The impact of future trends in electronic data collection on musculoskeletal research and evidence-based orthopaedic care.

Electronic medical documentation systems offer the greatest potential source of data to enable the evolution to evidence-based musculoskeletal care. To this end, it is important that providers of musculoskeletal care embrace structured medical records systems that record medical information in fields thereby making data easily accessible for the purpose of later analysis. Gathering data in a structured format can be labor intensive but significant time and cost savings are realized by reduced dictation and transcription and the automated output of requisitions and correspondence. Physicians will only use structured electronic records if the system reduces overhead while at the same time minimizing their work load. Since getting information into the system is the greatest impediment to successful implementation of a structured record, the use of Web forms for previsit patient data entry and touch screen handheld computers with wireless connectivity for provider data entry will play an important role in facilitating their adoption. Ultimately, industry-standard, field-naming nomenclature for specific historical features, examination findings, and therapeutic interventions will make data in all documentation systems comparable regardless of vendor. When that day comes, every new patient assessed will be a candidate for a prospective study.