Data Integration within Health.

"The process of merging or joining one or more data sources to provide a single comprehensive data set"

Data integration is a term which covers a myriad of interfacing issues within Health.
Whether passing test results from a lab system to a patient's electronic case note or pulling waiting times from an outpatient system into an administrative report, data integration plays a major role in Health.

Increased reporting requirements often mean that data must be pulled from multiple sources to compile the required returns.
We have a comprehensive suite of tools that enable us to develop interfaces that pull information from legacy systems and integrate it into a single coherent data store or report.

Our integration toolkit consists of:-

1. A range of bespoke Web Service components that expose business logic and data in a secure form to other applications regardless of the technology/platform.
2. Scripted telnet components which are capable of driving legacy, dumb-terminal applications. These components enable data to flow both in and out of these legacy applications.
3. We have a good knowledge of the Reality Operating System and have worked with Health Authorities such Addenbrooke's in Cambridge in developing integration solutions that sit on top of Reality.
4. Experience of using Microsoft .net in the private sector. A strong working knowledge of .Net allows us to develop powerful .net components that communicate with or manage other .net components.
5. A working knowledge of COM and DDE. This enables us to manage COM components and applications that support DDE.

Not only can data be pulled from one system and fed into another, it is also possible to extend existing data sets by adding new screens that capture missing data elements. For example, System "A" captures a patients demographic information and religious background but not their wishes on organ donation or in the event of, say, resuscitation. A new application "B" can be developed that captures all of the demographic as well as these extra data elements. The demographic details can be passed back to system "A" and the extra data stored in a new parallel database thus reducing data duplication and storage needs.