Grant: Operating Grant

With the entry of health care to the electronic age, routinely-collected health data (such as administrative data collected by governments, electronic medical records, and disease registries) are increasingly being used to conduct health research. These types of data are subject to various limitations because they are not being collected for research purposes. Additionally, researchers do not necessarily report the details of their research using these data adequately. Limiting the reporting of results or highlighting only those which are interesting or significant can lead users of the research, such as policy makers and health care providers, to make suboptimal or incorrect decisions that may impact patient care and policy. Reporting guidelines have been shown to improve the transparency of research studies to allow journal editors, peer reviewers and users of the research to understand the strengths and limitations of such studies. In this application, we propose to create guidelines for the REporting of studies Conducted using Observational Routinely collected Data (RECORD). Following a survey of stakeholders who use or conduct research using routinely collected data (including researchers, policy-makers, journal editors and industry representatives), we will develop the guidelines by consensus. Development of the RECORD guidelines will follow in conjunction with members of the STROBE initiative using rigorous methodology. They can then be applied by researchers, journal editors and research consumers to understand the strengths and limitations of research using routinely collected health data.