ’s DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions About Effectiveness) program. Chapters were subject to multiple internal and external independent reviews.

Commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services, Key Capabilities of an Electronic Health Record System provides guidance on the most significant care delivery-related capabilities of electronic health record (EHR) systems. There is a great deal of interest in both the public and private sectors in encouraging all health care providers to migrate from paper-based health records to a system that stores health information electronically and employs computer-aided decision support systems. In part, this interest is due to a growing recognition that a stronger information technology infrastructure is integral to addressing national concerns such as the need to improve the safety and the quality of health care, rising health care costs, and matters of homeland security related to the health sector. Key Capabilities of an Electronic Health Record System provides a set of basic functionalities that an EHR system must employ to promote patient safety, including detailed patient data (e.g., diagnoses, allergies, laboratory results), as well as decision-support capabilities (e.g., the ability to alert providers to potential drug-drug interactions). The book examines care delivery functions, such as database management and the use of health care data standards to better advance the safety, quality, and efficiency of health care in the United States.

Determinants of health - like physical activity levels and living conditions - have traditionally been the concern of public health and have not been linked closely to clinical practice. However, if standardized social and behavioral data can be incorporated into patient electronic health records (EHRs), those data can provide crucial information about factors that influence health and the effectiveness of treatment. Such information is useful for diagnosis, treatment choices, policy, health care system design, and innovations to improve health outcomes and reduce health care costs. Capturing Social and Behavioral Domains and Measures in Electronic Health Records: Phase 2 identifies domains and measures that capture the social determinants of health to inform the development of recommendations for the meaningful use of EHRs. This report is the second part of a two-part study. The Phase 1 report identified 17 domains for inclusion in EHRs. This report pinpoints 12 measures related to 11 of the initial domains and considers the implications of incorporating them into all EHRs. This book includes three chapters from the Phase 1 report in addition to the new Phase 2 material. Standardized use of EHRs that include social and behavioral domains could provide better patient care, improve population health, and enable more informative research. The recommendations of Capturing Social and Behavioral Domains and Measures in Electronic Health Records: Phase 2 will provide valuable information on which to base problem identification, clinical diagnoses, patient treatment, outcomes assessment, and population health measurement.

Big Data in Healthcare: Statistical Analysis of the Electronic Health Record provides the statistical tools that healthcare leaders need to organize and interpret their data. Designed for accessibility to those with a limited mathematics background, the book demonstrates how to leverage EHR data for applications as diverse as healthcare marketing, pay for performance, cost accounting, and strategic management. Topics include:* Using real-world data to compare hospitals' performance. * Measuring the prognosis of patients through massive data* Distinguishing between fake claims and true improvements* Comparing the effectiveness of different interventions using causal analysis* Benchmarking different clinicians on the same set of patients* Remove confounding in observational dataThis book can be used in introductory courses on hypothesis testing, intermediate courses on regression, and advanced courses on causal analysis. It can also be used to learn SQL language. Its extensive online instructor resources include course syllabi, PowerPoint and video lectures, Excel exercises, individual and team assignments, answers to assignments, and student-organized tutorials. Big Data in Healthcare applies the building blocks of statistical thinking to the basic challenges that healthcare leaders face every day. Prepare for those challenges with the clear understanding of your data that statistical analysis can bring--and make the best possible decisions for maximum performance in the competitive field of healthcare.

This book trains the next generation of scientists representing different disciplines to leverage the data generated during routine patient care. It formulates a more complete lexicon of evidence-based recommendations and support shared, ethical decision making by doctors with their patients. Diagnostic and therapeutic technologies continue to evolve rapidly, and both individual practitioners and clinical teams face increasingly complex ethical decisions. Unfortunately, the current state of medical knowledge does not provide the guidance to make the majority of clinical decisions on the basis of evidence. The present research infrastructure is inefficient and frequently produces unreliable results that cannot be replicated. Even randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the traditional gold standards of the research reliability hierarchy, are not without limitations. They can be costly, labor intensive, and slow, and can return results that are seldom generalizable to every patient population. Furthermore, many pertinent but unresolved clinical and medical systems issues do not seem to have attracted the interest of the research enterprise, which has come to focus instead on cellular and molecular investigations and single-agent (e.g., a drug or device) effects. For clinicians, the end result is a bit of a “data desert” when it comes to making decisions. The new research infrastructure proposed in this book will help the medical profession to make ethically sound and well informed decisions for their patients.

Discover How Electronic Health Records Are Built to Drive the Next Generation of Healthcare Delivery The increased role of IT in the healthcare sector has led to the coining of a new phrase "health informatics," which deals with the use of IT for better healthcare services. Health informatics applications often involve maintaining the health records of individuals, in digital form, which is referred to as an Electronic Health Record (EHR). Building and implementing an EHR infrastructure requires an understanding of healthcare standards, coding systems, and frameworks. This book provides an overview of different health informatics resources and artifacts that underlie the design and development of interoperable healthcare systems and applications. Electronic Health Record: Standards, Coding Systems, Frameworks, and Infrastructures compiles, for the first time, study and analysis results that EHR professionals previously had to gather from multiple sources. It benefits readers by giving them an understanding of what roles a particular healthcare standard, code, or framework plays in EHR design and overall IT-enabled healthcare services along with the issues involved. This book on Electronic Health Record: Offers the most comprehensive coverage of available EHR Standards including ISO, European Union Standards, and national initiatives by Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, and many others Provides assessment of existing standards Includes a glossary of frequently used terms in the area of EHR Contains numerous diagrams and illustrations to facilitate comprehension Discusses security and reliability of data

Developed as a comprehensive learning resource, this hands-on course for Integrated Electronic Health Records is offered through McGraw Hill's Connect. Connect uses the latest technology and learning techniques to better connect professors to their students, and students to the information and customized resources they need to master a subject. Both the worktext and the online course include coverage of EHRclinic, an education-based EHR solution for online electronic health records, practice management applications, and interoperable physician-based functionality. EHRclinic will be used to demonstrate the key applications of electronic health records. Attention is paid to providing the "why"behind each task, so that the reader can accumulate transferable skills. The coverage is focused on using an EHR program in a doctor's office, while providing additional information on how tasks might also be completed in a hospital setting.