Clinical Data Warehousing: A Scoping Review

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: A clinical data warehouse (CDW) is a powerfulresource that supports clinical decision-making and secondary data use byintegrating and presenting heterogeneous data sources. Despite considerableeffort within healthcare organizations (HCOs) to develop CDWs, scientific literaturesurrounding clinical data warehousing methods is limited.OBJECTIVES: The scoping review aims to characterize thecurrent state of CDW methods within HCOs, to identify extant evidence forpractice recommendations, and ultimately to advance the design, implementation,and use of CDWs. METHODS: The review encompasses CDW articles publishedfrom 2011 through 2021 identified through a systematic PubMed search. Articleabstracts were systematically screened by two authors. Full-text articles werereviewed and abstracted independently by two authors with discrepanciesresolved through consensus.   RESULTS: 137 articles, from 55 journals and 3conference proceedings, were categorized and analyzed.  Areas for increased CDW focus include dataintegration of increased data types and sources; extract-transform-load (ETL)optimization; data quality improvement processes; semantic data representation;support tools/documentation and data literacy efforts for staff and end-users;data governance; business model/financial support for CDWs including staffing. CONCLUSION:  Thestudy indicates the topics that have been significantly developed and theaspects needing additional focus and reporting in CDW between existing generaldata management best practices and recently articulated requirements forresearch data. Also, more multi-site and multi-aspect studies are needed tofoster maturity at CDWs.