Using Patient Medical Records for Medical Research

of research findings. Therefore, governance committees (institutional review board) have tended to take a strict position regarding medical research involving human subjects, based on the declaration of Helsinki. There are a few limitations to using EMR data as one of the first steps in identifying individuals with a specific condition and proving simple and more complex research questions. Care is required when using EMR data for research due to variability in the level of quality. Despite these challenges, there are many benefits including access to data that are not easily available, size of the data sets which might be created. Therefore, evolving appropriate technologies and continuing education for physicians will support further research using EMR data efficiently.