New attempt targets to improve EHRs to support medical research

One of the primary benefits expected of electronic health records (EHRs) is the contribution that digital systems would make to support medical research.

Because sufferers’ records had been significantly paper-based, so, too, were medical research programs. Several hoped that electronic records would assist in recognizing patients for research initiatives, gathering their medical data and facilitating research in myriad ways. Even though the huge majority of hospitals and physician practices have shifted to electronic records, medical research programs have been slow to identify benefits.

But an attempt at the Yale School of Medicine might offer hope to medical research in the U.S. Researchers there have deployed a latest cloud-based system that enables them to pull patient electronic health records (EHRs) from across multiple healthcare agencies and to synchronize that data.

The system, known as Hugo, was established in a partnership between Yale-New Haven Health System and health information exchange vendor Stella Technology. Hugo is designed to permit patients to accumulate all their health-related data for healthcare research studies.

The platform is presently being tested to ensure that the technology works well and to identify any areas that require improvement, in accordance to Harlan Krumholz, MD, professor of internal medicine at Yale-New Haven and one of the developers of Hugo. An update on the initiative will be presented during an educational session at HIMSS17 on the day of Monday, February 20.

“Our first studies with Hugo are offering real-world experience and focus on the capability of individuals to have Hugo fetch their data and sync it securely with a research database,” claims Krumholz. “Ultimately, Hugo is about motivating people with their health data, putting them in a position to leverage it, and making partnerships possible for sharing data with researchers and others. But, the premise is that individuals should be in a position to use their data for their own benefits and, if they select, for the benefit of others.”

Patients sign up for Hugo and utilize a portal/password to verify their identity to link with EHRs that have their records. Then, with their permission, the platform harmonizes the information from different sources offering the ability to share it with researchers.

“Unless we, as researchers and clinicians, partner with our sufferers and find a way to provide them the capability to exercise their federal right to achieve their own data and share it, then we are not going to make progress,” states Krumholz. “This is a fundamental shift in the way we consider about medical research.”

Yale-New Haven has initiated a study to see if a central repository of patient EHRs, like Hugo, can be used to decrease readmissions and post-discharge emergency department utilization.

Krumholz and Lin Wan, co-founder and chief technology officer at Stella Technology, will offer an update on the Hugo beta test in the HIMSS17 session, “What is next: People-powered knowledge generation from digital,” at 12 p.m. EST February 20 in the Room W304A.