The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is seeking public comment on plans to develop a searchable Registry of Patient Registries to improve data sharing and boost collaboration among medical researchers, according to a Federal Register notice, Health Data Management reports.
According to AHRQ, the registry aims to "further AHRQ's goals by making information regarding quality, appropriateness and effectiveness of health services (and patient registries in particular) more readily available and centralized" (Goedert, Health Data Management, 4/26).
How the Registry Would Work
The online registry would provide a catalog of patient registries in the way that the federal website ClinicalTrials.gov provides a listing of trials of new therapies.
To allow for easier comparisons of data from different registries, the tool would promote the use of common data fields and definitions.
In addition, the registry would offer a search tool to help researchers find existing data from patient registries that they could use in new research (iHealthBeat, 2/23).
Timeline
AHRQ is accepting public comment on the registry through May 29 (Federal Register, 4/26).