Cross-Network Directory Service Project: Design And Technical Documentation.pdf

Design and Technical Documentation

## Background
This project aims to create a national resource, the Cross-Network Directory Service (CNDS), to facilitate cross-network discovery and querying of electronic healthcare data sources for various distributed health data networks. The growing adoption of these networks presents an opportunity to integrate their investments, enabling large-scale evidence generation studies and public health initiatives.

## Architectural Overview
CNDS is built gently on top of the existing PopMedNet™ (PMN) software application, leveraging its functionality while adding new capabilities. CNDS operates as a set of services that PMN instances can access via APIs, minimizing disruption to existing networks.

System Concepts:
- Location: The pilot CNDS is hosted in a test environment with mock websites representing Sentinel and PCORnet networks.
- System Entities: Users, organizations, registries/research data sets, and queryable data sources are key entities.
- Metadata: Captures descriptive information about these entities.

Key Functional Components:
1. Registration: Processes user and organization registration requests.
2. Discovery (Search): Enables users to search metadata to find potential collaborators and data sources across networks.
3. Communication: Routes requests and responses between networks.
4. Governance: Enforces rules for data access and collaboration.
5. Administration: Manages system configuration and user roles.

## Requirements and Testing
The technical requirements and software quality assurance testing results are detailed in Section III of the report, ensuring the CNDS meets necessary standards.

## Technical Appendices
- Physical Metadata Model: Describes the structure of metadata storage.
- Data Dictionary: Provides definitions for data elements used in CNDS.