Clinical data consist of information ranging from determinants of health and measures of health and health status to documentation of care delivery. These data are captured for a variety of purposes and stored in numerous databases across the healthcare system. Advances in health information technology (HIT) and analytics raise the potential for these data to be used to fill substantial knowledge gaps in health care, but complicating the needed aggregation and use of these data are technical, cultural, and legal barriers. Although efforts are underway to address technical barriers and privacy concerns, many have suggested that a shift is needed to a data- sharing culture in which clinical data are considered a basic staple of health learning.
