With the improvements in technology, all the sectors now use to serve with modern facilities and the coordination among those facilities. The introduction of EHR HEEHREHRR software based system of medical records in medical sector is such an advancement which coordinates with other area like the decision making by the concerned physician, prescribing drugs, getting lab reports etc. And among all these the clinical researches which are always based on the data gathered through EHR software system, is the one with greatest importance. The gathered data on patients serve the purpose of base for the clinical research in different areas. With the growth of EHR uses, the issues related to the clinical researches are also growing. This is because such researches are based on the data from EHR. The growth of EHR software based system is evident from the fact that 50% percent of the hospitals in EU used EHR software support in the year 2004. Obviously by 2009 this percentage has crossed the level of more than 70%. In US the adoption of EHR software support among all the hospitals and clinics was 12% in the year 2005. In the same year, in 13% of the total hospitals and clinics in US the adoption of EHR was in progress. The adoption level in 2009 has grown to the level of 25%. And due to this spread of EHR system in medical records system, the problems associated with the data gathering through EHR software supported system is also growing.

Source data held in EHR systems may not be appropriate as a base for clinical research studies. The data entry errors in EHR system is another point of concern for the clinical researches which should be eliminated to the lowest possible rate. Apart from this the transcription error of data and the source reliability issue related to EHR software based systems also require utmost importance. Clinical studies always require reliable data which can support safety and efficacy. Also the systems used for the purpose of clinical studies should comply with strong regulations required for the same. For all these an EHR system in use must comply with the regulations like documentation of the validation of the EHR system. Secondly the documentation of the ability of the EHR software based system to generate accurate and complete copies of records suitable for inspection, review, and copying for legal purposes also. Thirdly it requires the documentation of a secure, computer-generated, time-tagged audit trail.

All these regulations stated above should be there so that an order of homogeneity can be derived from the quality of healthcare data to be used in clinical research.  We can better say here in the words of Richard Perkins, President of eClinical Forum that ‘we need a common understanding and approach; we need to connect Healthcare and Research’.

The current scenario in the EHR software based data management system lacks the reliability of data. But it is in a transition period towards the integration of EHR data and the clinical research where the seamless transfer of data for the purpose of research would be a common scene. And in a near future the EHR software would be programmed as per the basic requirements of the clinical research and study. And definitely we would be in a state of better health with better disease control efficiency than ever before.