Electronic health records (EHRs) or electronic medical records (EMRs) contain a vast amount of clinical data that can be useful for multiple purposes including research. Disease registries are collections of data in predefined formats for population management, research, and other purposes. There are differences between EHRs and registries in the data structure, data standards, and protocols. Proprietary EHR systems use different coding systems and data standards, which are usually kept secret. For EHR data to flow seamlessly into registries, there is the need for interoperability between EHR systems and between EHRs and registries. The levels of interoperability required include functional, structural, and semantic interoperability. EHR data can be manually mapped to registry data, but that is a tedious, resource-intensive endeavor. The development of data standards that can be used as building blocks for both EHRs and registries will help overcome the problem of interoperability.
Keywords: Electronic Health Records; clinical research; colorectal surgery; interoperability; outcomes; registries.