System Meta-Data and Configuration Management

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Last updated: Aug 21, 2012Version comment
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;This page covers the following sub topics 

- Concept Dictionary

                   a) What is a concept dictionary? 

A Concept dictionary is the fundamental building block of OpenMRS. Similar to a dictionary defining the function, meaning, and relationships of the words, the concept dictionary defines the name, code, and appropriate attributes for any observations or data collected (including medical tests, drugs, results, symptoms and conditions). To even further simplify the concept dictionary, one could compare it to an infinitely large Excel spreadsheet, where patients are represented as rows and concepts are represented by columns.

For more information on concept dictionaries, see here

 - Reference Mappings

- What are concept reference mappings? 

OpenMRS does not want to be a vocabulary standard. There is a lot of up-keep involved with managing universal codes used around the world. Instead, every openmrs installation is free to add new concepts, change concepts, etc in their local installation. Therefore, a concept can have any number of mappings to any number of other vocabularies, or 'concept sources'.

For more information on concept dictionaries, see here

                   a) RHEA Specific concept mappings for the SHR

In terms of the RHEA project, we will be using three concept sources to map concepts. Thease concept sources are,

  • ICD10
  • LOINC
  • RCWS

ICD10 and ICD10RW mapping were stored as ICD10

LOINC-2 and LOINCRW were also stored as LOINC

In the event that a concept had no mappings, we created a new concept source named RWCS, and set its source code id to the concept id specified in the POC module.  

NOTE :  For the SHR and POC modules to function well, all the concepts it uses must be mapped to at least one concept source. These same concept mappings  must also be duplicated in the matching concept found on the SHR server database.

               

- How to manage / share system meta data

                   a) Backing up databases

                   b) How to protect system meta data

                   c) Sharing metadata via the OpenMRS metadata sharing module

         

What are system metadata ? 

System metadata are concepts, htmlforms, locations, roles, programs, etc.

The SHR database contains concepts, mappings and FOSAID numbers (per locations) that need to be preserved for it to work successfully. Therefore, It is importaint to be able to prreserve this data.

One way to preserve these data would be to take a backup of the entire database.

Baking up a database can be done very easily by logging into the SHR server.

In order to backup or transfer system metadata, we may use the OpenMRS metadata sharing module. This module  allows metadata to be transferred between different OpenMRS installations. It supports metadata defined in the core o external modules ( provided appropriate handlers are registered). Conflicts between local and incoming metadata can be identified and resolved. The module can be used both through an API and a web interface.

For further information on the metadata sharing module, see here. 

The appopriate use of these will help you to preserve importaint system metadata.