W33: Accessing The Clinical Database: An Introduction to SQL and the DDR – Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences

Workshop Description

UCLA Health serves well over half a million patients annually, and as a result, UCLA possesses a vast database of Electronic Health Records (EHR). The stemming Discovery Data Repository (DDR) serves as an invaluable resource for researchers. This introductory workshop will cover the basics of writing queries to extract the relevant datasets for EHR-related research projects – from a simple list of patient visits to generating feature sets for complex phenotypes. Topics covered include introductory SQL, medical record concepts and organization, and best practices. Additionally, an entire day is dedicated for the UCLA ATLAS Precision Health Biobank which integrates genetic information and de-identified medical records to enable precision health research. No prior experience with SQL nor health records are assumed.

Workshop Topics

Day 1

Introduction
Environment
SQL Basics
- Relational databases, relations
- SELECT, WHERE clauses
- Set operations

Day 2

SQL
- Multiple relations
- JOIN operations
- Grouping and aggregation
- Subqueries, temporary tables

Day 3

ATLAS item 1
…
ATLAS item n

Day 4

DDR concepts
- Diagnoses
- Comorbidities
- Vitals
- Labs, Medications
Complex, real-life exercises
End-workshop remarks

Technical Requirements

DDR access required. Note that this takes several weeks to approve so please signed up before the deadline. Please verify that you can access this environment prior to the course and contact TBA if there are any issues.

Instructor

Dr. Ákos Rudas is a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Computational Medicine. His work involves collaborations with the clinical staff to develop advanced statistical models which address problems such as disease progression prediction, or forecasting hospital resource needs. Ákos received his PhD at ELTE University, Budapest. He has been teaching computer science related courses and lectures since 2013. His professional goal is to help advance patient care globally through employing and expanding on the techniques and methods of data science. Being passionate about teaching and generally the dissemination of knowledge, outside of academia he has taught classes in middle and high school, along with countless tutees both minors and adults. When not working, he spends most of his time with his family – may it be hiking, baking, or discussing the philosophical implications of the latest Stargate episodes with his kids. Email: akos.rudas@gmail.com