Accelerating Multi-site Health Informatics with Streamlined Data Infrastructure using OMOP-on-FHIR

Shriners Children's (SHC) is a hospital system whose mission is to advance the treatment and research of pediatric diseases. SHC success has generated a wealth of clinical data. Unfortunately, barriers to healthcare data access often limit data-driven clinical research. We decreased this burden by allowing access to clinical data via the standardized data access standard called FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources). Specifically, we converted existing data in the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Common Data Model (CDM) standard into FHIR data elements using a technology called OMOP-on-FHIR. In addition, we developed two applications leveraging the FHIR data elements to facilitate patient cohort curation to advance research into pediatric musculoskeletal diseases. Our work enables clinicians and clinical researchers to use hundreds of currently available open-sourced FHIR applications. Our successful implementation of OMOP-on-FHIR within a large hospital system will accelerate advancements in pediatric disease treatment and research.