Case study · EHR integration
Less data re‑entry.
More time for patient care.
Children’s Wisconsin worked with Simplified Clinical to connect Epic EHR data to the ACTION registry, reducing the manual work required to put clinical data to use.
See how it workedThe challenge
Valuable clinical time.
Repetitive data work.
Populating research and quality-improvement databases often means searching medical records and entering the same information again. That work takes time, adds cost and creates opportunities for transcription errors.
At Children’s Wisconsin, Dr. Robert A. Niebler of the Medical College of Wisconsin and Herma Heart Institute led an initiative to connect Epic with the Advanced Cardiac Therapies Improving Outcomes Learning Network (ACTION) database.
The opportunity: make better use of data in the hospital’s existing EHR while freeing staff to focus on care and research.
The approach
From the EHR
to the registry.
The implementation brought together forms designed for the registry, secure file transfer and automated processing through UDIG.
Within Epic
Align the data at its source.
Custom abstraction forms in Epic mirrored the fields required by ACTION, connecting the hospital’s existing EHR workflow to the registry’s needs.
Registry requirements reflected in the EHR.
Secure transfer
Use established data agreements.
Data files were securely transferred under existing data use agreements. Simplified Clinical did not need direct access to the hospital’s EHR.
An agreed path for sharing the data.
Automated processing
Populate ACTION automatically.
Simplified’s Universal Data Integration Gateway (UDIG) processed the received files and populated the ACTION database.
Less manual work between systems.
Completed in summer 2024 and operational by fall, the project built on the hospital’s established technology and data-sharing arrangements.
The outcome
Less manual effort.
A faithful transfer of data.
Dr. Niebler reported hundreds of hours saved for clinicians and research assistants, with more time available for patient care.
100%
Reported match to Epic source data
The case study reported that the transferred data accurately reflected the EHR data in Epic.
“This allows our staff to focus more on patient care, which is our ultimate goal.”
Herma Heart Institute, Children’s WisconsinRead the November 2024 announcement
Beyond this project
Build on the systems
your teams already use.
The ACTION forms and fields provide a starting point for other organizations using Epic. The same approach can also inform other registries and research programs that rely on manual abstraction.
For sponsors and research organizations, the practical starting point is to identify where teams repeat data work, assess what their EHR can provide, and align the transfer with the destination’s requirements.
This is the opportunity behind Zero Data Entry (ZDE)™: reduce avoidable data entry while supporting the processes and technologies that make each organization distinct.
Explore Unified Electronic Data CapturePut your existing data to work
What could your teams do with less time spent re-entering data?
Tell us about your workflows, your data sources and where manual effort gets in the way. Together, we’ll explore how CDP can help.