Researchers at Marshfield Clinic want to speed up their understanding of rare diseases and find cures — by learning how to store, share and use medical records created by universities and clinics across the country.
The clinic, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Michigan are taking part in a pilot project led by Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland to test the effectiveness of a system. The group will share records on sleep disorders because diagnosing sleep apnea involves large amounts of data, said Dr. Justin Starren, who leads the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation’s efforts to better apply information technology to health and medical research.