Homework: Building a Research Query System
                              
            (Introduction to Medical Informatics)
         (http://www.cpmc.columbia.edu/edu/textbook)

The existing CPMC HL7 query facility allows researchers to query
for retrospective data on a given patient. For example, if
the researcher has a list of patients and a list of data
types of interest, the HL7 query facilty allows the
researcher to retrieve the data on those patients for any
given period of time in the past four years. The existing
results broadcast system allows researchers to receive
prospective data on a set of patients. For example, if the
researcher has a list of patients and a list of data types
of interest, the results broadcast system will send the
appropriate data on those patients as it arrives on the
clinical information system. Generally, when a patient
enters a study, the HL7 query facility is used to get the
existing data, and then the results broadcast system is used
to get new data as it appears for that patient.

The problem with these two tools is that they are difficult
to use. The researchers must do the following things:
     
     1. determine what the desired data elements are called
          vocabulary = Medical Entities Dictionary
     2. make sure the data are really available
          schema (no electronic version exists today)
     3. figure out how the data are stored
          schema
     4. build an appropriate query
          HL7 or ressub syntax
     5. retrieve the result
          eg, an ASCII file on cucis, email
     6. translate the result into a format useful to them
          eg, translate HL7 to delimited ASCII
     7. translate the codes to useful terms
          eg, translate from medcodes to readable names

The goal of this project is to present a user interface and
a set of tools available via telnet that can guide the
researcher through these steps. The project can be organized
into these parts:

A. front end - the user interface
     1. logical design of screens and menus
     2. implementation of the design (probably in C++)

B. back end - the data server
     3. access to the Medical Entities Dictionary
     4. schema - knowledge of the data access modules (DAMs)

C. interfaces
     5. definitions APIs among components, including HL7
     6. file I/O, output reports, implement HL7 translations

Each student should take one position on the project (1-6).
Students will work largely in pairs within each of the three
parts (A-C). Everyone will have to work together to get the
thing working. There will be occasional classes devoted to
the project and occasional assignments (eg, present your
design).