Monday, December 14, 2015
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Journal Entry 7
Frances
M. Brzycki Module 7
Why was this article,
blog, post, or multimedia chosen?
This article was selected because it ties into our module with looking
at the future of database technology. I’m always interested in seeing what the
experts think about the future of technology and seeing if I agree or disagree
with their way of thinking.
What makes it interesting, appropriate, or
reputable?
Michael
Stonebraker “is a lightning rod in the database world and knows his stuff”
(Harris, 2013). He is making five predictions regarding the future of databases
in the twenty-first century.
Is it an
opinion? Case study? Research study? Product review?
This article
is based on Michael Stonebraker’s opinion who is a leader in the database
field.
What was the
need, problem, issue or trend addressed in the article, blog, post, or
multimedia?
The author wanted
to share with the user some key database management system (DBMS) considerations
regarding technology prior to selecting a tool.
What was the
solution for which technology had an answer?
The solution
was providing the key decision-maker with the information and knowledge to consider
before bringing in-house a new database management system (DBMS). The five
points to consider include: one size will fit none (consider both SQL and NoSQL
to solve your problem), there’s room for a lot of winners (look at the new
database system architecture before reverting to legacy relational database
systems),
NoSQL will
come back down to earth (this product will embrace the Atomicity, Consistency,
Isolation and Durability (ACID) for performance and scalability), Oracle will
feel the squeeze from SAP (these two corporations compete for customers),
Facebook will keep searching for a MySQL replacement (according to Stonebraker
Facebook needs to find a more state-of-the-art DBMS solution instead of
resorting to legacy system technology) (Harris, 2013).
What implications
might this have in healthcare delivery?
Database tools are needed to solve healthcare delivery problems. The
strategic leaders in the organization need to evaluate the benefits and
barriers or bringing a SQL versus NoSQL product in-house. For example, looking at data storage SQL uses
a relational model comprised of rows and columns. Rows contain all of the
information about one specific entity and columns are all the separate data
points. NoSQL encompasses a host of databases each with different data storage
models. The main ones are documents, graph, key-value and columnar. Another
example is scalability of a product. SQL scaling is vertical meaning more data
and therefore needing a bigger server which can be expensive. NoSQL scaling is
horizontal across servers meaning multiple servers can be an inexpensive commodity
or cloud instance resulting in cost-savings instead of vertical scaling. You
can partition complex operations across many servers/disks and have it work
really fast. It all depends on your assessment and selecting the right tool to
solve the problem. .
What did you learn from it that might
have application for your practice?
This article
solidified my opinion that different databases can be beneficial for solving
complex business or healthcare needs and all these databases can share the same
“database space” e.g., Oracle versus NoSQL.
The bottom-line is the seasoned developer needs to do their due diligence
in determining which database product will deliver the best end product for the
client or patient that solves their problem. Databases are tools and the
software developer needs to determine if the flathead screwdriver (NoSQL) or Philips
screwdriver (Oracle) is needed to do the job.
References
Harris, D. (2013). 5
Predictions on the Future of Databases (From a Guy Who Knows Databases).
Retrieved from https://gigaom.com/2013/12/14/5-predictions-on-the-future-of-databases-from-a-guy-who-knows-databases/
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Journal Entry 6
Frances
M. Brzycki Module 6
Why was this
article, blog, post, or multimedia chosen?
This article
was selected because I was curious in discovering how enterprises are
leveraging Knowledge Management (KM) and Intellectual Capital (IC) in
information systems in the twenty-first century. The successful enterprise
information systems integrates both KM and IC (Demigha, 2015).
What makes
it interesting, appropriate, or reputable?
Demigha examines a practical methodology that aligns
the KM components comprised of people,
processes and technology with the IC components of human capital, relational
capital e.g., marketing communications between customers and suppliers and
structural resources e.g., processes in organizational culture.
Is it an
opinion? Case study? Research study? Product review?
This article
is based on a research study conducted in Paris France by the department of
Computer Science.
What was the
need, problem, issue or trend addressed in the article, blog, post, or
multimedia?
