Availability of Structured and Unstructured Clinical Data for Comparative Effectiveness Research and Quality Improvement: A Multisite Assessment

INTRODUCTION: A key attribute of a learning health care system is the ability to collect and analyze routinely collected clinical data in order to quickly generate new clinical evidence, and to monitor the quality of the care provided. To achieve this vision, clinical data must be easy to extract and stored in computer readable formats. We conducted this study across multiple organizations to assess the availability of such data specifically for comparative effectiveness research (CER) and quality improvement (QI) on surgical procedures. SETTING: This study was conducted in the context of the data needed for the already established Surgical Care and Outcomes Assessment Program (SCOAP), a clinician-led, performance benchmarking, and QI registry for surgical and interventional procedures in Washington State. METHODS: We selected six hospitals, managed by two Health Information Technology (HIT) groups, and assessed the ease of automated extraction of the data required to complete the SCOAP data collection forms. Each data element was classified as easy, moderate, or complex to extract. RESULTS: Overall, a significant proportion of the data required to automatically complete the SCOAP forms was not stored in structured computer-readable formats, with more than 75 percent of all data elements being classified as moderately complex or complex to extract. The distribution differed significantly between the health care systems studied. CONCLUSIONS: Although highly desirable, a learning health care system does not automatically emerge from the implementation of electronic health records (EHRs). Innovative methods to improve the structured capture of clinical data are needed to facilitate the use of routinely collected clinical data for patient phenotyping.