Web-based Prototype for Graphical Exploration of FHIR® Questionnaire Responses

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Data Visualization
• Empirical Research Methodology

Background:

• Clinical questionnaire evaluation is crucial for empirical research.
• Electronic health records use standards like HL7 FHIR® for data exchange and interoperability.
• Accessing and interpreting structured FHIR data for research can be challenging without specialized tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design a web-based graphical exploration tool for categorical questionnaire response data.
• To enable non-technical users to visually access and interpret highly structured FHIR data.
• To facilitate arbitrary data exploration tasks with user-configurable data subselection.

Main Methods:

• Development of a web application interacting with FHIR-conformant HTTP endpoints.
• Implementation of a universal, user-configurable data subselection mechanism.
• Generation of one- and two-dimensional charts based on selected data subsets.

Main Results:

• A functional web-based graphical exploration tool for FHIR questionnaire response data was developed.
• The tool provides simplified, direct visual access to structured FHIR data.
• The prototype demonstrated applicability in exploring synthetic FHIR data.

Conclusions:

• The developed tool enhances accessibility and interpretability of FHIR-encoded questionnaire data for researchers.
• It empowers non-technical users to perform complex data exploration tasks.
• The open-source code facilitates broader adoption and further development.