U.S. slow to adopt disease registries

BOSTON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- The United States has been slower than many countries to adopt disease registries -- a way to share disparate data and clinical information -- researchers say.

Stefan Larsson, Peter Lawyer of the Boston Consulting Group, Goran Garellick of the University of Gothenberg in Sweden, Bertil Lindahl of Uppsala University in Sweden and Mats Lundstrom at Lund University in Sweden examined 13 registries in five countries -- Australia, Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

In addition to analyzing both published and unpublished registry data, the study authors interviewed 32

healthcare professionals on how registries function and how they influence clinical practice.

The researchers found registries enable healthcare professionals to engage in continuous learning and identify and share best clinical practices. The authors found many examples where the use of the registry was associated with improvements in health outcomes.

For example, Sweden began a registry for hip replacement surgery in 1979. Since then, Sweden has reduced the number of surgeries that need to be repeated as a share of total hip replacements to 10 percent -- saving about $14 million per year.

If the United States had developed a similar registry for hip-replacement surgery, it would about $2 billion of an expected $24 billion in total costs for these surgeries in 2015, the researchers calculated.

The findings were published online ahead of the January issue of Health Affairs.