The author wanted
to educate the user on the best KM methodology to meet their need. The author analyzed
the process-centered and product-centered approach. The process-centered
"understands KM as a social communication process" and
product-centered "focuses on knowledge documents, their creation , storage
and reuse in computer-based corporate memories" (Demigha, 2015). Demigha
research team went with the integrated Business Process Management (BPM) approach. The author believed knowledge is key and is
integrated in the business on many levels e.g., contextual, experimental.
What was the
solution for which technology had an answer?
The integrated
Business Process Management (BPM) approach provided several advantages for KM.
Some of these advantages include providing relevant context and navigation in
Knowledge Management Systems (KMS), integrating KM towards the value chain,
applying widely accepted management methods and supporting KM processes that
impact KMS design and integration (Demigha, 2015). BPM is
designed to model enterprise wide business process solutions.
What
implications might this have in healthcare delivery?
These organized integrated business process workflows help health care
delivery organizations and systems identify and streamline their redundant information
bottle necks and strive for systems that are more efficient between departments
and ultimately organizations. Enterprise success depends on how knowledge is
acquired, used and shared in a project or program. Process cycle of knowledge
allows enterprises to enhance their organizational learning. It has been proven
that IC can positively and significantly influence KM productivity (Demigha, 2015).
What did you learn from it that
might have application for your practice? I learned that KM uses both explicit and tacit knowledge. Explicit
knowledge is existing knowledge that is captured and disseminated. Tacit knowledge is new knowledge that is
spread throughout an organization. KM has two key roles: capture and document
individual explicit and tacit knowledge and disseminate this knowledge within
an organization (Demigha, 2015).
References
Demigha, S. (2015). Knowledge
Management and Intellectual Capital in an Enterprise Information System. Retrieved
from http://search.proquest.com/openview/dd82218cdc957bbc799150e69dc20825/1?pq-origsite=gscholar
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Journal Entry 5
Frances
M. Brzycki Module 5
Why was this
article, blog, post, or multimedia chosen?
One of the
many hats I wear is the role of a data analyst. I found this article to peek my
interest and wanted to explore what additional skills Russ found important that
an effective analyst should possess. “I found 90-95 percent of my time was
spent managing data, not analyzing it. I didn’t have the tools I needed”
(Staheli, 2011).
What makes it
interesting, appropriate, or reputable?
Russ examines
the healthcare data analysis lifecycle. He states “there are three stages of
transforming raw data into meaningful analytics: data capture, data
provisioning and data analysis”.
Is it an
opinion? Case study? Research study? Product review?
This article
is an expert opinion by Russ
Staheli who
specializes in quality performance outcome and analysis.
What was the
need, problem, issue or trend addressed in the article, blog, post, or
multimedia?
The author wanted
to educate the user on the healthcare data analysis lifecycle comprised of data
capture e.g., people, processes, and devices being in the right format, data
provisioning that enable clinicians to work through quality improvement issues
and lastly data analysis examining data quality, data discovery, interpretation
and presentation.
I found it
interesting that you need to perform each one of these steps in order to
achieve sustainable, meaningful healthcare analytics and not to do these as
separate steps. “Interpretation is the step most people think of when analyzing
data. It turns out it is the smallest sub-step in a long process” (Staheli,
2011).
What was the
solution for which technology had an answer?
Besides having
a robust Enterprise Data Warehouse to help the analyst in their
problem-solving. The article suggested to provide analyst with a “sandbox” to
tinker and test their findings. To me this is a no brainer when you are doing “what
if” analysis and want to test out your hypothesis prior to moving the changes into
a production environment. Staheli suggests the analyst need the right tools to
perform his/her job. For instance, business intelligence (BI) tools to forecast,
trends graphics etc. and trend data. Lastly,
the analyst should have direction that allow them to drill down on the data.
What
implications might this have in healthcare delivery?
You can have the best data, however if it isn’t presented in a logical,
organized fashion and not understood it doesn’t provide meaning to the reader. I’m
of the opinion the presenter needs to be the story teller to weave the picture of
the problem that is being analyzed and provide possible alternatives if they
exist.
