The relevance of patient registries has become more important recently. Patient registries are used for data collection to significantly improve patient treatment and outcomes. Given how manual data collection has become so redundant, it is no surprise that patient registries have become so relevant in today’s day and age.

Why Do We Need Patient Registries?

The effectiveness of patient registries has been vetted thoroughly. There are several advantages of patient registries, even in comparison to electronic health records (EHRs).

First of all, patient registries provide you with a flow sheet that enables the management of clinical data as well as track trends. This is one of the limitations of EHRs as they are not the most conducive option for population management. Patient registries, on the other hand, allow complete population data reporting, which is a valuable tool and function.

Patient registries have a broad scope and are able to give health-based outlets outreach data right at their fingertips. It also helps to improve team-based care, which enables better treatment for the patient. Due to all of this, patient registries are a viable and very useful adjunct to paper-based records that have become obsolete in today’s technologically advanced world.

Relevance of Patient Registries Today

When we talk about the current day and age, we cannot ignore COVID-19 even if we want to. Even though some time has passed, and the pandemic has bouts where it does come under control, there is still a long way to go.

The current pandemic has made patient registries even more relevant, if possible, than they were, say, 5 or 10 years ago. Some of the biggest challenges to controlling and managing COVID-19 include the variations that keep surfacing, insufficient information on the number of vaccinations and this problem is more acute in developing countries.

The complex nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has paved the way for proper data collection methods, due to which patient registries come into serious consideration. Proper infrastructure for data collection and maintenance of records is an essential necessity all over the world.

Patient registries, depending on the type of disease, help to record valuable information that can then be used for improving the care that is relayed to COVID-19 patients. Patient registries and their systematic data collection will allow healthcare settings and drug manufacturers to collect and record diagnosis, laboratory findings, the progression and improvement of disease, among other things.

How to Create a Patient Registry for COVID-19?

While the scope of patient registries is well-known, you also need the right software to make this possible. The right patient registry software system will allow you to collect and assemble important data from various sources and maintain it as the disease is yet unknown and changes and new discoveries will keep propping up.

You can go about this in phases like:

• Phase 1: Identification of information needs
• Phase 2: Identification of data elements for the data collected
• Phase 3: Conduct Field Testing

Conclusion

Using patient registries in today’s technologically advanced and pandemic-ridden world increases the scope for improvement in healthcare all over. While patient registries have always been important, they are arguably the most viable method for data collection and clinical trials