Editorial: Registries and Population Databases in Clinical Research and Practice

Patient registries include data on patient diagnosis, demographics, treatment, and outcomes and are now fundamental to the provision of successful global health systems. Patient registries include mainly local, regional, and national patient data on general or specific patient groups. Global registries currently exist mainly for rare diseases. Some of the most studied registries include the national Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program and the hospital-based Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC-III) dataset. The limitations of registry databases have included lack of feedback from clinical studies to the clinical center, the lack of patient involvement, and limited findings on patient-reported outcomes (PROs). In September 2020, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) published its draft guidelines on registry-based clinical studies. Guidelines for the development and analysis of registry data will improve the quality and registry-based studies and increase the role of registry data to support clinical trials. This Editorial aims to present the current status of registries and population databases in clinical research and practice.