Outcomes assessment in routine practice: Use of an electronic medical records database

The use of clinical outcomes to evaluate the effectiveness of various pharm aceutical and medical interventions has inspired the health care community to develop innovative techniques to measure the impact of these interventio ns, We describe the use of an electronic medical records system to conduct and apply outcomes research on drugs used at an academic medical center, Th e Medical ARchival System (MARS) at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Ce nter (UPMC) Health System is a comprehensive clinical and financial data re pository, A model program was developed that incorporated MARS, which was u ltimately able to provide practical, timely information about how drugs are actually used in routine clinical practice at UPMC, to determine whether i ntended outcomes had been achieved, to identify undesirable outcomes, and t o track financial information.