Visualisation of the Quality of Electronic Health Records for Clinical Research

Electronic patient data resources are expanding rapidly. This consortium has identified an innovative opportunity for the usage of large medical databases within the Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) arena within a total UK R&D market worth £4.6 billion in 2007.
RCTs are the means by which the efficacy and safety of new medicines are assessed prior to marketing. Conducting effective feasibility studies identifying suitable practices at which to conduct RCTs is critical for undertaking RCTs. The provision of an automated method for doing so within primary care, including assessment in a particular clinical area, would be an attractive package for organisations involved in RCTs. It would significantly reduce the time and costs and provide more accurately assessed practice attributes than existing approaches. We shall use statistical pattern recognition to construct "quality scores" for the data from each practice and develop a visualisation toolkit whereby users can interactively select practices based on data quality and suitability of the patient base for the study. Through this approach we will significantly reduce resources involved in patient recruitment, meeting the needs of the end-user and supporting the UK R&D.