Connect to FHIR Data in DBeaver

The CData ODBC Driver for FHIR enables access to live data from FHIR under the ODBC standard, allowing you work with FHIR data in a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools and directly, using familiar SQL queries. This article shows how to manage FHIR data with visual tools in DBeaver like the query browser.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live FHIR data in DBeaver due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from DBeaver to FHIR, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to FHIR and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can manage and analyze FHIR data.

Connect to FHIR

If you have not already done so, provide values for the required connection properties in the data source name (DSN). You can configure the DSN using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator. This is also the last step of the driver installation. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the Help documentation for a guide to using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure a DSN.

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.

Finally, set the "Map To WVarchar connection property to False in the DSN Configuration window for the driver. This configuration will allow string types to be mapped to SQL_VARCHAR and prevent SQL_WVARCHAR types from being displayed as NULL.

Connecting to the FHIR ODBC Data Source in DBeaver

1. Open the DBeaver application and in the Database menu, select the New Database Connection option. 👁 Creating a new Database Connection
   
2. In the 'Connect to a database' window, select ODBC and click Next. 👁 Creating a new Database Connection
   
3. In the Database/Schema field, enter the DSN name (CData FHIR Source by default). It will be automatically added to the JDBC URL as well.
4. Click the Test Connection button. You should receive a 'Connected' message after DBeaver has detected the DSN, along with details about the driver if the connection is successful. 👁 Successfully tested connection
   

Query FHIR Data

You can now query information from the tables exposed by the data source connection. You can expand the database structure in order to view all the tables. You can retrieve the table's data by right-clicking on a table name and selecting View data. The data will then be available in the Data tab.

Free Trial & More Information

At this point, you have connected to live FHIR data from DBeaver. For more information, visit the CData ODBC Driver page. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working live FHIR data DBeaver today.