Eileen Erinoff

How Electronic Clinical Data Can Improve Health Technology Assessment

Health technology assessments represent comprehensive summaries of available evidence and information on a technology. They are used by medical decision makers in a variety of ways, including diagnostic testing, treatment selection, care management, patient perspectives, patient safety, insurance coverage, pharmaceutical innovation, equipment planning, device purchasing, and total cost-of-care. Electronic clinical data, which are captured routinely by clinicians and hospitals, are only rarely incorporated into formal health technology assessments. This disconnect reveals a key opportunity. In this paper, we discuss current uses of electronic clinical data, several benefits of including it in health technology assessments, potential pitfalls of that inclusion, and the implications for better medical decisions.

Commentary on EPC methods: an exploration of the use of text-mining software in systematic reviews

• The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Evidence-based Practice Center program recently published a methods white paper on the effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov web site which focused on a preliminary exploration of the use of text-mining in evidence synthesis.