title: Is the future evidence-based?
abstract: This paper is concerned with how the future information needs of the medical community should be met. The current dominant belief within medicine is that these information needs should be met from bespoke research studies. The necessity of this approach is far from certain. Health organisations worldwide are currently investing vast resources into centralising and amalgamating every day patient data. Is there a future for these Electronic Medical Records in informing medical decisions? This paper describes the challenges to be met in using both research studies and every day patient data to inform medical decisions. It then describes an ongoing practical project to evaluate these information sources' ability to meet the information needs of cancer care decision makers. Details of background, methodology and initial promising results are presented.
authors.affiliation: School of Computer Science, Cardiff University, and Clinical Information Unit, Velindre NHS Trust, UK. B.W.I.Sissons@cs.cf.ac.uk
authors.forename: Ben W I
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Sissons
authors.forename: W Alex
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.forename: Tony
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bater
authors.forename: Dave
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Morrey
mesh_terms: D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000639:trends*; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000639:trends*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy