The proliferation of electronic medical record (EMR) systems in healthcare settings has created an opportunity for these data to be reused for a variety of secondary purposes. Because EMR data are generated for clinical care and administrative functions, they may not be suitable for all intended secondary uses. Assessing EMR data quality is essential to determine whether the data are ‘fit-for-purpose’ and to help identify potential biases and limitations.

This July 15, 2020 webinar will introduce participants to primary care EMR data from Alberta that are collected as part of the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network (CPCSSN). CPCSSN is a pan-Canadian collaboration that extracts de-identified EMR data from primary care settings across the country and makes these data available for research and surveillance. The national CPCSSN database contains information from nearly 2 million patients and over 1,500 primary care providers. We will describe the full data lifecycle of CPCSSN data in Alberta including data capture, extraction, and processing. We will then provide a summary of the data quality for select data elements and discuss the advantages and limitations of these data. This webinar is intended to provide more comprehensive and technical information for prospective CPCSSN data users or for those interested in learning how raw EMR data from clinical practice are transformed into useable datasets for analysis.

Learn more: https://www.popdata.bc.ca/events/etu/PPDS_Webinars_Jul15_2020