Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE B.34
End-state architecture.
Once the collective common data warehouse is created, the data in the collective common data
warehouse can easily be interfaced with external data to produce a true scope of analysis.
Figure B.35
shows the ability to bring external data into a special subject area.
Creating the medical data warehouse data model
The data model for the medical data warehouse has a unique characteristic not commonly found else-
where. That characteristic is that the data warehouse model contains many broad classifications of
data for a human being. There are of course standard attributes for a human—gender, age, weight,
and height. Then there are other common attributes, such as blood pressure and blood type. Then
there are many different specific measurements of the human body—liver measurements, kidney
measurements, spleen measurements, cholesterol measurements, and so forth. Some of these meas-
urements are commonly tracked and other measurements are rarely tracked. The data model for the
human body needs to be able to account for
all
of these measurements.
The problem is that any one checkup or report to the data warehouse will contain only a few of
these measurements. In other words there will be many null values in the instance of data embodied
