IHC

Content:
This weak Dr. Parker gave us a lecture of Intermountain Healthcare, an integrated health network based in Salt Lake City,Utah. He introduced us IHC's process for using clinical data and the architecture that supports the process.

The lecture covered Use data to determine areas of opportunity, Construct “Clinical Programs” around the areas of opportunity, Design an evidence based, multidisciplinary approach, Use informatics to assist in achieving the clinical goals, and Measure outcomes. The most important thing I learned is the data architecture they use to integrate information. Dr. Parker used a graph to give us an intuitive understanding. What impress me most is their combination of relational database and object repository. In relational database, data are arranged in tables, so is easy for indexing. While in object repository, complex data are stored in a single field, so is easy for retrieval. Dual storage of clinical information, with relational indexes point to object data, enables both fast indexing and fast retrieval. Another important point is the difference between Clinical Data Repository (CDR) with Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW). The former is patient oriented and optimized for clinical care,  and the latter has various orientations.

Posted by
Jing Lu