title: Conducting requirements analyses for research using routinely collected health data: a model driven approach.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medical research increasingly requires the linkage of data from different sources. Conducting a requirements analysis for a new application is an established part of software engineering, but rarely reported in the biomedical literature; and no generic approaches have been published as to how to link heterogeneous health data.
  
  
  METHODS
  Literature review, followed by a consensus process to define how requirements for research, using, multiple data sources might be modeled.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We have developed a requirements analysis: i-ScheDULEs - The first components of the modeling process are indexing and create a rich picture of the research study. Secondly, we developed a series of reference models of progressive complexity: Data flow diagrams (DFD) to define data requirements; unified modeling language (UML) use case diagrams to capture study specific and governance requirements; and finally, business process models, using business process modeling notation (BPMN).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These requirements and their associated models should become part of research study protocols.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Care Management and Policy, University of Surrey, UK. s.lusignan@surrey.ac.uk
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: de Lusignan
authors.forename: Josephine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cashman
authors.forename: Norman
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Poh
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Michalakidis
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.forename: Terry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Desombre
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Krause
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000379:methods*; D003628:Database Management Systems; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D055991:Health Records, Personal; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D008498:Medical Record Linkage / Q000379:methods*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D006113:United Kingdom; D018875:Vocabulary, Controlled