[March 20, 2012] Practice Fusion Puts Big Data to Work for Public Health Tweet SAN FRANCISCO, March 20, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Practice Fusion's Research Division today announced the launch of a new research site at practicefusion.com/research. The site is designed to help public health agencies predict outbreaks, arm physicians with up-to-date information and open up a broader dialogue about health in the tech community. Practice Fusion, the fastest growing Electronic Medical Records (EMR) community in the US, has had a vision for powering clinical research since the company was founded in 2005. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20091118/PFLOGO) In addition to original research conducted by data scientists using the EMR's clinical database, the Research Division invites the EMR company's community of 150,000 medical professionals to suggest research projects and health trends for investigation. Researchers and developers are also encouraged to access a free, de-identified health dataset of 15,000 records through the site to use for their own projects. Practice Fusion's Research Division's data-driven posts showcase the power of clinical research to drive interesting health discoveries, including: The risk of concussions peaks at 16 years old. Boys less than 20 years old are 80 percent more likely to have a concussion than girls of the same age 46 percent of the time patients arrive late to their doctor's appointments at an average of 11 minutes. 70+ year olds are the latest, at an average of 15.5 minutes More than 90 percent of people seek to lose over 10 pounds for their New Years' Resolution, but fewer than 12 percent actually do More at practicefusion.com/research "Big data holds the key to understanding healthcare today and improving it in the future," said Dr. Robert Rowley, Medical Director at Practice Fusion. "Putting this knowledge in the hands of doctors will save lives and enable patients to make informed decisions about their health." Practice Fusion's clinical dataset, with over 30 million records, covers a patient population larger than Kaiser and the Veteran's Administration combined. This data has already been used to track the spread of H1N1 to help physicians obtain vaccines, and Practice Fusion's Research Division is partnering with leading academic institutions and public health agencies to pursue ambitious new health studies. Independent startups, such as 100Plus, have used the de-identified dataset as the foundation for their new businesses. 100Plus recently released an app at SXSW Interactive using the dataset to draw connections between alcohol consumption and life expectancy. About Practice Fusion's Research Division Practice Fusion's Research Division provides information from one of the largest, longitudinal clinical databases in the US for the purposes of clinical research and public health analysis. With a focus on real-time insight into adverse drug reactions, disease outbreaks and other national health issues, Practice Fusion's Research Division powers studies that are providing new insight into healthcare and how it is delivered. All research information utilized is fully de-identified and compliant with HIPAA cfr 164.514. For more information, please visit practicefusion.com/research. Stephanie [email protected] Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link.Robert Rowley, MDhttps://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=93796 SOURCE Practice Fusion [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]