Assessing Real-World Data From Electronic Health Records (EHRs) for HTA

The task force will introduce the topic of assessing real-world data (RWD) from electronic health records (EHR) for health technology assessments (HTAs). While the increasing availability of EHR provides new opportunities to improve and refine HTAs, there are a number of known issues related to EHR-derived RWD that can impact their quality and suitability. Given the relatively recent availability of EHR-derived databases, there is an urgent need to provide guidance to HTA groups that review studies including such data. With an international team of experts, the task force aims to establish emerging good practices for the use and interpretation of EHR-derived RWD for HTA. The report will include recommendations and a checklist for consumers of HTAs.

During the presentation, speakers will provide a brief overview of EHR data guidelines by NICE in the UK, ICER in the US, and CADTH in Canada. They will summarize published data quality frameworks and highlight key domains that should be required for HTAs (example: representativeness, completeness and accuracy). Speakers will then discuss data provider issues, such as method transparency for extracting data and approaches for integrating structured versus unstructured data, including use of common data models.

An important deliverable of the report is a data quality checklist for use of EHR-derived data. The panel will discuss challenges to and opportunities for developing such as checklist. Finally, speakers will highlight continuing limitations of EHR data, including the lack of representativeness, privacy and confidentiality issues, consent issues, data security concerns and funding sources. The panel will conclude with a discussion on future directions as the field continues to evolve rapidly. Presented by the ISPOR Use of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) in HTA Task Force.