Health Affairs

Health Affairs, 26, no. 2 (2007): w192-w194 (Published online 26 January 2007) doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.26.2.w192 © 2007 by Project HOPE	New Online   Getting Health Reform Done   After the State of the Union   Incremental Reform   E-Health in Developing World   Most-Read Articles in 2009

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Information Technology And The Inferential Gap

Jonathan B. Perlin and Joel Kupersmith

In medical practice, an "inferential gap" exists in two contexts: the nonapplication of relevant existing evidence, and the absence of evidence germane to a particular clinical situation. Randomized controlled trials are the current gold standard of evidence development; however, they suffer limits of generalization to the "real world." Conversely, observational studies might be more generalizable but are prone to bias, data inconsistency, and measurement error. The electronic health record offers hope for supporting the real-time presentation of information relevant to a clinical situation and serves as a platform for the conduct of large observational studies and novel quasi-experimental research.

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