Federating clinical data from six pediatric hospitals: process and initial results from the PHIS+ Consortium

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Informatics
• Health Services Research
• Pediatric Health Data Integration

Background:

• Comparative effectiveness research requires robust data integration across electronic medical record systems.
• The Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) currently holds administrative data from 43 pediatric hospitals.
• Existing data systems lack comprehensive clinical information for advanced research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an enhanced PHIS (PHIS+) by integrating clinical data with existing administrative data.
• To improve the internal and external validity of comparative effectiveness research in pediatric settings.
• To establish a common data repository using a federated data architecture.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing the FURTHeR data federation architecture from the University of Utah.
• Integrating clinical data from member hospitals into the PHIS+ common repository.
• Focusing on the initial phase of federating laboratory data.

Main Results:

• Successfully initiated the process of federating laboratory data from multiple pediatric hospitals.
• Demonstrated the feasibility of integrating disparate clinical data into a unified system.
• Presented preliminary results from the federated lab data.

Conclusions:

• The integration of clinical and administrative data into PHIS+ is a critical step for advancing pediatric research.
• The federated data approach shows promise for enhancing data validity in comparative effectiveness studies.
• Further development and analysis of PHIS+ will yield significant insights into pediatric health outcomes.