Abstract
Background The Virtual Data Warehouse (VDW) was created as a mechanism for producing comparable data across sites for purposes of proposing and conducting research. The database is “virtual” in the sense that the data remain at the local sites; there is no multi-site physical database at a centralized center. At the core of the VDW are a series of standardized file definitions. Content areas and data elements that are commonly required for research studies are identified, and data dictionaries are created for each of the content areas, specifying a common format for each of the elements—variable name, label, description, code values, and value labels. Local site programmers have mapped the data elements from their HMO’s data systems into this standardized set of variable definitions, names, and codes, as well as onto standardized SAS file formats. This common structure of the VDW files enables a SAS analyst at one site to write one program to extract and/or analyze data at all participating sites.
Methods This poster demonstrates the wide range of data sources used at Scott & White to feed information into our local implementation of the VDW datasets.
Results Scott & White local implementation of the VDW contains detailed medical information on Scott & White Health Plan (SWHP), EMR (Electronic Medical Records), Lab Services, Pharmacy Department, State Death Data, State Provider Data, CENSUS Bureau Data and Medical Staff Services Data from year 2001 to present. The VDW tumor data are loaded from the Scott & White Tumor Registry. VDW tables are built and maintained from these different sources within Scott & White.
Conclusions The VDW at Scott & White provides an easily employed unified central repository of data from all available source files. This resource enables the sharing of compatible data in multi-site studies, and also improves programming efficiency, accuracy, and completeness for local single site studies by expending resources to link these legacy systems only once.
