The potential and pitfalls of geocoding electronic health records.

BACKGROUND Geocoding electronic health records (EHRs) provides novel insights for clinicians, but it is important to understand and address key issues, including privacy and protection of patient records, in order to realize potential benefits. METHODS This paper discusses the issues surrounding geocoding and illustrates potential benefits through 3 case studies of no-shows to clinical appointments, patient analysis for a merged clinic site, and multi-clinic patient overlap. CONCLUSION Geocoding EHRs provides a new contextual understanding for clinicians to understand patients and provide targeted interventions that patients can implement. While geocoding EHRs presents a need for high data security, the benefits outweigh the risks when proper protections are observed.