PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Peterson, Kevin A.
AU  - Fontaine, Patricia
AU  - Speedie, Stuart
TI  - The Electronic Primary Care Research Network (ePCRN): A New Era in Practice-based Research
AID  - 10.3122/jabfm.19.1.93
DP  - 2006 Jan 01
TA  - The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine
PG  - 93--97
VI  - 19
IP  - 1
4099  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/19/1/93.short
4100  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/19/1/93.full
SO  - J Am Board Fam Med2006 Jan 01; 19
AB  - The electronic Primary Care Research Network (ePCRN) is an electronic infrastructure that facilitates the conduct of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in primary care and promotes the translation of research findings into practice. It provides a highly secure, Internet-based electronic infrastructure that will enable primary care practices anywhere in the United States to link with researchers in academic centers or the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to facilitate recruitment, entry, and follow-up of participants in multidisciplinary RCTs. The ePCRN also establishes a standardized clinic-based registry using distributed database technology to promote the translation of research findings into practice and to facilitate the process of clinical trials recruitment. The overall goals of the ePCRN are to provide the ability to perform large national collaborative studies throughout the United States, improve efficiency and reduce costs for individual trials, provide easier access for data retrieval and analysis, and involve primary care practices in the discovery and the translation of research findings into practice.