Current Status of Computerization of Multiple Sclerosis Clinical Data for Research in Europe and North America

Abstract

Practical consequences of the combination of standardization and computerization are numerous. Medical practice is easier owing to the rapid access to the relevant features of the records and their display in a convenient, compact, and attractive format. Within and among centers using the same standards, selection of appropriate files, exchange of data, and comparisons of individual studies are made easy. But another critical issue is the possibility for pooling files from various centers for common studies. Information about a critical mass of patients thus becomes available and enables one to address classic questions with more efficiency than with conventional records ^[1-6], but also allows one to ask new questions that could not have been addressed at the level of a single center ^[7-10].