Linking Prostate Cancer Data Across EHRs and Registries

We assessed patient records from a tertiary academic medical center accessed under an Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved protocol. EPIC surveys were collected under a separate IRB approved protocol and with informed consent. This health care system has implemented a fully functional EHR system in 2008 (Epic Systems Corporation, Verona Wisconsin). Surveys were linked to patients’ EHRs via unique patient features (first name, last name, date of birth, date of surgery, and surgeon). We linked data from the EHRs with the California Cancer Registry to create a research data warehouse for prostate cancer, described previously [12 (link)].