March 29, 2013 | A study found that using EHR data to recruit for clinical trials did not work as well as hoped. A group in Germany assessed EHR data from five German university hospitals for data completeness. The group looked to see whether EHR data was complete enough to use for clinical trial recruitment.

Completeness of EHR data for the purpose of patient recruitment depends on two conditions, the study authors explained. First, data elements need to exist in the EHR, which enable the physician to document a given patient characteristic. Second, data elements must be filled in by the clinicians. The researchers found that the EHR data was only 35% complete.

"There exists a significant gap in structure and content between data documented during patient care and data required for [clinical trial] eligibility assessment," the study authors concluded. Medical Informatics and Decision Making Study