Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has underscored the importance of real world data in everyday clinical practice and has highlighted some long-standing problems of our healthcare system such as gaps in primary data collection, hurdles in the evaluation of patient data, and complexity regarding the data exchange between different institutions. In addition, changes in physician-patient relationships such as transitions from a paternalistic to a partnership-based relationship model as well as increasing digitalization have shaped our modern understanding of healthcare, emphasizing the issue of patient autonomy and self-efficacy and highlighting the need for innovative, patient-centered approaches.
Methods: Using the patient journey as a theoretical construct, we describe the collection of different types of real world data, their meaning and handling.
Conclusion: Mapping the patient journey process combined with a widely used data standard can lead to the acquisition of primary data in the healthcare sector which can be used by all medical treatment institutions. This will lead to an exchange of valuable data between institutions and circuit the current problem of proprietary formats. Furthermore, the evaluation of patient-reported outcomes as a standard in the clinical routine could enhance patients' autonomy and optimize treatment. Thus, the overall treatment effectiveness and survival of patients can be improved by creating a common data language and using a holistic, human-centered care approach through integrating perspectives of patients and their loved ones.
