Skip to main content

Editor's choice collection

Electronic Health Records and Medical Research

This retrospective article collection was edited by Dr. Diego A. Forero, MD, PhD. 

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are routinely generated and used around the globe, facilitating the collection and storage of structured and unstructured data of hundreds of millions of patients. Examples of structured data include vital signs, results of laboratory tests and prescriptions of medications, among others. Examples of semi-structured or unstructured data include clinical notes, personal history and family history, among others. EHRs have been used in a large number of articles focused on research in many chronic and acute diseases. However, interoperability remains a major challenge for a broader use of EHRs in medical research, particularly in resource-limited countries. 

In this Editor’s choice collection, we highlighted several key papers previously published in BMC Research Notes focusing on EHRs and medical research. Studies range from linking of available databases, to exploratory analysis, extraction of data, erroneous entries, utilization and costs and exchange of medication information.

This collection was published 2 March 2022. 

A multi-step approach to managing missing data in time and patient variant electronic health records
Nina Cesare & Lawrence P. O. Were 
BMC Research Notes 15, 64 (2022)

iPSYcare: the development of a linked electronic medical records database to study and optimize psychiatric care in Antwerp
Eva Rens, Joris Michielsen, Geert Dom, Roy Remmen & Kris Van den Broeck 
BMC Research Notes 14, 377 (2021)

A model-agnostic approach for understanding heart failure risk factors
Seyed M. Miran, Stuart J. Nelson & Qing Zeng-Treitler 
BMC Research Notes 14, 184 (2021) 

Embedding, aligning and reconstructing clinical notes to explore sepsis
Xudong Zhu, Joseph M. Plasek, Chunlei Tang, Wasim Al-Assad, Zhikun Zhang, Yun Xiong, Liqin Wang, Sharmitha Yerneni, Carlos Ortega, Min-Jeoung Kang, Li Zhou, David W. Bates & Patricia C. Dykes 
BMC Research Notes 14, 136 (2021) 

Impact of COVID-19 upon changes in emergency room visits with chest pain of possible cardiac origin
Adeel A. Butt, Anand Kartha, Nidal Asaad, Aftab M. Azad, Roberto Bertollini & Abdul-Badi Abou-Samra 
BMC Research Notes 13, 539 (2020) 

Program for data extraction in primary health records: a valid tool for knowledge production in general practice?
Martin Holte & Jostein Holmen 
BMC Research Notes 13, 23 (2020)

Analysis of erroneous data entries in paper based and electronic data collection
Benedikt Ley, Komal Raj Rijal, Jutta Marfurt, Naba Raj Adhikari, Megha Raj Banjara, Upendra Thapa Shrestha, Kamala Thriemer, Ric N. Price & Prakash Ghimire 
BMC Research Notes 12, 537 (2019)

Utilization and cost of electronic resources in adult cancer center
Fatma Maraiki, Siobhan Kelly, Mohamed Ahmed, Sakra Balhareth, Tusneem Elhasan, Mahmoud Aljurf & Shouki Bazarbashi 
BMC Research Notes 11, 516 (2018)

Implementing an electronic medication overview in Belgium
Hannelore Storms, Kristel Marquet, Katherine Nelissen, Leen Hulshagen, Jan Lenie, Roy Remmen & Neree Claes 
BMC Research Notes 7, 915 (2014) 

New Content ItemDr. Diego A. Forero, MD, PhD is currently Professor and Research Leader at the School of Health and Sport Sciences, Fundación Universitaria del Área Andina (Bogotá, Colombia). He is a Medical Doctor (Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia) and has a PhD in Biomedical Sciences (University of Antwerp, Belgium). Dr. Forero has produced a significant amount of research in human genetics and genomics, with over 100 international scientific publications. He is a Senior Editorial Board Member for BMC Research Notes and has been a peer reviewer for numerous international publications, as well as academic and scientific institutions.

Annual Journal Metrics

  • 2022 Citation Impact
    1.8 - 2-year Impact Factor
    4.0 - 5-year Impact Factor
    0.869 - SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper)
    0.534 - SJR (SCImago Journal Rank)

    2023 Speed
    20 days submission to first editorial decision for all manuscripts (Median)
    191 days submission to accept (Median)

    2023 Usage 
    4,067,459 downloads
    2,370 Altmetric mentions

Sign up for article alerts and news from this journal