What is Clinical Data?

Clinical data is a staple resource for most health and medical research. Clinical data is either collected during the course of ongoing patient care or as part of a formal clinical trial program. Clinical data falls into six major types:

•Electronic health records.

•Administrative Data

•Claims Data

•Patient/Disease Registries

•Health Surveys

•Clinical trials Data

Electronic Health Record

The purest type of electronic clinical data which is obtained at the point of care at a

medical facility, hospital, clinic or practice.

Often referred to as the electronic medical record (EMR), the EMR is generally not available to outside researchers. The data collected includes administrative and demographic information, diagnosis, treatment, prescription drugs, laboratory tests, physiologic monitoring data, hospitalization, patient insurance, etc.

Administrative Data

These types of data are associated with electronic health records, which are primarily hospital discharge data reported to a government agency like AHRQ.

Claims Data

Claims data describe the billable interactions (insurance claims) between insured patients and the healthcare delivery system. Claims data falls into four general categories: inpatient, outpatient, pharmacy, and enrolment. The sources of claims data can be obtained from the government (e.g., Medicare) and/or commercial health firms (e.g., United HealthCare).

Patient / Disease Registries

Disease registries are clinical information systems that track a narrow range of key data for

certain chronic conditions such as Alzheimer's Disease, cancer, diabetes, heart disease,

and asthma. Registries often provide critical information for managing patient conditions.

Health Surveys

In order to provide an accurate evaluation of the population health, national surveys of the

most common chronic conditions are generally conducted to provide prevalence estimates.

National surveys are one of the few types of data collected specifically for research purposes,

thus making it more widely accessible.

Clinical Trials Registries and Databases

What is Clinical Data Management?

Clinical Data Management is the process of handling data from clinical trials. The inherent goal of any clinical data management system is to produce and maintain quality data. Clinical data management is a critical process in clinical research, which leads to the generation of high-quality, reliable, and statistically sound data from clinical trials. Clinical data management ensures the collection, integration, and availability of data at appropriate quality and cost.