Example of a Business Application

You have both a SAS and an Oracle system integrated with Oracle Life Sciences Data Hub, with demography and adverse events data for Study A in the SAS system and demography and adverse events data for Study B in the Oracle system.

You want to merge and compare the data from the two studies.

To accomplish this you can do the following (see Figure 1-3 ):

1. Define Load Set definitions and instances: you need one Oracle-type Load Set to load both Oracle tables. You need one or two Load Sets for the SAS data sets. If you use a SAS transport file containing both data sets you can load both data sets with a single Load Set. If you load the data set files directly you need two Load Sets, one for each. During Load Set definition, you specify the external tables and data sets to load. The system does the following:
   • Oracle LSH creates target Table Descriptors with the same metadata structure as the source tables and data sets.
   • When you invoke the Table Instances from Existing Table Descriptors job, Oracle LSH creates a matching Table definition and instance for each source table and data set—a total of four Table definitions and instances for Study A Adverse Events, Study A Demography, Study B Adverse Events, and Study B Demography.
   • When you invoke the Automatic Mapping By Name job, Oracle LSH maps each Table Descriptor to its corresponding Table instance.
2. Create instances of two previously defined standard Oracle LSH Tables, Demography and Adverse Events, to hold the merged data.
3. Define a Program definition and instance to merge the data from the SAS Demography data set and the Oracle Demography table into your standard Oracle LSH Demography Table. Name the Program "Merge Oracle and SAS Demog."

   In the Program definition, create two source Table Descriptors based on the same Table definition as the Load Set target Table instance. Invoke the Automatic Mapping By Name job to map the Table Descriptors to the Table instances with the same name.

   In the Program definition, also create one target Table Descriptor based on your standard Oracle LSH Table called Demography. In addition, create an instance of the standard Demography Table to receive the data generated by the Program. Invoke automatic mapping by name.

4. Define a Program definition and instance to merge the data from the SAS Adverse Events data set and the Oracle Adverse Events table into your standard Oracle LSH Adverse Events Table. Name the Program "Merge Oracle and SAS AE."

   In the Program definition, create two source Table Descriptors based on the same Table definition as the Load Set target Table instance. Invoke automatic mapping by name.

   In the Program definition, create one target Table Descriptor based on your standard Oracle LSH Table called Adverse Events. In addition, create an instance of the standard Adverse Events Table to receive the data generated by the Program. Invoke automatic mapping by name.

5. Define a Program definition and instance to read data from both the Demography and Adverse Events Table instances and produce a report comparing adverse events in Study A to those of Study B. Name the Program "Compare Adverse Events in Two Studies."

   In the Program definition, create two source Table Descriptors based on your standard Oracle LSH Tables, one for Adverse Events and one for Demography. Invoke automatic mapping by name.

   The Program definition does not need any target Table Descriptors because it does not write data to any Table instances. It does need a Planned Output to create the actual report.

6. Define another Program definition and instance to read data from the Demography Table instance and compare patient information from Study A to patient information from Study B. Name the Program "Compare Demography from Two Studies."

   In the Program definition, create one source Table Descriptor based on the standard Demography Table. Invoke automatic mapping by name.

   The Program definition does not have any target Table Descriptors because it does not write data to any Table instances. It does have a Planned Output to create the actual report.

You can update data periodically by rerunning the Load Set instances. You can then rerun the other Program instances in turn to update the report data.

If you would like to load the data, run the Programs, and generate the reports in a single process, you can create a Workflow definition containing all the Load Set and Program instances and defining the order in which they must be executed. You can also include an email notification as part of the workflow to be automatically sent to a group of people to alert them when the report is generated.

Figure 1-3 Business Application Example

Description of "Figure 1-3 Business Application Example"

Good Practice in Application Design: Although it is possible to write one Program instead of four in the above example to accomplish the same result, it is good practice to divide the operations needed into discrete parts and define smaller Programs to perform each part. These smaller-scope Programs are more generic and therefore more reusable than one big Program. See Developing Standard Definitions and Modular Applications.