Medical registries and their use for research projects

Registries provide important real-world data about public health and thus have a major impact on far-reaching political health decisions and medical patient care. In addition, registries contribute to transparency and comparability of medical services and are the basis for epidemiological and clinical research. Last but not least, they play a key role for quality assurance and the development of medical services (Mathis-Edenhofer and Piso 2011). It is therefore hardly surprising that the number of registries in Switzerland is steadily increasing. In order to effectively operate registries and use them for research purposes, it is essential to ensure the quality of the collected data and their compliance with regulatory requirements. This article provides an overview of medical registries by discussing four related questions.