Federated queries of clinical data repositories: the sum of the parts does not equal the whole.
In 2008 we developed a shared health research information network (SHRINE), which for the first time enabled research queries across the full patient populations of four Boston hospitals. It uses a federated architecture, where each hospital returns only the aggregate count of the number of patients who match a query. This allows hospitals to retain control over their local databases and comply with federal and state privacy laws. However, because [...]
Author(s): Weber, Griffin M
DOI: 10.1136/amiajnl-2012-001299