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Electronic health records (EHRs) contain a large quantity of machine-readable data. However, institutions choose different EHR vendors, and the same product may be implemented differently at different sites. Our goal was to quantify the interoperability of real-world EHR implementations with respect to clinically relevant structured data.

Given that electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) are playing a central role in quality improvement applications nationwide, a stronger evidence base demonstrating their reliability is critically needed. To assess the reliability of electronic health record-extracted data elements and measure results for the Elective Delivery and Exclusive Breast Milk Feeding measures (vs manual abstraction) among a national sample of US acute care hospitals, as well as common sources of discrepancies and [...]

The OneFlorida Data Trust is a centralized research patient data repository created and managed by the OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium ("OneFlorida"). It comprises structured electronic health record (EHR), administrative claims, tumor registry, death, and other data on 17.2 million individuals who received healthcare in Florida between January 2012 and the present. Ten healthcare systems in Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Gainesville, and rural areas of Florida contribute EHR data, covering [...]

While much is known about governance models for research informatics programs in academic medical centers and similarly situated cancer centers, community and public health systems have been less well-characterized. As part of implementing an enterprise research governance framework, leaders in the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services established a research informatics program, including research data warehousing. The strategy is focused on high-priority, patient-centered research that leverages the investment in [...]

Clinical research data warehouses (RDWs) linked to genomic pipelines and open data archives are being created to support innovative, complex data-driven discoveries. The computing and storage needs of these research environments may quickly exceed the capacity of on-premises systems. New RDWs are migrating to cloud platforms for the scalability and flexibility needed to meet these challenges. We describe our experience in migrating a multi-institutional RDW to a public cloud.

Institutions must decide how to manage the use of clinical data to support research while ensuring appropriate protections are in place. Questions about data use and sharing often go beyond what the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) considers. In this article, we describe our institution's governance model and approach. Common questions we consider include (1) Is a request limited to the minimum data necessary to carry [...]

Obtaining electronic patient data, especially from electronic health record (EHR) systems, for clinical and translational research is difficult. Multiple research informatics systems exist but navigating the numerous applications can be challenging for scientists. This article describes Architecture for Research Computing in Health (ARCH), our institution's approach for matching investigators with tools and services for obtaining electronic patient data.

Among National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) hubs, effective approaches for enterprise data warehouses for research (EDW4R) development, maintenance, and sustainability remain unclear. The goal of this qualitative study was to understand CTSA EDW4R operations within the broader contexts of academic medical centers and technology.

Few clinical datasets exist in dentistry to conduct secondary research. Hence, a novel dental data repository called BigMouth was developed, which has grown to include 11 academic institutions contributing Electronic Health Record data on over 4.5 million patients. The primary purpose for BigMouth is to serve as a high-quality resource for rapidly conducting oral health-related research. BigMouth allows for assessing the oral health status of a diverse US patient population [...]