SPHN Federated Query System

Links between search criteria are easy to handle when you create a new node for each search criteria. All nodes are linked with AND. Within a node, all codes you have selected for this criterion are linked with OR by default, as shown in the following screenshot.

You can switch the type of link within a node from OR to AND by editing the node and setting the connector with the “Set type of Connector” buttons, as shown in the following screenshot.

For queries with alternative features that span different data types, you can create a node within a node, and all criteria will be linked with OR. The following example shows a query for patients diagnosed with either “Postviral fatigue syndrome” OR “Malaise and fatigue” OR who have taken either an amantadine-containing drug OR a modafinil-containing drug.

To find out how many patients were diagnosed with either "Postviral fatigue syndrome" OR "Malaise and fatigue" AND were taking either an amantadine-containing drug OR a modafinil-containing drug, a separate query would be required, as shown in the screenshot below.

The FQS uses ATC-coded data to indicate which medications a patient has taken. However, the ATC classification does not contain unique identifiers for substances. If you want to search for patients treated with a specific substance, you may need to add multiple ATC codes to your query.

For example, for acetylsalicylic acid, multiple ATC codes need to be added to the query to find all patients treated with this substance. The integrated terminology server offers the possibility to search for the name of the substance and to add the different ATC codes to the selection for the query.

The "Select All" button allows you to add the ATC codes to your query in one step (see example below). This functionality works the same way for all data types. It should be noted that depending on the terminology content, it may be necessary to search for multiple synonyms.

If you want to retrieve results for a specific time period, e.g. all patients with Sepsis due to streptococcus between 01.01.2019 and 31.12.2020, you can use the Time Range function. You can set the Time in relation to screening or as absolute time frames using the Time by date picker setting. You can set the Time Range once on the Node and it will apply to all ICD10 codes specified under that node. The hourglass icon next to the search criteria indicates that a time range has been set. The Time Range function can be used for all data types such as diagnoses, procedures, medications, and lab tests.

Yes, after you run your query, you can click on the result (highlighted in red; patient count), to receive some basic statistics on age groups and gender of the patients.