United Rheumatology has EHR Linked Database

United Rheumatology, based in Hauppauge, New York, has limited opportunity to directly collect patients’ experience across the country to answer crucial clinical concerns not long ago. Even the largest practices did not have enough patients to comprehend the real-world reaction to medicine or acquire data from courses throughout the country as part of a value-based care strategy, despite having data in their electronic health records. Other databases either did not capture information directly from the EHR, resulting in a risk of bias in the patients caught or had restrictive data access procedures.

United Rheumatology Normalized Integrated Community Evidence gives researchers access to real-world EHR data that can be examined to answer specific research questions in a community rheumatology setting. Currently, the ideal clinical paradigm for treating rheumatic disease patients is to utilize a treat-to-target method. Thus, the activity of a patient’s condition is evaluated at each visit, and patterns can be discovered to support collaborative decision-making about adjusting treatment.

Although the EHR could capture that information for a single patient, getting practitioners to capture the data required for such an approach regularly has proven difficult. United Rheumatology-NICE solves this issue by allowing doctors, practices, and locations across the country to gather data to evaluate clinicians’ performance, acquire insights into the best clinical techniques, and provide information on how to evolve care toward higher value, he said.

As a result, the data in United Rheumatology-NICE provides direct insight into the outcomes of patients across the country, and it acts as the data source, or life-blood, of value-based care programs aimed at improving individual-level patient outcomes and lowering healthcare costs. United Rheumatology-NICE collects a wide range of clinical data directly from patients across the country and stores it in a single repository. By accessing and analyzing the data of 1.8 million active rheumatoid arthritis patients, clinical questions can be addressed and answered.