Electronic health records for diabetes prevention in primary care – A protocol and Academic Registrar research student experience

Objectives

The primary objective of this study was to understand characteristics of patients with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) in primary care electronic health records (EHRs) of the Patron data repository. The secondary objective was to understand the suitability of the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Common Data Model (CDM) mapped Patron student dataset for student research projects.

Methods

The Academic Registrar undertook independent training with online, open-access European Health Data and Evidence Network (EHDEN), Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) and ATLAS resources, as well as internal training with the University of Melbourne Department of General Practice and Primary Care Health and Biomedical Research Information Technology Unit (HaBIC R²) team and Centre for Digital Transformation of Health OMOP Symposium.

Discussion

Due to time constraints of the research student project (initially intended to be a mini-project of up to 2 weeks), the outcome of the project was an example preliminary protocol for future research students. Timelines for ethics approval, data access approval and training in research methods should be considered in the project planning process.

Conclusion

While the objective of this study was to understand characteristics of patients with GDM in the Patron data repository, the training and project planning was identified as being an invaluable experience for research students, positioning them to write feasible and competitive project proposals and grant applications. The OMOP-CDM mapped Patron data repository is suitable for research student projects with sufficient time for training and project planning.