healthcare technology

Using electronic health records (EHRs) to create a learning healthcare system, say the authors, can enable researchers to generate new knowledge that will accrue benefits to future generations of patients.

 

Real-world data are increasingly viewed as a crucial factor in the eventual acceptance of biosimilar drugs, and indeed, current real-world evidence points to the safety and efficacy of these products in the marketplace.

 

In a recent paper, officials from the European Medicines Agency, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation, and other European government entities explained that such data can help make decisions about pharmaceuticals—from development to reimbursement—more efficient.

 

The authors called for international cooperation on a learning healthcare system that will better harness these data. 

The authors note that the expense of prospective data generation in a research setting is high, limiting the number of research questions that can be answered in a randomized controlled trial (RCT).

 

RCTs are rarely large enough to detect infrequent outcomes, nor are they long enough to determine long-term outcomes. 

Using electronic health records (EHRs) to create a learning healthcare system, say the authors, can enable researchers to generate new knowledge that will accrue benefits to future generations of patients.

 

However, current inadequacies of EHRs present a “technical bottleneck” to the objective of gathering real-world data.  

The paper’s authors propose that governments establish and implement national health data governance frameworks to encourage the use of personal health data to serve the public interest.

 

The collection of data must translate into the production of useful evidence.

A coordinated and international effort will be key to speed the implementation of a true learning healthcare system for global benefit. 

 

read the news article at https://www.centerforbiosimilars.com/news/european-officials-promote-use-of-ehrs-to-gather-real-world-data-on-pharmaceuticals--

National coordinator Donald Rucker said the agency is researching open APIs, such as those used by Facebook and Twitter, to advance health information sharing.

 

ONC is looking to modern computing tactics — notably open application programming interfaces that Silicon Valley companies such as Facebook and Twitter commonly deploy — to advance EHR interoperability.

 

The questions ONC is grappling with now, in fact, are a clear definition of interoperability, improving EMR usability and a better understanding of information blocking.

 

To that end, ONC is researching the best approach and that includes looking at existing and developing specifications such as FHIR or RESTful APIs such as JSON.

 

“There’s a lot of interest in the FHIR standard, it’s a modern API, and we’re hoping there’s coalescence around that because the large vendors have already done some work with the SMART project,” he said. 

 

But Rucker also noted that ONC must consider the API needs of hospitals and innovators as well.

 

more at http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/onc-leaders-see-silicon-valley-future-ehr-interoperability ;