Metadata Driven Integration of Clinical Data for Secondary Use in FHIR - A Pilot Study at the UKSH

The reuse of clinical data from clinical routine is a topic of research within the field of medical informatics under the term secondary use. In order to ensure the correct use and interpretation of data, there is a need for context information of data collection and a general understanding of the data. The use of metadata as an effective method of defining and maintaining context is well-established, particularly in the field of clinical trials. The objectives of this paper is to examine a method for integrating routine clinical data using metadata.

To this end, clinical forms extracted from a hospital information system will be converted into the FHIR format. A particular focus is placed on the consistent use of a metadata repository (MDR).

A metadata-based approach using an MDR system was developed to simplify data integration and mapping of structured forms into FHIR resources, while offering many advantages in terms of flexibility and data quality. This facilitated the management and configuration of logic and definitions in one place, enabling the reusability and secondary use of data.

This work allows the transfer of data elements without loss of detail and simplifies integration with target formats. The approach is adaptable for other ETL processes and eliminates the need for formatting concerns in the target profile.