Abstract

A transformation is occurring in hospital record keeping. Paper based systems are being replaced by more and more comprehensive electronic health records. Increasingly, these record all aspects of patients’ physiological, metabolic, and pharmacological trajectories over time, along with phenotypic and other information, which can be retrospectively retrieved for analysis at scale.

Older patients, especially older adult inpatients, are traditionally underserved by clinical research. This inequity in research could inadvertently lead to inequity in healthcare and presents a challenge for all those delivering care to older patients. It is well documented that older adults are frequent users of hospital services, especially emergency care. Therefore, the opportunity to utilise hospital electronic health records to better understand late-life health, and the needs of the older adult patient population, is an attractive prospect.

In this talk I will review experiences at Addenbrooke’s Hospital of using routinely collected hospital data for service evaluation and research in older adults. Can this relatively novel data resource meaningfully add to our ability to address the challenges of frailty and ageing and what are its own advantages and pitfalls?’