Abstracts by keywords: Registry specified and not specified
Clinical registries are increasingly being used to gain knowledge in healthcare (Bertoletti 2013, Lesko 2013, Majek 2013, Veiby 2013, Weiss 2013). Proponents of registers see the advantage of being able to use a well-maintained register to answer a large number of questions that were not yet known at the time the register was initiated. Since regularly and largely complete data sets are collected to record the services provided and to determine the remuneration for services, it is obvious that these data should also be used to answer relevant questions in the benefit assessment of medicines and care management. In addition, this data can be merged with data sets from various sources, e.g. clinical data with data from insurance companies or pharmacies. Skeptics of registers fear that reliable answers cannot always be provided with register data. This argument cannot be dismissed out of hand because it seems possible that a register can, for example, record all the data that is generated during the operation of a technical device. If it is not an isolated technical device but a device in a specific environment, e.g. a car in traffic, which is exposed to complex processes such as the behavior of all road users, it will be considerably more difficult to combine all conceivable variables a priori in one To map registers that ultimately influence the outcome of a process, in the case of a car, reaching the destination. If registers are to be used to describe patient-relevant problems, it can be predicted that the complexity of these bio-psycho-social processes will be so high that the limit of feasibility may be reached. These two perspectives allow us to predict that registries will undoubtedly be useful in health services research, but will also be subject to certain limitations - just like clinical studies. We would therefore like to present theoretical considerations as well as practical experiences on the opportunities and risks of registries and clinical studies and discuss recommendations for their optimized use.