Iterative approaches to the use of electronic health records data for large pragmatic studies

Randomized controlled trials (RCT) are the gold standard for evaluating the effectiveness and safety of interventions and treatments, yet traditional clinical trials have relied on cumbersome and redundant processes such as electronic data entry which involves manual abstraction of already available electronic health record (EHR) data. This review focuses on the opportunities to expand the use of EHR data for pragmatic clinical trials using methods and lessons learned from the Aspirin Dosing: A Patient-Centric Trial Assessing Benefits and Long-Term Effectiveness (ADAPTABLE) study, the demonstration project from PCORnet® (the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network).