Using your electronic medical record for research: a primer for avoiding pitfalls.

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Primary Health Care Research
• Electronic Medical Records

Background:

• Electronic medical record (EMR) adoption in Canadian primary health care (PHC) is currently low but expected to increase.
• EMRs represent a significant shift in health care information technology and a potential new data source for PHC research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the challenges and considerations for utilizing primary health care EMR data in research.
• To provide insights for family physician researchers on effectively using EMR data.

Main Methods:

• The study draws on experiences from an EMR-based research project, "Deliver Primary Health Care Information."
• Analysis of practical challenges encountered during the implementation of the EMR research project.

Main Results:

• Implementing EMRs for research necessitates additional provider training and standardization of data entry.
• EMRs are primarily designed for clinical care, not research, posing unique challenges for data extraction and quality assessment.
• Key considerations for researchers include understanding data differences, extraction methods, storage locations, and data quality.

Conclusions:

• Despite design limitations, EMRs can be leveraged for PHC research with careful planning.
• Researchers must address specific questions regarding data characteristics, extraction, storage, and quality to overcome EMR-related research barriers.
• The complexity of the research question influences the feasibility of overcoming challenges associated with using EMR data.