In the coming year, healthcare companies will increasingly find new and more varied uses for EHRs. One of these will be clinical studies and trials, for which EHRs hold the potential to change how data is collected, viewed and analyzed.
Here are five major predictions for the coming year, according to a report from Nextrials:
- Multiple projects implementing EHR integration will be launched next year with the support of the Food and Drug Administration. Under guidance of the FDA, source data capture programs will be integrated with EHRs in order to take information being collected from health systems and link it to cross-industry stakeholders, such as pharmaceutical and life sciences companies.
- Research-friendly EHR software and practices will become part of the site selection process. The EHR an organization or facility has on site will become a major determining factor for where and how clinical trials and studies are conducted. This is because EHRs will play an increasingly important role in access to data for research purposes.
- The flip side to No. 2 is that sites will position their EHR capabilities as a competitive advantage for attracting clinical trials. Having an EHR system capable of demonstrating that a system has the correct number and type of patients necessary for study criteria will be a big draw for companies sponsoring trials.
- Sites with EHR research offerings will collaborate and form site networks. Site networks will flourish as EHRs combine trial data with IT systems at other organizations, enabling increased connectivity.
- Sponsor companies will finally recognize significant cost savings with remote monitoring. Sponsor companies will begin to recognize the advantages of leveraging EHRs, including the potential to reduce monitoring costs by utilizing remote access to records and data.