VA plans EMR-based project to study treatment effectiveness

The VA has begun a national initiative using data from its EMR to study how well various treatments work for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections.

The project, which has a $10 million budget, will last four years. It will be based at the VA hospital in Salt Lake City, but investigators from California, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee will also be involved.

Project head Matthew Samore, chief of the Division of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah, notes that over the past 20 years, the VA has developed a clinical data warehouse that can be used for advanced research. The new project will include detailed patient data, including clinical notes by providers; family histories; pharmacy records; lab reports and vital statistics.

Researchers are hoping that the newly-compiled data will help them find new connections between conditions and treatments that were particularly effective.

To learn more about the VA's project:
- read this iHealthBeat piece

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