title: Overview of electronic data sharing: why, how, and impact.
abstract: Electronic data sharing is a critical, but underappreciated, requirement for modern medical informatics systems. This capability is facilitated by acquisition of structured clinical data, but optimized only if this data is stored and transmitted using standardized representations. Most electronic medical record and clinical trials management systems are poorly suited for data sharing. In the near future, sharing clinical outcome data is likely to become very important, so these capabilities must be improved. In this article, basic concepts of electronic data sharing are reviewed and their use illustrated in a data-sharing project developed to support Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation reporting to a national database.
authors.affiliation: MD Anderson Cancer Cancer, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX 77030, USA. rbjones@mdanderson.org
authors.forename: Roy B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Dianne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Reeves
authors.forename: Charles S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Martinez
mesh_terms: D057286:Electronic Health Records; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D008490:Medical Informatics; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic