Interview Questions

• Context:

  • What kinds of research questions do you work on? Some examples would be great.

  • Where do you typically get your data? Would getting data from an EMR like OpenMRS be better? How confident are you it would be better?

  • What kind of data, or particular data elements, do you use most often? Please share examples of patient data that you tend to use the most, or find helpful.

    • Do you use or need individual-level health data information?

  • Have you worked with data from an OpenMRS system before? (Examples include UgandaEMR, KenyaEMR, and more.)

    • If yes: Was there anything you found especially easy? Difficult?

    • If no: Have you considered using OpenMRS as a data collection tool for a study? (e.g. like RedCap)

• Process:

  • Describe the process you usually have to go through to get data ready to “work on” or query. (e.g. ETL processes, harmonization, …) What challenges do you often encounter? How much cleaning is typically needed?

  • In your experience, what are some example of data, or a particular system, that was (A) especially easy to use, and then (B) especially difficult to use?

  • Direct connection with Data Set: Do you need an auditable data set that ties to your conclusion?

• Tools:

  • What tools do you use when evaluating data, or in your research flows? Any particular software tools? (e.g. RedCap, SPSS, SAS, any other)

  • What programming languages or frameworks do you like to use to query data? (e.g. SQL, R, Julia, Python)

  • What formats do you prefer to work with data in? e.g. Excel, csv, SQL DBs (MariaDB, MySQL, Postgres, HAPI FHIR), FHIR, etc.

  • Handling Change: What do you do if/when your tools change, e.g. version updates?

  • Have you heard of the OMOP Common Data Model framework?

    • If so, have you used it?

    • If used OMOP CDM before: What was easier? Harder or challenging?

    • Optional: Have you used FHIR to evaluate data?

• Wrap-Up:

  • Is there anyone you recommend we should talk to?