Opportunities and Challenges in Using Electronic Health Record Systems to Study Postacute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Insights From the NIH RECOVER Initiative
The benefits and challenges of electronic health records (EHRs) as data sources for clinical and epidemiologic research have been well described. However, several factors are important to consider when using EHR data to study novel, emerging, and multifaceted conditions such as postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection or long COVID. In this article, we present opportunities and challenges of using EHR data to improve our understanding of long COVID, based on lessons learned from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded RECOVER (REsearching COVID to Enhance Recovery) Initiative, and suggest steps to maximize the usefulness of EHR data when performing long COVID research.
Authors
- Thomas W. Carton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0059-1990)
- Mark G. Weiner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5586-9940)
- L. Charles Bailey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8967-0662)
- Carlos R. Oliveira (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1897-6581)
- Hanieh Razzaghi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5001-1590)
- Hannah Mandel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5685-9602)
- Shruti Shah (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0715-3187)
- Rainu Kaushal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4694-2517)
- Gelise L. Thomas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7515-1642)
- Mady Hornig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7572-3092)
- Jasmin Divers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0120-7620)
- Melissa Haendel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9114-8737)
- Shari Esquenazi-Karonika (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2040-0250)
- Suchitra Rao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0334-6301)
- Lorna E. Thorpe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5535-2674)
- Alice Perlowski
- Emily Pfaff (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6840-9756)
- Elle Seibert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6262-3965)
- Yu Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1519-4894)
- RECOVER EHR Cohort
Institutions
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- UNC Libraries
- Published
- 2025-03-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.17615/cznc-7264
- Primary Topic
- Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00