Anesthesia Information Management Systems: An Underutilized Tool for Outcomes Research

Perioperative outcomes research using anesthesia information management systems (AIMS) is an emerging research method that has not been comprehensively reviewed. This review reports an initial analysis of the use of AIMS for perioperative patient outcomes research from articles published between January 1980 and January 2013. Perioperative patient outcomes research based on AIMS has increased greatly since 2001. Although risk stratification studies involving large study populations were most commonly reported, AIMS were also used to report a rare life-threatening anesthesia-related complication, malignant hyperthermia. Use of AIMS for perioperative outcomes research can address clinically relevant topics that traditional research methods have been unable to adequately address, mainly because of the innate challenges presented by perioperative anesthesia practice. It is expected that perioperative effectiveness and outcomes research using large AIMS databases will be more widely embraced in the future to generate useful evidence and knowledge to improve anesthesia care.