The Journey of Clinical Registries Through Various Phases of the Digital Age: A Technical Perspective

The concept of registry-based medical research goes back to the mid of 18th century where data was collected in actual physical registers and analyzed using manual counts in a very primitive way until computing technologies took over to digitize information, to change the process all the way from data collection to data analysis. This digital age of technology can be hypothetically classified in 3 eras; the Digitization Era, the Integration Era, and finally the Futuristic, Smart Intelligence Era. This study would highlight the changes in the fundamental aspects of a medical registry under each of these digital eras.