Clarity Corner: Tip # 1

First, a brief description of the Clarity module used in the Epic Systems electronic medical record system. Clarity's primary task is to read data from the clinical information stored in over 800 files in the Unix environment and transform this data into a relational format. Currently, Clarity supports three databases: Oracle, Teradata, and SQL Server. There are over 6500 relational tables and data easily grows rapidly.

Hospital environments are inherently conservative. Many will not contemplate SQL 2008, even though Service Pack 1 became available last month; SQL 2005 and even SQL 2000 are mainstream.

However, Epic submitted the Clarity module to Microsoft Labs and it was subjected to rigorous testing. Results became available earlier this year in a monograph titled Clarity-SQL Server 2008 Enterprise. The document is available from the Clarity Performance Team at Epic.

Basically, the team recommended that users move directly from SQL 2000 to SQL 2008, skipping 2005 entirely. The case was too compelling.

This document is crucial if you are contemplating a selection of a database vendor for a new implementation.