Sample Technology Paper on EHR-Physical Model
The physical data model or the entity diagram shows the various key entities in a database are interconnected. The essence of these diagrams is to simplify the source code used to store the information of the database. Relational diagrams consist of the various attributes for each entity. A primary key is the main identifier of a certain entity and is only found in that particular table as the primary key. However, in another entity within the entity diagrams it may occur as a foreign key. This indicates that the attribute links the two entity together. The importance of identifying the key and foreign keys is that it helps in reducing redundancies within the database. Entity diagram gives a visual image of the relationships between entities. The following is a physical data model for an electronic health record.
In the diagram, there are four entities and their relationship is as depicted in the diagram. The four entity or entries include providers, Contact information, patients and encounters. In the patient entity there are twelve entities with the primary key been the patient ID which is an integer. Most of the attributes in the entity are integer except for last name, first name, sex, city and patients state of origin. In the encounter entity, we have the same combination of integer and strings. Finally, the provider has only a single integer while the rest are strings.