A system and method for performing medical research over an extended computer network is disclosed. The system and method comprise a plurality of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems configured to capture patient data for a plurality of general patients at a plurality of corresponding healthcare provider sites during encounters with those patients, a research system configured to generate one or more electronic documents for completion with patient data that is related to the medical research, and an enhanced services server built on the same architecture as the plurality of EHR systems, wherein the one or more electronic documents include one or more first fields and one or more second fields for completion with patient data that is related to the medical research and the enhanced services server is in electronic data communication with the plurality of EHR systems and the one or more research systems via a network connection. Qualifying patients are identified from among the plurality of general patients and the first fields in each of the electronic documents are automatically populated with patient data for a corresponding qualifying patient. The one or more electronic documents that were automatically populated with patient data is electronically transmitted to at least one EHR system via the network connection, and the at least one EHR system is used to complete the second fields in each of the electronic documents during subsequent patient encounters. The completed electronic documents are electronically transmitted from the at least one EHR system to the enhanced services server, which electronically transmits the completed electronic documents back to the research system via the network connection.