In order to study the relationship between genes and diseases, the increasing availability and sharing of phenotypic and genotypic data have been promoted as an imperative within the scientific community. In parallel with data sharing practices by clinicians and researchers, recent initiatives have been observed in which individuals are sharing personal genomic data. The involvement of individu...

Open global standards, workflow integration profiles, and related processes have been developed through consensus-based procedures. Although these standards and profiles should be augmented with additional therapeutic area-based content standards, they are available now to enable the use of electronic health records to directly support clinical research concurrent with patient care. Improving t...

Health information technology (IT), such as computerized physician order entry and electronic health records, has potential to improve the quality of health care. But the returns from widespread adoption of such technologies remain uncertain. We measured changes in the quality of care following adoption of electronic health records among a national sample of U.S. hospitals from 2004 to 2007. Th...

BACKGROUND Adoption of electronic health record systems has increased the availability of patient-level electronic health information. OBJECTIVE To examine public support for secondary uses of electronic health information under different consent arrangements. DESIGN National experimental survey to examine perceptions of uses of electronic health information according to patient consent (ob...

The purpose of this study was to examine the decision-making process that small rural physician clinics and hospitals use as they investigate and select an electronic health record (EHR) system and to understand the rationale for their decision. This research will help policy makers identify the challenges that rural health care providers may face in the process of adopting EHRs and develop inc...

The infusion of federal money into a planned nationwide electronic health record (EHR) system gives one a perfect reason to become more active in planning for the near-term changes, and opportunities, in your region’s health care marketplace. The drive toward a “medical information highway” by 2014 will provide ways for medical practices to upgrade their electronic health records, and, more imp...

BACKGROUND The importance of information and communication technology for healthcare is steadily growing. Newly developed tools are addressing different user groups: physicians, other health care professionals, social workers, patients, and family members. Since often many different actors with different expertise and perspectives are involved in the development process it can be a challenge to...

Adolescents stand to benefit greatly from improved electronic access to reliable health information and health care. Use of electronic health records (EHRs) can potentially improve health care accessibility, effectiveness, and safety but can create challenges for the ongoing protection of patient confidentiality and privacy. Protection of adolescent confidentiality as dictated by applicable law...

The integration of different administrative data sources from a number of European countries has been shown useful in the assessment of unwarranted variations in health care performance. This essay describes the procedures used to set up a data infrastructure (e.g., data access and exchange, definition of the minimum common wealth of data required, and the development of the relational logic da...

Electronic health records (EHRs) offer medical practices the potential for increased efficiency and profits. The license agreement controls the practice's relationship with the vendor. Understanding the implications of the license agreement will help a practice to evaluate an EHR that the practice may adopt. This article will focus on 10 specific questions to ask while evaluating the EHR licens...