Calculating the benefits of a Research Patient Data Repository.

The Research Patient Data Repository (RPDR) is a clinical data registry that gathers medical records from various hospital systems and stores them centrally in one data warehouse. Research investigators can obtain aggregate total of patients that meet specific query criteria and can obtain patient identifiers and complete electronic medical records through the RPDR with IRB approval. The existence of the RPDR is a critical resource to the Partners HealthCare System research community and supports many millions of dollars in clinical research. We have calculated the benefits of such a research system to help justify its establishment in other healthcare entities.