eRecord-Research Faculty Advisory Committee
Meeting Minutes 9/30/11
Member
Judy Baumhauer
Stephen Breneman
Christine Brower
Cindy Casaceli
Stephen Cook
Carl D'Angio
James Dolan
Kevin Fiscella
Richard Fisher
Tom Fogg
Eva Galka
Present
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Member
David Hackney
Mike Hazard
Susan Hobbs
Samuel Huber
Kathleen Jensen
Michael Keefer
Jennifer Kelly
Tom Mariani
Robert Mayer
Margot Mayer-Proschel
Richard Miller
Present
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Member
Jeffrey Peters
Ruth Anne Queenan
Clement Ren
Jessica Roesser
Eric Rubinstein
Deepak Sahasrabudhe
Manish Shah
Kimberly Van Orden
Ray Zollo
Present
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These minutes were prepared by Mary Little. Please contact her with any comments or corrections.
1. Introduction
 Dr. Michael Keefer gave an introduction regarding how the concept of the eRecord-Research
Faculty Advisory Committee evolved.
2. Overview of the eRecord-Research Project
 Tom Fogg presented an overview of the eRecord-Research Project. The goal of the project is to
identify specific approaches to utilizing healthcare information to improve support for
biomedical research at URMC. This involves not only EPIC, but every system with electronic
information that might be useful for research. The target for completion is the end of the year,
with an end product of recommendations to URMC leadership regarding policies and processes
related to research.
 The overview presented by Tom Fogg has been posted on the eRecord-Research Project
Sharepoint site and may be accessed via the following link:
http://inside.mc.rochester.edu/sites/eRecordResearch/FAC/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllIte
ms.aspx.
3. Faculty Wish List of Research-related Tools, Functionality, Resources or Processes Relative to
Available Electronic Health Information
 Committee members shared the following wish list of research-related tools, functionality,
resources or processes relative to available electronic health information:
 The ability to use patient portals for research. Tom Fogg commented that the use of My
Chart in research has already come up in discussions.
 A movement toward patients needing to opt out rather than having to opt in for research
contact or participation. Eric Rubinstein commented that this is part of a larger policy
discussion and that initially the policy will probably be to opt in for research contact or
participation.
 The ability to access information regarding how many patients have been seen for a
particular condition to find patients who may be able to provide samples for research. The
ability to identify not only patients who meet criteria for research but have some function of
interoperability between research systems so that a researcher can access the needed
information.
eRecord-Research Faculty Advisory Committee
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This researcher’s focus is clinical trials. Can data be obtained from eRecord and preloaded
onto another system? What are some of the regulatory issues that need to be considered –
both at our institution and externally?
Have a way for multiple systems to talk to each other rather than re-entering data multiple
times into multiple systems.
A patient’s agreement to be contacted later for research used to be documented in the
patient chart. Where is it documented now? Is there a place where there is documentation
of whether a patient has been asked whether they can be contacted later for research and
documentation of whether they have already agreed or declined?
The ability to study the physician who is interacting with the electronic medical record
system rather than studying the data. Information in the medical record would be used to
study clinical practice including the observation of utilization of screens, how the system is
being used to capture information in real time, and how it affects behavior during the
encounter.
Can the system be used to provide health services research-quality type of data back to
clinicians for purposes of practice-based learning and development? This would involve
optimization from the clinician standpoint. What are things that clinicians can be
encouraged to do to improve the quality of the database?
Standardize ways across the system for collecting race, ethnicity, educational level, etc. to
ensure that we have high quality data.
Have a place within eRecord for flagging patients that investigators want to contact for
research purposes. Have a place for research reminders in the system.
Have a more direct way to respect the patient’s ability to choose to consent or not to
consent to participate in research that is not dependent upon a busy office staff asking the
patient whether they want to participate.
Make kiosks available for patients to enter data about themselves to improve the quality of
the data and efficiency.
Have a universal policy that everyone gets contacted at least once and also periodically
about research.
Develop a listing of rare diseases and have the ICD9 code trigger an additional prompt that
people with rare conditions/diseases would be contacted for research.
Would like to resolve the problem in family studies of connecting data. For example, is
there a way to connect the data from mothers to the babies that are born to these
mothers?
Would like to use the system to determine feasibility such as learning how many patients
have a particular condition and then identifying patients to recruit for a study. Tom Fogg
recommended viewing of the seminar on i2b2 regarding the extraction of data from the
system in aggregate form. I2b2 is a tool that is not yet fully available to researchers that will
be able to draw out of multiples data systems, including electronic medical records.
Involve patients and the community in determining the acceptable default for research
participation. Involve patients and families in the eRecord-Research working groups.
Obtain input from the Community Advisory Council affiliated with the Center for Community
Health. Engage with them and demonstrate what eRecord can do. Ask whether they would
participate in entering data at a kiosk.
Facilitate recruitment through providing research participants with the opportunity to
participate through web-based approaches including the patient portal.
Need for IT support to able to track use of MyChart as it is rolled out. This will include timestamp data relevant to log-in/log-out time and screens clicked on. This will enable research
related to use of MyChart over time.
Need for systems to ensure that patient demographic data (including those specified under
meaningful use) race, ethnicity, language are collected in a systematic way.
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eRecord-Research Faculty Advisory Committee
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Need for ways to link members of same family in eRecord.
4. Next Steps
 Meeting minutes will be sent out and should be reviewed by committee members to make sure
they are accurate.
 Faculty Advisory Committee comments will be provided to the working groups.
 At the next meeting some of the recommendations that have been developed by the working
groups will be provided to the Faculty Advisory Committee for input. Information regarding the
recommendations will be sent out to the committee prior to the meeting.
 A demo of MyChart is in the process of being scheduled. All will be welcome to attend.
 The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 19, from 8:00-9:00 AM in the Saunders
Research Building, Room 1.301.
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