Using Electronic Medical Record Data for Research in a Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) Stage 7 Hospital in Beijing: Cross-sectional Study (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND With the proliferation of electronic medical records systems (EMRs), there is an increasing interest in utilizing EMRs data for medical research, yet there is no quantitative research on EMRs data utilization for medical research purposes. OBJECTIVE Understand the current status of clinical data utilization in clinical research activities, including trends in recent years and differences between different populations, to find out the present problems in the use of EMR data for research, and provide a reference for promoting the utilization of EMR data in scientific research. METHODS For this descriptive, cross-sectional study, the utilization of EMRs data by staff at Xuanwu Hospital in Beijing, China between 2016 and 2019 was analyzed. The utilization of EMRs data was described as the number of requests, the proportion of requesters, and the frequency of requests per capita. The comparison by year, professional title, and age was conducted by double-sided chi square test. RESULTS From 2016 to 2019, EMRs data utilization was poor, as the proportion of requesters was 5.8% and the frequency was 0.1 times / person / year. The frequency per capita gradually slowed and more older, senior level staff used EMRs data compared to younger staff. CONCLUSIONS The value of using EMRs data for research purposes does not get enough attention among researchers in Chinese hospitals. Ensuring equal availability of EMRs data and highlighting the benefits of such systems can help promote its use in research settings. Future research should focus on mechanisms that encourage data utilization, ensure fair data availability, and promote data sharing.