Create Data Visualizations Based On FHIR Data in Mode

Mode is a collaborative data platform that combines SQL, R, Python, and visual analytics in one place. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to FHIR data for use in data visualizations. This article shows how to connect to FHIR in Connect AI, connect to FHIR data in Mode, and create a simple visualization using that data.

CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for FHIR, allowing you to build data visualizations from live FHIR data in Mode — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. In order to create visualizations, users write SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to FHIR, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested FHIR data.

Configure FHIR Connectivity for Mode

Connectivity to FHIR from Mode is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with FHIR data from Mode, we start by creating and configuring a FHIR connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "FHIR" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to FHIR.

   Set URL to the Service Base URL of the FHIR server. This is the address where the resources are defined in the FHIR server you would like to connect to. Set ConnectionType to a supported connection type. Set ContentType to the format of your documents. Set AuthScheme based on the authentication requirements for your FHIR server.

   Generic, Azure-based, AWS-based, and Google-based FHIR server implementations are supported.

   Sample Service Base URLs

   • Generic: http://my_fhir_server/r4b/
   • Azure: https://MY_AZURE_FHIR.azurehealthcareapis.com/
   • AWS: https://healthlake.REGION.amazonaws.com/datastore/DATASTORE_ID/r4/
   • Google: https://healthcare.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/datasets/DATASET_ID/fhirStores/FHIR_STORE_ID/fhir/

   Generic FHIR Instances

   The product supports connections to custom instances of FHIR. Authentication to custom FHIR servers is handled via OAuth (read more about OAuth in the Help documentation. Before you can connect to custom FHIR instances, you must set ConnectionType to Generic.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add FHIR Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
   
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to FHIR data from Mode.

Connect to FHIR in Mode

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Mode to create a new FHIR data source.

1. Log-in to Mode 👁 Logging In
   
2. In the top-left corner of the screen, click the down-arrow next to your name and select Connect a Database... 👁 Selecting Connect to Database
   
3. On the next screen, select Microsoft SQL Server. 👁 Selecting Microsoft SQL Server
   
4. Enter the Microsoft SQL Server credentials:
   • Display Name: the name for the connection.
   • Host/Port: enter tds.cdata.com in the Host field and 14333 in the Port field.
   • Database name: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect AI data source you want to connect to (for example, FHIR1).
   • Username: enter your CData Connect AI username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect AI interface. For example, [email protected]
   • Password: enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page
   Leave the rest of the connection settings at their default values unless you need to modify them. 👁 Configuring connection settings
   
5. At the bottom of the page, click Connect to ensure that you can connect to CData Connect AI.
6. Upon success, the following screen appears. 👁 New database connection added.
   

Your connection is now available for use in Mode. To connect to additional data sources from your CData Connect AI account, repeat the setup steps above, changing the value for Database for each data source.

Creating A Mode Visualization

To create a visualization in Mode, follow these steps:

1. On the current screen, click New Report. The SQL query text editor appears. Enter the following query:

   			SELECT * FROM [FHIR].[Patient];
   		

   Click Run. The app now shows the query result: 👁 Showing SQL query result.
   
2. Running the query activates the New Chart tab. Click this tab and select Pie Chart. 👁 Selecting pie chart.
   
3. Now, drop a dimension in the Color section and a measure in the Angle section. 👁 Creating visualization.
   

   We have now created a visualization of FHIR data in Mode using CData Connect AI!

Get CData Connect AI

To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect AI today!