Will the use of routinely collected electronic primary health care information improve detection rates of skin sores, sore throat or wet cough over manual clinic review?

Investigators: Andre Schultz, Asha Bowen, Frieda Mc Loughlin, Judith Katzenellenbogen, Kim Carter, Kristen White, Marianne Mullane, Pamela D'Sylva, Rebecca Pavlos, Rebekah Newton, Tim Barnett, Tom Snelling

External collaborators: Robert Shepard (Broome Aboriginal Medical Service), Jim Codde (Notre Dame University)

We aim to work with local clinicians and data managers to facilitate more automated data extractions from medical records in the future, that will provide a platform for researchers and care providers to access real-time information on specific diseases and conditions, lessening the burden of research in the primary health care sector. This project aims to evaluate and compare the reporting capability of automatically generated reports from medical records, with manual review of medical records, to determine the specificity, validity and usefulness of the automated reports in answering specific research questions, including the prevalence and burden of disease, and the adherence to recommended referral pathways.