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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: Int J Med Inform. 2011 Apr 22;80(7):533–540. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2011.03.014
What is already known

  • Electronic medical records (EMR) are a powerful tool to facilitate clinical research

  • The EMR has been used to answer questions regarding diagnostic and prescribing patterns in depressive disorders

  • However, less is known about how well medical records reflect clinical presentation at the time of the clinician’s EMR entry
What this study added to our knowledge

  • Our analysis demonstrates that certain administrative and clinical EMR fields may be used to predict PCP assessment of clinical depression with moderate accuracy.

  • Although the EMR has been designed for primarily for administrative and clinical applications, its structure can be adapted for use in research.

  • When using administrative and clinical data in mental health studies, researchers must consider the validity of choosing specific fields within their EMR system in order to define clinical diagnoses.