Success story
Ten years of data converted into evidence
Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology of a university hospital.
Clinical research and hospital care.
From a clinical database to a high-impact scientific publication
For more than ten years, a Traumatology department at a university hospital had compiled surgical outcomes in an internal database containing information on around 400 patients.
Despite the volume and potential value of the data, the registry had never been transformed into a scientific publication. A lack of time, limited methodological resources, and some issues within the database itself had hindered progress in previous attempts.
Current need
The challenge was recover the scientific value of a clinical registry accumulated over years and turn it into solid, publishable research, without adding a significant workload to the medical team.
To this end, it was necessary:
- Review the quality and consistency of the available data.
- Fix encoding issues, duplicates, and tracking losses.
- Identify a viable and scientifically interesting research question.
- Apply statistical analysis appropriate to the longitudinal nature of the registry.
- Develop the project until its publication, reducing the operational involvement of the clinical team to a minimum.
- Explore new research lines based on the same database.
How do we approach it?
From OMEDICS We take on the methodological and editorial management of the project, supporting the clinical team from the initial data review to the publication process.
Our work included:
- Complete database audit and debugging.
- Review of record quality, coding, and structure.
- Joint selection with the clinical team of the research question with the highest potential.
- Design and execution of the statistical analysis.
- Complete writing of the scientific manuscript.
- Target journal selection and submission preparation.
- Management of revisions and response to reviewer comments.
Results
- Paper accepted in a first-quartile indexed journal.
- Transformation of over ten years of untapped clinical data into publishable scientific evidence.
- Two new papers in preparation from the same registry.
- Harnessing the potential of a single database to generate new lines of research.
- Minimal workload for the medical team, focused primarily on providing clinical judgment and reviewing drafts.
