More Patient Data for COVID-19 Research Due to EHR Adoption

The COVID-19 patient data captured by electronic health records systems has provided much helpful information. Medical transcription services gather de-identified data that tells more about vaccine availability, allows the monitoring of safety issues, and aids understanding of the virus itself and its treatments.

EHR De-Identified Data Collection

For several decades, patient data has been gathered via health insurance claims, but the advent of EHR systems has made de-identified patient data more readily available for clinical research. The data that EHR transcription contains includes patient demographics, vital signs, and over-the-counter drug use. Data regarding diseases, symptoms, treatment options, and outcomes is invaluable in learning more about diseases in order to improve health care and procedure options.

Both government and state health agencies and other institutions have begun utilizing this real-world data on patients in order to better understand the characteristics of COVID-19 and its impact on the world. The need for medical transcription services has been higher than ever before. However, different EHR transcription services use different products or databases which has meant difficulty with curating the various data into a format more conducive to effective research. There is also a need to ensure all identifying information is removed from all patient data in order to protect patient privacy and complying with federal regulations.

Cross-Industry Collaborations

During this time, many agencies and organizations have combined their efforts in order to be more efficient and helpful in ways benefiting COVID-19 research. These agencies work together in order to provide important insights, like if the supply of medicine is sufficient nationwide, if said medicines have proven effective in treatment, and if people are catching COVID-19 on more than one occasion.
These cross-industry collaborations with different EHR vendors, health care experts, and organizations contributing technology services also seek to use the real-world data from health records to understand the global pandemic better in order to more effectively combat the effects of it. EHR patient data can also benefit in the vaccine roll-out by providing early data on side effects from it. This has sped along vaccine trials and aided emergency use authorization.

Being able to use the de-identified data from electronic health records for earlier research into the COVID-19 virus and its threats has been an unexpected but powerful benefit. The information that is captured in electronic medical transcriptions can almost instantaneously be used or monitored to watch for safety issues and the effectiveness of treatments and/or vaccines. It helps scientists to be able to understand the virus and the possible outcomes of the treatment plans being used better than with the typical clinical trials.