Getting to Know the DFM Data Warehouse Team

The DFM Clinical Data Warehouse has been developed over the past seven years, and is now a rich repository of clinical data. Meet the people "behind the scenes" who maintain the system, develop new applications, run ad-hoc queries and explore new uses for the data - Marc Hansen, MD, Don Thomson, and Alice Erickson, MS.

>Q: Explain the role that each of you play in the Data Warehouse project.

A: (Marc) I act as the physician overview, using my clinical experience and judgment to both suggest directions to go, formats for data and reports, and finding "bugs" that are obvious to a clinician but not to other analysts. Incidentally, when I am here, I do most of the ad-hoc queries that come in.

A: (Alice) I am the technical project leader, and database administrator.

A: (Don) I am a software developer and am responsible for system administration.

Q: Describe your education/work path that led you to this job.

A: (Marc) When I no longer was responsible for leading U-Care and moved back to the Department, I saw the need to do the same thing that we had done at U-Care which was to create a data warehouse that was directly accessible for quick turn-around to questions of clinical or managerial interest.

A: (Alice) I was a teacher/coach at Middleton High School, and returned to school, completing a MS in Computer Science from UW-Madison. I worked at Macc (now DoIT), and Biostatistics before joining the DFM in 1997.

A: (Don) I completed my undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Iowa. I did graduate work in computer sciences at UW-Madison, and worked as a software developer at DoIT before coming to the DFM.

Q: What are the major accomplishments of the Data Warehouse of which you are most proud?

A: (Marc) The existence of the warehouse has allowed us to answer specific questions very rapidly, with a turn-around that can be as short as minutes, and routinely giving people answers the next working day.

A: (Alice) Storage of 8 years of interesting medical and financial data. Easy access to data through a web interface. Very fast turnaround on ad-hoc queries (over 700 completed since we started this service).

A: (Don) Immediate availability of data to end users through the Web interface that we've developed over the last several years.

Q: What are the most significant challenges that lie ahead for the Data Warehouse?

A: (Marc) Integrating with the activities of the UWMF, and having the resources to do DFM work that would not necessarily have much priority with the UWMF. It should be made clear how fortunate we are to have people like Alice and Don with the very high level of skills that they have.

A: (Alice) Continuing to grow our partnership with UWMF. We have several collaborative efforts in the works now such as creating a common dictionary of terms and creating a 3rd available slot report. Better defining of our niche as both our warehouse and UWMF's warehouse evolve. Determining how EpicCare will fit in.

A: (Don) Marc's retirement. Where the DFM Clinical Data Warehouse fits into UWMF's plans for the EpicCare data warehouse.