PennChart Internal Registries at PennMedicine

Registries

A registry is a collection of information relevant to a topic or population.

  • Inclusion criteria: Who’s in?
    • It is pre-defined at the enterprise level, no need to re-define each time
    • Every report is derived from the same population and metrics, reducing variability
  • Metrics: What do you want to know about them?
    • It takes a snapshot of the included patients in time: which medications are they taking, when was their last inpatient admission, when was their last PCP visit, their vitals, etc.

The structure of registries consists of two types of behind-the-scenes processes:

  • Population processes evaluate each patient row to determine which qualify for the registry.
  • The data is extracted to Clarity as a separate table for each registry which simplifies internal and external reporting 

Registry Uses:

Registries identify a population of patients (e.g. all diabetic patients) seen at our health system and track metrics related to that condition (e.g. last blood sugar, last blood pressure, last office visit, last eye exam, current diabetic medications...) 

Having this information in one location simplifies the process of monitoring and reaching out to such a population. Physicians might want to see an electronic list of all their diabetic patients with A1C>9 who have not been seen in the last 6 months. Physicians can also review a dashboard of all their patients in a registry that displays a summary of selected metrics.

Instead of requiring painstaking manual review or report distribution, the registry can gather the information automatically in the background according to logic defined by our health system. Registry information is also moved to our reporting system each night to simplify the work of report writers and researchers who have a single source for the common metrics defined for each population.

 

Leveraging or Building a Registry

Work flow:

We are very happy to hear that you are interested in working with data.  Please follow these simple steps to request registry modification or build:

  1. Review the “Active PennChart Registries at Penn Medicine” catalog and the “Inactive PennChart Registries” catalog
  2. Download this MS Word Document
  3. Fill in the fields which are pertinent to your data request and indicate is this a request to modify/enhance existing registry or create a new one (Epic or custom)
  4. Please submit a request via IS Service Portal to Data Analytics Services with the document attached and with the subject line reading "Data Analytics Center Registry Request".

You will then be contacted by a member of the Data Analytics Reporting Team.  We will take great care of you and make sure your needs are realized.