Database Vs Data Warehouse A Comparative Review
Database Vs Data Warehouse A Comparative Review
Database Vs Data Warehouse A Comparative Review
A question I often hear out in the field is: I already have a database,
so why do I need a data warehouse for healthcare analytics? What
is the difference between a database vs. a data warehouse? These
questions are fair ones.
Ive worked with databases for years in healthcare and in other
industries, so Im very familiar with the technical ins and outs of
this topic. In this post, Ill do my best to introduce these technical
concepts in a way that everyone can understand.
Before diving in to the topic, I want to quickly highlight the importance
of analytics in healthcare. If you dont understand the importance
of analytics, discussing the distinction between a database and a
data warehouse wont be relevant to you. Here it is in a nutshell.
The future of healthcare depends on our ability to use the massive
amounts of data now available to drive better quality at a lower cost.
If you cant perform analytics to make sense of your data, youll have
trouble improving quality and costs, and you wont succeed in the
new healthcare environment.
Data Warehouse
Definition
Types
Similarities
Both OLTP and OLAP systems store and manage data in the form of tables,
columns, indexes, keys, views, and data types. Both use SQL to query the data.
Database
Data Warehouse
How used
Service Level
Agreement
(SLA)
Optimization
Data
Organization
Reporting/
Analysis
Database
Data Warehouse
I hope the information Ive included here has helped you understand
why data warehouses are so important to the future of healthcare.
Improving quality and cost requires analytics. And analytics requires
a data warehouse.
An OLTP database like that used by EHRs cant handle the
necessary level of analytics. My rule of thumb is this: If you get
data into your EHR, you can report on it. If you get it into a data
warehouse, you can analyze it.
Its that simple.