Synthea CLI Evaluation

[ncalarcoTechBD]

Task: Evaluate Synthea CLI for Synthetic Patient Data Generation

Overview

Research and evaluate the Synthea CLI tool for generating synthetic patient data in various healthcare formats (FHIR, C-CDA, CSV, etc.) to support development and testing of our Nexus platform.

Background

The Nexus platform will ingest and process healthcare data in multiple formats. For development and testing purposes, we need a reliable source of realistic but non-PHI test data. Synthea appears to be a promising open-source tool for this purpose, as well as Pat having used it in the past for this very purpose.

Objectives

• Set up and configure Synthea CLI in a local environment
• Generate sample datasets in all supported formats (FHIR, C-CDA, CSV)
• Evaluate the quality and realism of the generated data
• Assess customization capabilities for our specific use cases
• Determine if Synthea can generate edge cases and specific clinical scenarios
• Document findings and make recommendations

Deliverables

1. Working Synthea CLI installation with documentation
2. Sample datasets in all relevant formats
3. Analysis report covering:
   • Data quality assessment
   • Format compatibility with our system
   • Customization capabilities
   • Performance metrics (generation time, resource usage)
   • Limitations identified
4. Recommendations for:
   • Using Synthea in our development workflow
   • Required customizations
   • Alternative approaches if necessary

Technical Considerations

• Evaluate FHIR format support with our IG
• Test C-CDA document structure with our existing schema
• Assess CSV field mappings and ability to utilize our existing schema
• Evaluate configurability of patient demographics

Acceptance Criteria

• Synthea CLI successfully installed and operational
• Generated datasets in all required formats (FHIR, C-CDA, CSV)
• Sample data successfully loaded into development environment
• Comprehensive analysis report completed
• Recommendations for integration into development workflow provided

Resources

• Synthea GitHub Repository
• Synthea Wiki

Estimated Effort

• Initial setup and configuration: 1 day
• Data generation and testing: 2 days
• Analysis and documentation: 2 days
• Total: 5 days (Medium complexity)

Notes

• Explore integration with CI/CD pipeline for automated test data generation

[ncalarcoTechBD]

@pat-johnson-dev do you want to comment about the profile idea you had?