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After investigators run queries with i2b2 and receive the patient count or defined a cohort they desire, they often lean on EDW analysts to help them acquire deeper-level information. Take Hannah Eckenrode, for example, researcher at UAB: “With this first step (i2b2), I was able to determine I had the population at UAB, but when I wanted to get more details, like date of diagnosis or medication start date, an analyst was able to pull the more complicated information that I was looking for.”

The analyst that assisted Eckenrode was Dale Johnson, one of 5 EDW analysts on the research team. Johnson provides this example of the wider breadth of data the EDW includes: “Sometimes investigators need to know the data in a temporal sequential setting—how many people have my disease and have a lab value below a certain level and did that lab value increase after the patient received medication? Or someone may want to chart a patient’s progress over time.” Whatever the need may be, the analyst writes those complicated queries and creates data tables that offer convenience for the researcher(s). Johnson shared, “We can place the data in the exact format for how someone wants it, and they can easily extract whatever they need.” The process can take several days, but oftentimes only requires a day.

Fast Facts about EDW:

Provides the ability to: Query inpatient and outpatient data on a near real-time basis (24 hours after occurrence), perform queries with easy to use drag and drop of data objects, format and graphically present a data set or report, schedule reports and deliver to preferred email inbox, view and analyze data from different perspectives, and export a data set in multiple formats for further analysis.

 Data inclusion: The EDW includes most everything in the Electronic Health Record (IMPACT).  This includes visit information, ICD diagnoses, ICD and CPT procedures, medications orders/administrations/dispensing, laboratory orders and results, ICD Problems lists, allergies, immunizations, histories (medical, surgical, social, smoking, pertinent negative medical), notes, vitals and other observations (flow sheet data), OB / Pregnancy and Maternity details. With IRB approval and validation, additional data can be provided.

Additional data access: The analyst is not limited to IMPACT EHR data. They also have access to the tumor registry, OnCore data and data sets made available by other UAB departments.  The team has also taken steps to integrate information on census tract, social determinants of health, area deprivation indices and other geographic-related information to enable population-based research of health disparities.

Interested in connecting with an EDW analyst? Start by sending an email to ccts@uab.edu or by logging in the DataLENS (DataLENS login 'how to' and support can be found here).