title: Multifaceted inventory of data assets.
abstract: The same data are viewed and handled differently by different specialists. For a physician, patient records are separate entities allowing him to treat every patient individually. A database administrator sorts out data elements from the records into tables assigning them data types and data validation rules. Researchers, studying the causality of diseases, group data into demographics, occupational, genetic, etc. Proper management of these diverse coexisting conceptualization schemes requires creating a multifaceted conceptual data model (CDM).
authors.affiliation: Center for Information Technology, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Brazhnik
authors.forename: John F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D003628:Database Management Systems; D008962:Models, Theoretical