Electronic health records as a tool for recruitment of participants' clinical effectiveness research: lessons learned from tobacco cessation

Translating tobacco dependence treatments that are effective in research settings into real-world clinical settings remains challenging. Electronic health record (EHR) technology can facilitate this process. This paper describes the accomplishments and lessons learned from a translational team science (clinic/research) approach to the development of an EHR tool for participant recruitment and clinic engagement in tobacco cessation research. All team stakeholders-research, clinical, and IT-were engaged in the design and planning of the project. Results over the first 17 months of the study showed that over one half of all smokers, coming in for any type of clinic appointment, were offered participation in the study, a very high level of adherent use of the EHR. Study recruitment over this period was 1,071 individuals, over 12 % of smokers in the participating clinics.