Increasingly data mined from the electronic health record (EHR) are being used in epidemiological research. But more data does not equate to better quality research. This workshop will cover the basics of working with EHRs and designing valid epidemiological analyses. The workshop will include a mix of didactic lecture and interactive group exercises. Participants are requested to provide planned or active research questions in advance, as these will form the basis of the group exercises.

After completing this course, participants will be able to:

• Identify appropriate epidemiological study designs using EHR data for both inpatient and outpatient settings, with particular focus on urban locations.
• Understand the architecture of the EHR along with terminology and data standards.
• Discuss data requirements in the EHR, including data export, linkage, and variable manipulation (e.g., parsing data from free text).
• Identify common pitfalls in working with EHR data and where to go for additional resources.

Prerequisite knowledge: Intermediate knowledge of epidemiology is required.

Technical requirements: There is no required software for the course.