Domain specific modelling for clinical research
Davies J., Gibbons J., Milward A., Milward D., Shah S., Solanki M., Welch J.
Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). The value of integrated data relies upon common data points having an accessible, consistent interpretation; to achieve this at scale requires appropriate informatics support. This paper explains how a model-driven approach to software engineering and data management, in which software artefacts are generated automatically from data models, and models are used as metadata, can achieve this. It introduces a simple data modelling language, consistent with standard object modelling notations, together with a set of tools for model creation,maintenance, and deployment. It reports upon the application of this approach in the provision of informatics support for two large-scale clinical research initiatives.