Platform Overview

Main software functions

The main functions of the MIDATA platform are:

  • Store user related data using FHIR, JSON or binary format
  • Manage user accounts for different roles
  • Allow users to create and manage consents that define criteria for sharing the data of an individual with other users or groups of users.
  • Manage plugins and apps that use the platform as a source (and target) of data.
  • Allow users to grant applications access to all or parts of their data.
  • Offer a web portal that allows management of accounts and consents and works as a container for plugins that offer functionality using the data stored on the platform.
  • Allow researchers to define and conduct research projects on the platform.

Concepts

The MIDATA platform supports FHIR standard and concepts. The FHIR support layer in built on top of the core system. The core system itself stores data records in (encrypted) JSON format and is not FHIR dependend. It also provides some concepts for the management and sharing of the data.

  • Users : Each physical person that has access to the platform is a user. The concept of platform user is directly mapped to the FHIR resource type „Person“. In addition to „Person“ for each user an additional „Patient“ or „Practitioner“ FHIR resource may be generated. There are different types of user accounts on the platform for the different roles a user may have regarding the platform.
  • Data Records : MIDATA is a document type store. Each single document is called record and may be a single FHIR resource, a JSON document or binary data.
  • Consents : The sharing of data records between users, groups of users or even applications is managed by consents. A consent always grants access to some types of records of a single user to other entities. Consents may have a lifetime and may restrict access to data created during a limited period of time. Consents may be converted to the FHIR resource „Consent“ but they are not completely compatible. There are different types of consents : Circles, Research Project Participation, Healthcare Related, App Consent , etc.
  • Research Projects : Users may participate in research projects and share some of their data with the initiator of the project. Research projects need to be defined before launch and validated by an administrator. Research projects may have multiple groups of participants. (No matching FHIR resource)
  • Apps : External software like mobile apps or desktop software may connect to the MIDATA platform using APIs. Each software that wants to access MIDATA must be registered on the platform before use. Applications may be managed by an administrator. (No matching FHIR resource)
  • App Instances : Each installation of an app on a smart phone or device is an app instance. Each app instance has its own encryption key and its own consent that grants the access rights to the records of the user.
  • Plugins : Plugins are HTML/javascript software that runs as part of the MIDATA portal in the browser. Each plugin must be registered in the platform before use. Plugins may be managed by an administrator. (No matching FHIR resource)
  • Spaces : An instance of a plugin for a specific user is a space. Each space has its own access rights and may store configuration data for the plugin. It may also store credentials for OAuth access to a 3rd party system. This may be used for data import. (No matching FHIR resource)
  • User Groups (Teams) : Multiple users (at the moment only practitioners) may create a group. A group may be used as grantee in consents or as reference in FHIR resources. Members of a group may change over time. This corresponds to the FHIR resource „Group“.
  • Formats : Each record is stored in a specfic syntactic format. Each type of FHIR resource like „Observation“, „Condition“, „Patient“ is a format.
  • Content-Types : In addition to the format each record also has a content type. The content type is about the semantic of the record content not the physical format. (Blood pressure, Body weight, Laboratoy Report, Allergy, … ) The content type is used in consents to determine which data of a person is shared. For most FHIR resources the content type is derived from the system+code from a CodeableConcept or Coding field from the resource. Content types must be registered to the platform and managed by an admin before use.
  • Content Groups : Content-Types may be grouped into a hierachical tree structure. Records may be displayed or selected using this tree representation.

User Roles

Each user of the platform has one main role and may have any number of subroles. The “role” determines on which type of portal the account is valid.

The subroles determine which functions of this portal are useable or locked.

  • Account Holder: A citizen who wants to store health data in the platform.
  • Healthcare Provider: Doctor or hospital which has access to or provides data records about members
  • Researcher: Member of an organization that carries out research projects
  • Admin: Administrator of the midata platform
  • Developer: Software developer who provides one or multiple applications for the MIDATA platform

For more information about the differences look at the roles overview.

Types of consents

The platform supports these types of consents:

  • Circle : An account holder shares data with other account holders.
  • Healthcare : An account holder shares data with one or multiple practitioners or groups of practitioners.
  • Project Participation : An account holder shares data with a researcher conducting a research project.
  • App Consent : An account holder shares data with an application installed on a smart phone or PC.
  • Healthcare related : Practitioners may share not directly patient related data with a patient. (for example questions for a questionnaire to be filled out by the patient.)
  • Study related : Researchers may share research project related data to the participants. (for example aggregated results)
  • Implicit : When some FHIR resources are stored an implicit consent may be created. The recipient of a message may always read it. The person who should do a task may always read that task. The participant of an appointment may always access that appointment. (FHIR resources „Communication“, „Task“ and „Appointment“)

Internationalization

All components of the MIDATA platform may be localized for different languages. Currently

English, German, French and Italian are available as languages.