Conference paper Electronic health records: high-quality electronic data for higher-quality clinical research

For many years, investigators at the University of Pennsylvania School ofMedicine were able to conduct research using electronically stored data collected through the day-to-day operation of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. However, as is typical of many health systems, much of the early data related to administrative and billing activities. Most out-patient diagnosis data were recorded by physicians at the end of a clinical encounter, while coding professionals recorded diagnoses based on the clinical In the decades prior to the introduction of elec-tronic health records (EHRs), the best source of electronic information to support clinical research was claims data. The use of claims data in researc