Using health care records as sources of data for research

Health care records are comprehensive in nature, and provide continuity of health care; therefore, they are vital components in the delivery of services. Health care records also are extremely important for researchers, since they are a rich source of critical information, and the documentation in them is considered to be legally and medically accurate and reliable. This paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of using health care records as data sources for research and discusses the research method issues related to these data sources. The issues addressed are illustrated with examples from three large studies in which health care record reviews represented the only source of data or were a primary information source.