Director of Clinical Research Informatics Matthew Wyatt and his Research Data Group team are now able to obtain previously unavailable variables in electronic health records through the use of text analytics. The technology and tools that allow this capability are only used within the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science, and have been used in various research efforts.

The cohort development process allows the Research Data Group to better identify and recruit patients for research efforts in clinical trials. An example of this can be recently found in an effort that assisted a pilot program of UAB’s Division of Rheumatology and Immunology, focusing on lupus studies and early lupus detection.

The Research Data Group was able to extract and implement the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) data from the clinic note of the program, significantly decreasing the number of patients needing to be tested for early signs of lupus.