What did you learn from it that might
have application for your practice? I
look forward to reading the book regarding “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information”
that examines the best way to display data for precise, effective, quick
analysis using statistical graphics and detailed analysis.
References
Staheli, R. (2011). 4 Ways Healthcare Data Analysts Can Provide
Their Full Value Retrieved from https://www.healthcatalyst.com/healthcare-analytics-best-practices
Journal Entry 4
Frances
M. Brzycki Module 4
Understanding
The Healthcare Database: Purposes, Strengths, and Weaknesses Drew Cardon URL
Why was this
article, blog, post, or multimedia chosen?
I'm always
interested in learning what experts deem good design when building Online
transactional processing (OLTP) databases. I access many third party databases and
home-grown databases and I’ve seen both good and poor design. I’m of the opinion solid design is key to
building an effective and powerful database tool and the time invested in doing
this upfront is well spent. Electronic Health Record (EHR) is an example of an
OLTP. The main strength of an OLTP is speed (Cardon, 2011).
What
makes it interesting, appropriate, or reputable?
Supporting key
decision-makers in both the hospital and physician setting I see my share of
OLTP clinical systems ranging from CPOE, Finance and claim data to name a few.
Some of these databases are integrated and some of them are not. That is were the challenge exists for both
the clinical business users that analyze the data and the information
technology department that maintain the backend of these OLTP applications. For
instance, our organization just rolled out the ICD-10 codes from ICD-9,
needless to say this was a mammoth undertaking with extensive collaboration and
coordination between the business and information technology teams.
Is it an
opinion? Case study? Research study? Product review?
This article
is an expert opinion by Drew
Cardon who
specializes in data architect and information technology implementation.
What was the
need, problem, issue or trend addressed in the article, blog, post, or
multimedia?
The author wanted
to educate the user on how databases worked and the role they play in healthcare.
One of the biggest benefits of OLTP is the amount of data that can be captured
and stored. This data can be transformed
into business intelligence and enabling key stakeholders to make better informed
decision for patient care and cost-saving metrics (Carlson, 2011). As Carlson pointed out the benefit of having
all this data is also a curse. Too much
data can cause information overload to CEOs to clinicians. The information
needs to be “targeted and actionable” per Carlson.
What was the
solution for which technology had an answer?
The solution
to manage all this data is called “Enterprise Data Warehouse” (EDW). The database to manage this is called Online Analytical
Processing or OLAP for short.
What
implications might this have in healthcare delivery?
Both OLAP and
OLTP have a place in the organization. These are both tools and like any good tool
they need to perform the job they were designed to do. The OLAP tool will focus on analytical data
mining and the OLTP tool will focus on the transaction processing regarding
data and information for the business.
What did you learn from it that might
have application for your practice?
Just like a
good cook a good software developer has tools that perform specific
functions to accomplish a goal and this needs to be kept in mind when feeling
overwhelmed with the flood of raw data.
References
Cardon, D. (2011). Understanding The Healthcare Database: Purposes,
Strengths, and Weaknesses
Retrieved from https://www.healthcatalyst.com/healthcare-database-purposes-strengths-weaknesses
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Frances M. Brzycki Module 3
How
to design next-generation EHR data models, Shahid Shah URL
Why
was this article, blog, post, or multimedia chosen?
I'm
always interested in learning what experts deem good design when building
and/or modifying existing EHR data models.
I've worked on EHRs that were designed well and ones that weren't. This topic is germane to our database discussion
in class. Today's patient management team provides disjointed care and don't
know what each other is doing for the patient in real-time (Shah, 2012).
What
makes it interesting, appropriate, or reputable?
Working
in information and business for over 30 years it was encouraging to read that
in designing a successful system the people on the project team must be
comprised of both the clinical user and information technology specialist. The significant observation is the team isn't
purely comprised of business users and vice versa not comprised of only
technical experts. It needs to be a team
of hybrid stakeholders. I'm of the
opinion it's all about engaging your user and giving them a great experience
when using the application or system. If this isn't a core objective the system
won't be used.
Is
it an opinion? Case study? Research study? Product review?
