Developing a Fully Integrated Medical Transport Record to Support Comparative Effectiveness Research for Patients Undergoing Medical Transport

The consolidation of health care systems to develop centers of clinical excellence has led to an increased reliance on medical transport to move patients requiring time-sensitive interventions and specialized treatments. There is a paucity of outcomes data, specifically comparative effectiveness research, related to the efficacy of different transport services and the overall morbidity and mortality of patients that undergo medical transfer. The rapid development of electronic medical record (EMR) use has also occurred with transport charting. However, limited studies have incorporated transport chart data in outcomes analyses. We have begun development of a fully integrated medical transport record, combining transport and hospitals EMRs, to support research efforts and develop clinical decision support tools for transported patients. In this paper, we describe the elements necessary to develop a fully integrated medical transport EMR to support the conduct of comparative effectiveness research, outline the current limitations and challenges, and provide insight into the future direction in developing clinical decision support tools for patients requiring transport.