The American Academy of Ophthalmology IRIS® Registry (Intelligent Research in Sight) launched about 2 years ago and has already become the largest national clinical specialty data registry with nearly 50 million patient visits and over 14 million unique patients. The purpose of the registry is to support and promote continued improvement in the delivery of eye care. The perspectives that "big data" encompass are the key issues facing ophthalmology and eye care, including public health and public policy concerning disease incidence and prevalence, utilization of eye care services, natural history of disease, disease surveillance, comparative effectiveness, safety and adverse event monitoring, compliance with "best practices" and clinical guidelines, etc. The valuable real-world and current-day insights provided by the IRIS Registry and other registries like it will accelerate scientific learning and improvements in care delivery, particularly in a cost-constrained environment.
Keywords: Database; Electronic health record; Ophthalmology; Public health; Quality improvement.