OSEHRA's Synthetic Patient Data Project Group Releases End-to-End Open Source Patient Data Software Package

OSEHRA project group unveils open source synthetic patient data generation software components

VIENNA, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES, July 1, 2019 /EINPresswire.com/ -- OSEHRA's Synthetic Patient Data Open Source Project Group is proud to announce the release of their end-to-end open source patient data software package. Sponsored by Perspecta Inc., an OSEHRA Organizational Member, this group has worked for more than a year to make it possible for users to generate, visualize, and ingest synthetic patient data with a single command.

Bo Dagnall"The lack of realistic clinical data that mimics the volume, velocity, and variety of real-world patient records has been an impediment to health IT development, testing, and simulation," said Bo Dagnall, chair of the Project Group and Chief Technologist and Strategist for Perspecta's Health Business Group. "With this release of the OSEHRA patient data software package, we have moved a giant step closer to simulating the complexities of electronic health record content without violating personal or protected health information concerns. This will be an accelerator for innovation and rapid development."

The baseline for this open source suite of software is Synthea™, a synthetic patient data generator developed by The MITRE Corporation, another OSEHRA Organizational Member. Jason Walonoski, co-Department Head of Open Health Services at MITRE, commented on the group's contributions to Synthea, saying "the Project Group team members are bringing their real-world expertise in medicine, pharmaceuticals, and health IT together to enhance and build new disease models in Synthea. This is a win for all developers and scientists who need safe data for their research projects."

The suite includes three major components, which are packaged together for distribution.

• Jason Walonoski - MITREThe Synthea Viewer, developed by Perspecta, a browser-based "front end" that allows Synthea users to efficiently generate realistic synthetic patients based on specific demographics including age, location, and gender at the click of a button.
• A patient record visualization tool, developed in collaboration with OSEHRA's Visualization Open Source Project Group, that allows users to view the structure and content of generated patient data.
• A data ingestion capability for VistA, the award-winning open-source EHR currently in use by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This capability is critical, since it gives users the ability to import patients generated by Synthea into a local VistA instance. This module (which uses FHIR, a next-generation standards framework created by HL7), has also been added to the Technical Reference Model (TRM) at the Department of Veterans Affairs, allowing it to be used by VA developers.

In addition to this suite of tools, the Project Group has augmented Synthea with disease models for anemia and hypertension.

"It has been a rewarding experience to facilitate this open source project, and see the kind of rapid innovation that results from real open source collaboration," said President and CEO of OSEHRA, Seong K. Mun, PhD.

This effort and the associated software packages will be showcased during a roundtable session this July at the 2019 OSEHRA Summit. The presenting panel will be comprised of contributing members of the Project Group.

All software used and developed by the group is open source, licensed under the Apache 2.0 software license, and available in OSEHRA's GitHub Repository. Instructions for the one-step installer for the OSEHRA Synthetic Patient Data Generator for VistA package can be found here - https://github.com/OSEHRA/synthea-compose. The Synthetic Patient Data Open Source Project Group's efforts are ongoing, and participants are welcome to join by subscribing to their Project Group Page.

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OSEHRA is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to accelerating innovation through open source strategy, with an emphasis on electronic health records. Founded in 2011, OSEHRA has fostered a robust open source community with over 600 registered members representing 300+ industry, academic, and government organizations globally. OSEHRA supports an open, collaborative community engaged in a variety of open source projects, including EHR implementations, synthetic patient data, open architecture strategy, open APIs, cloud strategies, and other IT activities. To support these efforts, OSEHRA hosts software repositories, an online testing and development support infrastructure, and an online framework for collaborative work groups. OSEHRA is a member of numerous industry associations including the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Health Level 7 (HL7), Open Source Initiative (OSI), and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE). For more information about OSEHRA, visit www.osehra.org.

At Perspecta (NYSE: PRSP), we question, we seek, and we solve. Perspecta brings a diverse set of capabilities to our U.S. government customers in defense, intelligence, civilian, health care and state and local markets. Our 260+ issued, licensed and pending patents are more than just pieces of paper, they tell the story of our innovation. With offerings in mission services, digital transformation and enterprise operations, our team of 14,000 engineers, analysts, investigators and architects work tirelessly to not only execute the mission, but build and support the backbone that enables it. Perspecta was formed to take on big challenges. We are an engine for growth and success and we enable our customers to build a better nation. For more information about Perspecta, visit www.perspecta.com.

MITRE's mission-driven teams are dedicated to solving problems for a safer world. Through public-private partnerships, as well as the operation of federally funded R&D centers, we work across government to tackle challenges to the safety, stability, and well-being of our nation. Visit www.mitre.org.

Megan Murray
OSEHRA
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