Abstract
BACKGROUND: This study aims to understand how secondary use of health records can be done for prediction, detection, treatment recommendations, and related tasks in clinical decision support systems. METHODS: Articles mentioning the secondary use of EHRs for clinical utility, specifically in prediction, detection, treatment recommendations, and related tasks in decision support were reviewed. We extracted study details, methods, tools, technologies, utility, and performance. RESULTS: We found that secondary uses of EHRs are primarily retrospective, mostly conducted using records from hospital EHRs, EHR data networks, and warehouses. EHRs vary in type and quality, making it critical to ensure their completeness and quality for clinical utility. Widely used methods include machine learning, statistics, simulation, and analytics. Secondary use of health records can be applied in any area of medicine. The selection of data, cohorts, tools, technology, and methods depends on the specific clinical utility. CONCLUSION: The process for secondary use of health records should include three key steps: 1. Validation of the quality of EHRs, 2. Use of methods, tools, and technologies with proactive training, and 3. Multidimensional assessment of the results and their usefulness. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO registration number CRD42023409582.