ArticleCMAJ open
Current use and costs of electronic health records for clinical trial research: a descriptive study.
Article in CMAJ open. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The reporting of health systems data use in primary results publications of clinical trials: a systematic review.Trials · 2025Pooled it
- Utilization of EHRs for clinical trials: a systematic review.BMC medical research methodology · 2024Pooled it
- Treatment effects in randomised trials using routinely collected data for outcome assessment versus traditional trials: meta-research study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2021Pooled it
- Access to routinely collected health data for clinical trials - review of successful data requests to UK registries.Trials · 2020Pooled it
- Use of comprehensive recruitment strategies in the glycemia reduction approaches in diabetes: A comparative effectiveness study (GRADE) multi-center clinical trial.Clinical trials (London, England) · 2023 · on this mapTrial
- Trial
- Embedding the public voice in clinical trials: developing public-informed training for patient data research.Research involvement and engagement · 2026Article
- Phenobarbital as an Adjuvant to benzodiazepines when compared to Single-agent benzodiazepine Treatment (usual care) for Alcohol withdrawal syndrome in the intensive care unit (PASTA): a study protocol.Pilot and feasibility studies · 2026Article
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- Semantic Consistency-Based Uncertainty Quantification for Factuality in Radiology Report Generation.Findings of ACL. NAACL · 2025Article
- Automating Data Entry from Electronic Health Record to Electronic Data Capture Using a Trusted Cloud-Based Application in Multisite Cancer Clinical Trials.Journal of the Society for Clinical Data Management · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Using electronic health records for clinical pharmacology research: Challenges and considerations.Clinical and translational science · 2024Review
- Targeted electronic health record-based recruitment strategy to enhance COVID-19 vaccine response clinical research study enrollment.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2024Article
- REDCap as a Platform for Cutaneous Disease Management in Street Medicine: Descriptive Study.JMIR dermatology · 2024Article
- The Roles of Electronic Health Records for Clinical Trials in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Scoping Review.JMIR medical informatics · 2023Article
- Multimodal data fusion for cancer biomarker discovery with deep learning.Nature machine intelligence · 2023Article
- Privacy Preservation in Patient Information Exchange Systems Based on Blockchain: System Design Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Article
- Reporting transparency and completeness in trials: Paper 4 - reporting of randomised controlled trials conducted using routinely collected electronic records - room for improvement.Journal of clinical epidemiology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundElectronic health records (EHRs) may support randomized controlled trials (RCTs). We aimed to describe the current use and costs of EHRs in RCTs, with a focus on recruitment and outcome assessment.
methodsThis descriptive study was based on a PubMed search of RCTs published since 2000 that evaluated any medical intervention with the use of EHRs. Cost information was obtained from RCT investigators who used EHR infrastructures for recruitment or outcome measurement but did not explore EHR technology itself.
resultsWe identified 189 RCTs, most of which (153 [81.0%]) were carried out in North America and were published recently (median year 2012 [interquartile range 2009-2014]). Seventeen RCTs (9.0%) involving a median of 732 (interquartile range 73-2513) patients explored interventions not related to EHRs, including quality improvement, screening programs, and collaborative care and disease management interventions. In these trials, EHRs were used for recruitment (14 [82%]) and outcome measurement (15 [88%]). Overall, in most of the trials (158 [83.6%]), the outcome (including many of the most patient-relevant clinical outcomes, from unscheduled hospital admission to death) was measured with the use of EHRs. The per-patient cost in the 17 EHR-supported trials varied from US$44 to US$2000, and total RCT costs from US$67 750 to US$5 026 000. In the remaining 172 RCTs (91.0%), EHRs were used as a modality of intervention.
interpretationRandomized controlled trials are frequently and increasingly conducted with the use of EHRs, but mainly as part of the intervention. In some trials, EHRs were used successfully to support recruitment and outcome assessment. Costs may be reduced once the data infrastructure is established.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.