Dr Anne Coleman

Synopsis: Knowledge and application of Big Data, the availability of Big Data sets in vision research, and the beneftts and challenges associated with Big Data analyses will open new lines of research to more clinician scientists. Some of the advantages of Big Data are large sample sizes, which allows studying uncommon conditions, diverse groups of enrollees, various settings, and large geographic regions. In addition, the data is faster and less costly to collect, comes directly from medical providers, and longitudinal, and therefore, allows for the assessment of temporal relationships. The IRIS Registry (Intelligent Research in Sight) is the nation?s ftrst comprehensive eye disease clinical database which uses HIPAA compliant methods to collect data from patient records directly from electronic health record systems. Launched by the American Academy of Ophthalmology in 2014, additional advantages of the IRIS Registry include enabling ophthalmologists to improve care delivery and patient outcomes, and helping practices meet requirements of the federal Physician Quality Reporting System.