Database System Design for Clinical Tests Analysis

Data aggregation in healthcare is a vital process that facilitates medical research and analysis, as it provides access to the latest evidence acquired in hospital settings. Collecting many different types of information into one consolidated data asset is crucial for both scientists and managers.Database System Design for Clinical Tests Analysis.

According to Longhurst, Harrington, and Shah (2014), healthcare data in the form of electronic health records (ERDs) can be used for retrospective studies, which can replace randomized controlled trials as a cheaper alternative for acquiring scientific data.Database System Design for Clinical Tests Analysis. Additionally, Ramachandra (2018) states that hospital databases (DBs) can facilitate the work of hospital managers to provide the personnel with all necessary equipment and provisions. The present paper proposes a DB designed to accumulate statistical data for future analysis in the sphere of clinical tests.

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Synapsis

Problem Statement and Key Terms

The effectiveness of clinical tests (CTs) is a major concern for hospital managers and researchers in medicine. According to Manchanda et al. (2014), inefficient screening and testing procedures can be the reason for additional unsuspected spending. Additionally, Ramachandra (2018) points out that one of the most complex challenges for hospital managers to provide all the staff with appropriate authority and resources to perform their duties. A well-organized easy-to-use database dealing with testing procedures may lead to improvements in both spheres mentioned above.

The present paper uses the following key terms:

• Database (DB). A structured set of data stored in a server that is used for effective information organization and retrieval.
• Diagnosis. A condition that a patient may have according to the symptoms.
• Clinical Test (CT). A diagnostic procedure used to detect or monitor medical conditions.

Identifying the Users

The proposed database will be used by medical professionals, hospital managers, researchers, and a system administrator. The group of medical professionals includes doctors, nurses, and laboratory personnel. Database System Design for Clinical Tests Analysis. These users are competent in the medical aspect of the database, as they are mostly aware of the CTs’ names and their prescription guidelines. The second group includes the board of directors and supervisors, who are in charge of identifying the efficiency of medical procedures and creating evidence-based guidelines for the hospital staff.

The researchers are aware of both data organization and the medical aspect. Additionally, the DB will be supported by a system administrator with limited knowledge about the medical issue of the database. The DB proposed in the present paper is designed to meet the need of all the potential users.

The Information Needed

The introduced DB requires compiling a substantial amount of information. First, the DB will include information about all the CTs practiced by a hospital. This information may differ among the facilities and, therefore, needs to individual approach for data aggregation. Second, the proposed design requires entering information about all the doctors and patients of a hospital. This security-sensitive data needs to be entered by a DB administrator with special care. Finally, the DB involves gathering information about all the possible diagnoses, which is a labor-consuming effort. However, the medical conditions are universally accepted, therefore, this part can be pre-entered by the developers. The aggregation is needed to evaluate the efficiency of procedures and create evidence-based hospital policies. Database System Design for Clinical Tests Analysis.

Goals and Objectives

The primary goal of this project is to design a sample DB that will facilitate data mining in the field of CTs. The objectives of the system are:

1. Aggregate all the relevant information described in the previous section;
2. Organize all the data according to relations among the assets;
3. Identify user roles and their rights.

According to Coronel and Morris (2019), as the database will need to describe correlations among therapeutic indications of different substances, the database will have an entity-relational database model.

Steps towards the Goal

Below are the steps suggested by Coronel and Morris (2019) to design an efficient database:

• Step 1. I will discover and describe the business rules of the hospital.
• Step 2. I will choose a data model according to the business process of a medical institution.
• Step 3. I will identify all the entities, attributes, relationships, and constraints of the model.
• Step 4. I will gather all the necessary information that needs to be entered into the database.

Potential Problems

The potential problems are connected to the specific characteristics of the DB and general concerns of implementations of new procedures.Database System Design for Clinical Tests Analysis.  First, the DB requires a large amount of data regarding all the possible diagnoses and CTs that needs to be compiled. Second, there may appear a problem with training the personnel to use the newly-introduced DB, as it may seem overly resource-consuming. Third, the DB deals with security-sensitive data that needs to be adequately protected. In short, the list of potential problems includes objective and subjective factors.

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Hosting Considerations

As the information stored in the proposed database will be in the text rather than multimedia, the server is required to be high-end. Despite the possible security implication, it would be beneficial to use cloud services for hosting, as it is a more cost-effective method of computing (Coronel & Morris, 2019). According to iWeb, the optimal characteristics for the server would be as follows (“Hardware Guide,” n.d.):

The proposed server can be rented and changed if it is underused or does not meet the hospital’s needs.

Required Resources and Estimated Budget

The required resources and estimated budget may differ considerably depending on the staff and equipment used by a hospital. As it was proposed to use cloud computing for data warehousing, the hospital will not need to spend additional money on new computers, or wiring (Coronel & Morris, 2019). The annual cost of DB maintenance will consist of a DB administrator salary of approximately $61,000 a year (“Average systems administrator salary,” n.d.), and payments for the hosting, $3,000 a year (“Hardware Guide,” n.d.).

However, the initial setup cost may be a matter of concern, as it is closely connected to the number of employees hired by the facility. Hospitals will have to pay two additional hours of training for every employee that will be using the database. In summary, the estimated budget needs to be counted specifically for every organization to avoid misleading. Database System Design for Clinical Tests Analysis.