Written by Vincent Keunen, founder of Andaman7.  @vincentkeunen 

Andaman7 technology series #5 - A common foundation for care and research

This is the fifth article of our series dedicated to the technology of Andaman7. Our goal with this initiative is to contribute to the field of “health IT” by discussing challenges and possible solutions (more details on these challenges in our article #1). To read the previous articles, start with the first one: Andaman7 technology series #1 - Introduction.

The opinions in these series are our own. They are based on our 25 years of experience in the field building large scale EHRs (Electric Health Record) and medical information exchange systems (1). We share them in good faith to help move the needle forward and inspire others. And of course, we also want to promote our own Andaman7 initiative, a project by patients for patients (2). Terms and acronyms are explained in our lexicon (3). We are open to and welcome discussion on these topics. You can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook and we can also discuss on other media you would like to invite us to.

Today, let’s talk about A common foundation for care and research.

Right from the start, the Andaman7 team wanted to build a set of tools and a global platform that could be used both by care and research actors.  

For the sake of clarity, we define care actors as those interacting directly with patients to help them cure a disease or stay healthy, like doctors, nurses, physical therapists, prevention actors, etc. Those actors usually work with some form of “electronic health record” (EHR) and, more and more, follow EHR standards like HL7, FHIR, LOINC, Snomed, etc.

We  define research actors as those trying to find new molecules, treatments, devices, ... to help patients, like pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers and all actors helping them like CROs. Those actors usually work with some form of “electronic data capture” tools (EDC)  and, more and more, follow EDC standards like CDISC, OMOP, etc.

These two worlds have different objectives and challenges. Understandably, they use different tools and standards. But the underlying data is actually very similar… it’s health data.  

At Andaman7, we wanted to build a system that would be efficient for patients first, but that would contribute significantly to both care and research. So we built our foundations (data models, data structures,...) to be easily connected to both EHRs and EDCs, hence reconciling two worlds that should not be so separated. 

See our detailed Andaman7 advanced health data management white paper.

To learn more about our data architecture, you may want to read about the Liquid Data model we created for Andaman7 at Andaman7 technology series #4 - Liquid data model. This is at the core of our dual care/research data model.

Andaman7 bridges the gap between these two worlds, with  different standards and schemas - but that somehow manipulate very similar data… data about our health!

The patient also helps bridge the gap between these two sectors. Isn’t that natural? Patients are at the center of what these two worlds do and patients are the main beneficiaries of their work. And when patients own their data, compliance is easy  and regulations are met.

That’s it for today. Our next article will be on Andaman7’s “Dynamically generated user interface”.

Stay tuned.

To read the summary of these articles, combined into our white papers, go to:

• Andaman7 Technical Innovations: http://bit.ly/a7TechInno
• Andaman7 advanced health data management: http://bit.ly/a7DataMan

(1) In a previous company, we built a prevention-focused EHR that is today used for some 1 million people (most are in good health, some are patients). We also built the technology for the two largest “medical messaging systems” of Belgium, still being used today by 90% of all hospitals and doctors.
(2) Read our story. 
(3) Consult the lexicon. It's a work in progress. Don’t hesitate to make suggestions and remarks to support@andaman7.com.