Abstract
Electronic health records (EHRs) or electronic medical records (EMRs) contain a vast
amount of clinical data that can be useful for multiple purposes including research.
Disease registries are collections of data in predefined formats for population management,
research, and other purposes. There are differences between EHRs and registries in
the data structure, data standards, and protocols. Proprietary EHR systems use different
coding systems and data standards, which are usually kept secret. For EHR data to
flow seamlessly into registries, there is the need for interoperability between EHR
systems and between EHRs and registries. The levels of interoperability required include
functional, structural, and semantic interoperability. EHR data can be manually mapped
to registry data, but that is a tedious, resource-intensive endeavor. The development
of data standards that can be used as building blocks for both EHRs and registries
will help overcome the problem of interoperability.
Keywords
Electronic Health Records - registries - interoperability - clinical research - outcomes
- colorectal surgery
