XVI.Add.II.2.4. Medical records

Electronic medical records may be considered for effectiveness evaluation of RMM in primary care (general practitioner and community services) and/or secondary care (hospitals and specialists) (4) for their rich clinical details such as diagnoses, procedures, laboratory values and health outcomes. Medical records are a suitable source for measuring changes in prescribing behaviour, but the feasibility of obtaining and measuring health outcomes in electronic medical records largely depends on the type of outcome, the seriousness of the adverse event and coding practices, e.g. for laboratory test results.

Where relevant outcome variables are not routinely collected, complementary primary data collection may be considered, although this solicited approach may introduce different types of bias depending on the methodology.