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Review
. 2020 Jan 1;59(1):39-45.
doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/kez068.

What does digitalization hold for the creation of real-world evidence?

Huai Leng Pisaniello  1   2 , William Gregory Dixon  1
Affiliations
Review

What does digitalization hold for the creation of real-world evidence?

Huai Leng Pisaniello et al. Rheumatology (Oxford). .

Abstract

Health-related information is increasingly being collected and stored digitally. These data, either structured or unstructured, are becoming the ubiquitous assets that might enable us to comprehensively map out a patient's health journey from an asymptomatic state of wellness to disease onset and its trajectory. These new data could provide rich real-world evidence for better clinical care and research, if they can be accessed, linked and analyzed-all of which are possible. In this review, these opportunities will be explored through a case vignette of a patient with OA, followed by discussion on how this digitalized real-world evidence could best be utilized, as well as the challenges of data access, quality and maintaining public trust.

Keywords: unstructured data; accelerometers; data protection; digital data; electronic health record; mobile app; osteoarthritis; real-world evidence.

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Figures

<sc>Fig</sc>. 1
Fig. 1
Digital health data capture: a hypothetical case study of the onset and progression of OA EHR: Electronic health record.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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