Patient registries are prospective, systematic data collections, which are non-interventional (observational) in nature and reflect care practices under routine conditions. As a result, they include the most common disease characteristics (e.g. in cancer registries) and/or medical interventions (e.g. in therapy registries). The importance of registries in health services research and in clinical medicine is rapidly increasing. This is due to increasingly scarce resources in the health system and the growing need for data on benefits and efficiency. Registries permit evaluation long-term outcomes on e.g. quality of life, effectiveness as well as treatment quality. An overview of registry methodology from definitions to data analysis is given, existing registries in dermatology in Germany are summarized.
