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While OpenMRS serves as a platform for building a medical record system within a specific healthcare network, it also can provide very valuable data which, when analyzed, creates insight into the disease burden of a region and its population health. A large instance of OpenMRS contains an immense set of data that can significantly benefits benefit individuals that are interested in analyzing it. However, the The question of privacy is always an important consideration with data aggregation - , however – especially with healthcare data as it contains very the personal information of the patients.
The results from the analysis of this anonymous data balances the needs of both the implementers of OpenMRS and the research community. A A closer look at information involving disease burden and population health gives the implementers of OpenMRS a better perspective as to what new features may be needed or old features that need to be updated/improved by the developers. Likewise, the analysis will provide researchers with better knowledge of diseases in specific areas and the burden they place on different parts of that region.
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The objective of the Data Aggregation Module is to aggregate anonymous data across multiple instances of OpenMRS through a REST-LIKE interface. The The module utilizes Hibernate to execute the SQL statement needed to access the requested, anonymous data from the database. Currently, the module supports 2 queries: Tests Ordered and Disease Counts.
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The data can be returned in 3 different file formats: JSON, XML, and CSV. These These file formats are chosen to help organize the data in a way that is easy to graph.
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The Data Aggregation Module is being developed as a result of a collaboration between Moravian College and Merck Pharmaceuticals. Students Students at Moravian College have been working on the development of the module throughout various courses and as independent research. Merck Merck has provided the students with mentoring and support throughout the development.