information for practice

Patient registries represent a useful tool for a number of purposes. Their ideal use and their role in evidence development, design, operations, and evaluation resemble but differ from clinical trials in a number of substantive ways, and therefore they should not be evaluated with the same constructs. This handbook presents what the contributors and reviewers consider to be good registry practices. Many registries today may not meet even the basic practices described. On the whole, registry science is in an active state of development. This document is an important step in developing this field. This book is divided into three sections: Creating, Operating, and Evaluating Registries.