Data gathered in electronic health records and other health IT could dramatically expand the healthcare system’s research capacity, making it possible to combine information from millions of patients each year to advance medical understanding of such diseases as cancer and diabetes, according to studies published in a special edition of Health Affairs on “rapid learning.”
Articles showcasing the Veterans Health Administration, Kaiser Permanente, and the Geisinger Health System illustrate how clinical data captured in EHRs are being used to answer practical questions about the safety, effectiveness, and costs of new treatments much faster and more efficiently than the traditional process of randomized clinical trials alone could. Rapid-learning capabilities may help reduce health disparities affecting minorities and special-needs groups, give patients the ability to make better treatment decisions, and allow physicians to practice “personalized medicine” by revealing the effects of genetic variations on responses to treatments. But to make rapid-learning initiatives successful, it will take a national investment, leadership from both the public and private sectors, and an increased focus on government research, according to the authors.
