A lot has been said about the feasibility and effectiveness of patient registries in the healthcare sector and for medicinal research. There are, however, a set of pros and cons of patient registries in research. Patient registries are often dependent on the software we use to develop and maintain them. While we are aware of the benefits, what are some of the cons and how can we work towards mitigating these possible obstacles?
Pros of Patient Registries in Research
The most obvious benefit of patient registries is that you can have as many types of registries as is necessary. This allows you greater flexibility in developing research for any particular disease or condition. This comes especially in rare diseases that already have a limited pool of data. With separate registries, you have more room to assess the natural history of the disease, patient outcomes and potential environmental factors influencing the disease. This then helps you come up with improved treatment and medicinal outcomes.
Another benefit of patient registries is that you can easily assess a large population. Most impediments in disease research and drug development is that you can’t access to a larger pool of people to determine what may be causing the disease and other important findings upon which researchers can build. With patient registries, you have an existing repository of information and then you can collaborate and add more information to it as you go along. You wouldn’t need to dispose of existing information. You just need the right software to add to it.
Cons of Patient Registries in Research
Now it isn’t that patient registries are always successful for the specific purpose that they are used for. For example, a registry used for research purposes will be time consuming if it is not properly integrated into a convenient system for data collection and evaluation.
Moreover, a patient registry might not serve any real purpose if it is not shared between all stakeholders to excavate actual beneficial findings. However, the good news is, these cons can easily be resolved if you use the right patient registry software solution.
A flexible and efficient patient registry software system will allow you to focus on the purpose of that registry, be it better patient outcomes of disease or drug research and development. This flexibility allows you to customize your registry for your ultimate goal. Moreover, the right patient registry software will allow you to make changes to the existing information as you come across new findings. This is especially important for research because there is constantly a new approaches to treatment that needs to be factored in.
Choose the Best Patient Registry Software Solution
While there may be impediments to patient registries, they can be solved or at least reduced by choosing a flexible and collaborative patient registry software solution. This ensures information is not only collected at one place but can also easily be altered as new study goals, treatment approaches and findings come along.
