One of the true benefit of EHR system is the ability to monitor drugs and the impact of specific drugs on patients. Since the data are stored in the database, they allow easy access and research. The research will lead to better patient care and drug safety. As the country currently lacks a aggregated database for such purpose, there are actions moving toward making this a reality.
As policy makers in Washington push for various forms of evidence gathering to determine the safety and effectiveness of medical treatments, the study proposes a broad model for monitoring drug safety that would consist of detailed publicly available data that independent researchers could freely analyze.
Such a database could be continually updated and aggregated with new information, as the results of new studies were published, to calculate a near real-time balance sheet of a drug’s risks and benefits.
A public database continually updated and aggregated with information will allow researchers to determine whether some of the drugs have the desired affect/or no affect on a specific cohort. Eventually this can lead to better individual treatment.