Challenges, facilitators and barriers to the adoption and use of a web-based national IRD registry: lessons learned from the IRD-PT registry

Rare disease registries increase research accessibility for patients, while providing clinicians/investigators with a coherent data ecosystem necessary to boost research and patient care. The IRD-PT registry is a national, web-based, interoperable registry for inherited retinal degenerations (IRDs) designed to generate scientific knowledge and collect high-quality data on the epidemiology, genomic landscape and natural history of IRDs in Portugal. In two years, the number of enrolled patients almost doubled (537 to 1060). Still, the registry has a lower-than-expected adoption rate, with only 4 centers across Portugal actively enrolling patients. This highlights a strong need to understand factors that may be hindering the registry’s nationwide adoption. The purpose of this manuscript is to analyze challenges, facilitators and barriers to the adoption and use of the IRD-PT registry, and to discuss avenues for improvement, focusing on keeping the registry sustainable in the long run. We believe that this exercise may help other rare disease registries to improve user adherence and engagement, ultimately contributing to develop more sustainable and successful registries in the field.