Questions, answered plainly
Answers are kept word for word, because a paraphrase is how a careful answer turns into a claim.
The data
No. Every patient is constructed from a specification and stated distributions. No real patient record is used.
We do not describe it that way. It is built without real patient records, and the Data Passport reports what we measured about re-identification and what we did not test. Whether data counts as anonymous in your jurisdiction is for you and your counsel to decide.
FHIR R4 JSON: a population bundle, and one bundle per patient as a test file. The internal format is JSON too.
Yes. Every run writes a manifest. Rebuilding from the manifest produces the identical dataset.
Working with us
Yes. We read your FHIR test files, show which of your situations they contain and which they lack, and build only what is missing. Your files are not changed.
Yes, as a guided beta. Your system must answer over HTTP in JSON. Each failure comes back pinpointed and saved as a regression case you can rerun after a fix.
We construct exactly the situations you declare, verify them independently, record what was and was not tested, fill the gaps in your existing suite, and turn failures into regression cases. In development: test patients whose true state, record and care process disagree on purpose, and counterfactual twins.
Not today. We deliver it as guided pilots and the command-line tool. Other interfaces follow if customers need them.
The product
No. It makes no network calls while running, except when you ask it to send test records to a system you name.
Not yet. We are rebuilding the comparison so it is fair, and will publish the method and the result.
The building and verification core does not depend on one.
Clinical content
Today, medication safety review (23 situations) and data integrity (4). We add situations for your use case in a pilot. Care-process failures are in development.
Not yet; a clinical review is under way. Drug facts are taken from the WHO drug classification and US drug labels and checked against them, and every Passport says they have not been reviewed by a clinician. Situations that need clinical judgement stay marked as awaiting review.
Our drug list carries RxNorm codes and the WHO drug classification. Standard codes (RxNorm, LOINC) in the delivered data are in development.
No. It produces test data and evidence about that data, for software development and testing. It gives no treatment advice.
No. We construct declared test situations, not predictions about real people.
Glossary
The terms used across this site.
- FHIR R4
- The widely used international standard for exchanging healthcare records as structured data.
- Scenario / situation
- One declared case to test, with a target number of patients.
- Specification
- The list of scenarios and population settings for one run.
- Coverage
- Which declared scenarios are present in the numbers asked for.
- Met / Short
- Present in the number asked / present, but in fewer.
- Not verifiable
- Not counted, because a clinical fact it depends on is not yet established.
- Built versus by chance
- How many patients were built for a scenario, and how many match it by chance.
- Data Passport
- The evidence document delivered with every dataset.
- Test Passport
- The evidence document for a gap-fill, or for a test run against your system.
- Gap-fill
- Finding which situations an existing test suite lacks, and building only those.
- Regression case
- A failing record saved so it rebuilds exactly and can be rerun after a fix.
- Manifest
- The record of every input to a run, used to reproduce it.
- Test file (fixture)
- One patient’s data as a file your test suite can load.
- Official source
- A public authority whose published facts we use and name: the WHO drug classification, US drug labels, the US National Library of Medicine.
- Clinical truth / Recorded state / Workflow state
- What is true about a synthetic patient; what the record shows; what people and systems did. (In development)
- Counterfactual twin
- Two versions of one patient, identical until exactly one declared difference. (In development)
- Synthea
- A well-known open-source patient simulator, used by us only for comparison.
Did not find your question? Email [email protected] or write to us.
Bring the list of situations your software must handle.
We will turn it into a test specification and show you what a pilot would deliver. Already have FHIR test data? Send a sample and we will show you what it is missing. Or email us at [email protected].