This
article is an expert opinion by Shahid Shah who specializes in
healthcare IT enterprise software
with an emphasis on EHR.
What
was the need, problem, issue or trend addressed in the article, blog, post, or
multimedia?
The
author shared with the reader it is important to have clinicians "not a
bunch of engineers and other geeks around a table" (Shah, 2012) when
building a system. Additionally, "data modeling is about
understanding all of the users of the data, the relationships, attributes and
most importantly how the data management will grow and change in the
future" (Shah, 2012).
What
was the solution for which technology had an answer?
Besides
understanding the needs of all the users of the data, building primary and
foreign keys that provide flexibility when searching and querying the data is
paramount in solid data model EHR design. Additionally, Shah supports long-term
storage and change management control of all entity attribute that are updated
in the system.
What
implications might this have in healthcare delivery?
I
have mixed feelings about this data model design. While flexibility is
important to building good EHR primary and foreign keys for efficiencies the
designer can take this too far and over engineer the primary and foreign keys
and bring the system down regarding speed.
The bottom-line the designer needs to be mindful and build a system that
has a good balance between efficiency
and speed.
What
did you learn from it that might have application for your practice?
As a software developer I would be
mindful and build a system
that has a good balance between
efficiency and speed. I would not over
engineer the primary and foreign keys.
References
Shah, S. (2012). How to design next-generation EHR data
models. Healthcare IT News. Retrieved from http://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/how-design-next-generation-ehr-data-models
Monday, October 5, 2015
Journal Entry 2
Frances
M. Brzycki Module 2
Why
your company should care about its database, Andrew Nusca URL
Why was this article, blog,
post, or multimedia chosen?
Foundation
is critical to how queries and reporting is done on data. If you don't have a
strong "blue print" regarding design it will impact your retrieval
time. In the 21st century end users don't want to wait for their information. I
want to learn best practices companies deployed regarding solid database design
and see if I agree with them. Today’s businesses live and die by
their applications, which means that the plumbing matters. (Nusca, 2015). The plumbing he is referring to is the system
architecture.
What makes it interesting, appropriate, or
reputable?
I work in healthcare and manipulate data for key
decision-makers. I see how good and bad design of databases impact the
retrieval time regarding obtaining information. It is critical to know your
data and what makes the best index in manipulating this data e.g., primary key
or foreign key. Your query retrieval can
be seconds or minutes depending on your design considerations and planning done
upfront. I'm always assessing and
evaluating how I can make data retrieval tools better for my end-users when it
comes to shifting through vast amounts of data or cloud computing. I'm of the
opinion it's all about engaging your user and giving them a great experience
when using the application or system.
Is it an opinion? Case study? Research study?
Product review? This article is both an opinion and product
review.
What was the need, problem, issue or trend
addressed in the article, blog, post, or multimedia?
The author shared with the reader it is important
to have a business model that reflected the needs of his/her customers to have
a competive edge in the 21st century if they want to play in the space of
online computing. An example given was the online publishing business needed to
change its business model from a brick and mortar to online "real
time" model e.g., McGraw-Hill.
What was the solution for which technology had an
answer?
Database designs that are scalable,
performance-driven and reflect the organizations business model are paramount
to survive in the market place today. The product NoSQL is a tool that claims
provides this level of service to its clients by using "distributed
processing" opposed to "central processing". Their claim is to
spread the database out over several processors as opposed to one main
processor.
What implications might this have in healthcare
delivery?
I have mixed feelings about this tool. The approach
to "distribute" the database sounds feasible however, there needs
additional investigation to be done regarding software licenses and hardware
costs in addition to security considerations e.g., HIPAA and PHI that are spread out over multiple client
sites. I'm not running out to purchase this package right away.
What did you learn from it that might have
application for your practice? As a software developer this tool claims vendors have a
schema-less database model that can be easy to use when working with formats
that aren't rigid compared to relational databases that are very structured. I
would like time to test this tool with the huge databases that are required to
shift through regarding claim and client data to see if it might have a
potential fit within my organization.
References
Nusca, A. (2015). Why your company should
care about its database. Fortune. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2015/01/29/couchbase-nosql-database/
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