Are you using EHR Integration to streamline clinical data collection?

Healthcare institutions frequently require clinicians to manually enter clinical research data into disease or patient-specific databases. This task is crucial for regulatory compliance, public reporting, research, and quality improvement. However, manual data entry is time-consuming, expensive, and prone to errors.

Clinicians or research coordinators must search through medical records to populate database fields, diverting their attention from patient care. When performed by paid data abstractors, this process incurs significant labor and time costs, highlighting the need for a more efficient solution.

This was the case with our client, Advanced Cardiac Therapies Improving Outcomes Learning Network (ACTION) Registry, who was looking to gain precious hours back to focus on patient care and research outcomes.

As part of their Zero Data Entry (ZDE™) initiative, Simplified Clinical implemented its Universal Data Integration Gateway (UDIG) to facilitate the direct transfer of subject data from the client’s EHR (EPIC) to a proprietary, study-specific database. The initiative was spearheaded by Dr. Robert A. Niebler from the Medical College of Wisconsin and Herma Heart Institute, Children’s Wisconsin.

Using Epic

Using Epic as the EHR, the implementation involved the creation of data abstraction forms, secure data transmission, and automated data processing. The results were an incredible feat for Dr. Niebler and his team, as they were able to:

• Save significant hours of Research Coordinator & Investigator time to allocate back to patient care
• Achieve 100% data accuracy by reflecting EHR data
• Improve efficiency in data collection and management
• Scalability – adapt to any organization using Epic
• Broader Applications – tools & techniques can be applied to any registry or research project currently relying on manual data abstraction

The techniques and tools developed for this project demonstrate the potential for technology to enhance efficiency and accuracy in clinical data management. More importantly, they can be applied to virtually any registry or clinical research project that currently relies on manual data abstraction. The scalability of Simplified Clinical’s technology platform truly enables institutions to streamline data collection across multiple studies and databases.