From his office at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, board-certified pediatrician and senior research investigator, Matthew F. Daley, MD, is leading a new study on the link between pediatric high blood pressure and obesity. To do so, he doesn’t have to wait for data analysts to sift through stacks of paper medical records for months at a time to gather the data he needs for the study.

Instead, Dr. Daley can quickly analyze a database compiled from information stored in electronic medical records (EMRs) to conduct his research.

“It’s not just the number of records that can be looked at, but how quickly researchers can review essentially thousands of them,” Dr. Daley says. “In a matter of weeks, data specialists can compile hundreds of thousands of records for researchers to review that would otherwise take years and millions of dollars.”

This more efficient method of data analysis makes study recommendations widely available to doctors nationwide. As a result, doctors can use these findings in their everyday practices making health care more personalized and affordable.

Keeping data private
“Our first priority is keeping patient data confidential,” says Ella Lyons, director of research operations with Kaiser Permanente’s Institute for Health Research. “Patients can be reassured that their personal health information remains private and confidential using several rigorously testing and validated safeguards.

“Much of the research we conduct does not require access to identifiable information, such as their name and address,” Lyons continues. “We also have a Research Review Committee and Institutional Review Board that review all studies to make sure they are scientifically sound and that our patient’s safety and privacy are not compromised.”

A new tool for research
Electronic medical records help make research more sophisticated in terms of scale, efficiency, and the quality and accuracy of data. “When you have an EMR at your fingertips, there is not a research question that it doesn’t touch on,” says Dr. Daley, who thinks of it as a toolkit for investigators like himself.

Dr. Daley’s research colleagues at Kaiser Permanente’s Institute for Health Research say EMRs are changing perceptions surrounding how to treat and prevent serious illnesses. A recent study on childhood immunizations in Colorado proves just that.

Using electronic medical records, Jason Glanz, PhD, epidemiologist and lead author of the study, sifted through the electronic medical records of more than 86,000 children who were Kaiser Permanente Colorado members between 1998 and 2008. Researchers concluded that children of parents who refuse vaccines are nine times more likely to get chickenpox compared to fully immunized children. Click here to learn more about childhood vaccines or Dr. Glanz’s study.

The vaccine study is one of several Kaiser Permanente research projects simplified by electronic health records. Recent studies on diabetes treatments, risky drinkers’ health care habits, childhood obesity, and orthopedic implants all utilized information gathered from an electronic medical record system.

Improving public health
“By using EMRs, we can quickly analyze our data and look into potential adverse impacts of medications, procedures, medical devices, biological agents, and health outcomes in real-world settings,” Lyons says.

Findings using these methods have a significant impact on public health.

Equipped with this knowledge, researchers can help doctors better prevent, diagnose, and treat their patients’ illnesses — resulting in more effective and personalized care.

Part of what makes EMRs so powerful is the vast amount of information that can be quickly retrieved and analyzed. Leading health care organizations such as the Food & Drug Administration have relied on Kaiser Permanente’s data repository and research experts to evaluate the safety of drug-coated stents and Vioxx.

“One of the benefits of our EMR system at Kaiser Permanente is that we have data in one place so we can react very quickly,” Lyons notes.

EMR-based research can educate the public as well as play a pivotal role in disease containment. And, because EMRs allow researchers to study a larger, more diverse population, scientists can use their findings from EMR-based studies to inform government policy, such as in the area of vaccine safety, Lyons says.

Looking ahead
In the future, the bulk of health research at Kaiser Permanente will leverage electronic medical records. As part of the $5 billion in grants announced in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the National Institutes of Health awarded the organization more than $54 million over two years to conduct health research on critical public and clinical health areas.

Learn more about how technology is transforming health care research, including specific examples of recent studies, at kp.org.

Dr. Daley received his medical degree from Stanford University. He completed his residency at the University of Colorado and The Children’s Hospital — Denver.