Journal of internal medicine
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A solid foundation of evidence of the effects of an intervention is a prerequisite of evidence-based medicine. The best source of such evidence is considered to be randomized trials, which are able to avoid confounding. ⋯ Randomized point-of-care trials have been initiated recently to recruit and follow patients using the data from EHR databases. In this review, we describe how EHR databases can be used for conducting large-scale simple trials and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of their use.
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Inter-individual variability in drug responses is a common problem in pharmacotherapy. Several factors (non-genetic and genetic) influence drug responses in patients. ⋯ This review describes the definition of pharmacogenetics, gene selection and study design for pharmacogenetic research. It also summarizes the potential of linking pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacogenetics (along with its strengths and limitations) and provides examples of pharmacogenetic studies utilizing electronic health record databases.