PopMedNet Network Administration
Best Practices
With Melanie Davies and Kyle Erickson
Our Networks
• Mini-Sentinel: ~60 requests/month
• NIH Collaboratory DRN: ~10
requests/month
• Health Data Collaboration: ~15
requests/month
• MDPHnet: ~20 requests/month
• PCORnet DRN: ~15 requests/month
Objective
Discuss the standard governance processes/ role based structure
used by most PopMedNet networks that ensures an efficient
scalable environment.
• Covering:
• Entities, rights, security groups, roles, and their interactions in a
PopMedNet network
• Various pathways needed for appropriate user support
• Advantages and disadvantages with using PopMedNet from a network
administration perspective
Network Administration Responsibilities
• Setup and maintain network entities and access
controls
• Manage user credentials
• Onboard users
• Answer questions and troubleshoot
Supporting Users
• Manage network software updates
• Report and manage bugs and issues
PopMedNet Entities
Organizations
Organization = An entity that a collection
of Users and DataMarts are assigned to that
represents a real-world organization/site.
May be standalone or linked with another
Organization as a Parent or Child
• An Organization may have multiple DataMarts
and Users and may be a member of multiple
Groups and Projects
Parent and Child Organizations
•
•
A Parent Organization may have
multiple Children, but a Child
Organization may only have one
Parent
• Child Organizations may also be
Parents of other organizations,
allowing for deeper hierarchies
Parents and Children may have
multiple DataMarts
DataMart
DataMart = represents a data source used
to process requests
•
•
A DataMart may only belong to one Organization
A DataMart may be a member of multiple
Projects
Users
User= a person participating in the
network.
• A User may only be a member of one
Organization
Groups
Group = a sub-network
•
A Group may have multiple Organizations and
Projects
Projects
Project = collection of DataMarts,
Organizations, request types, and
permissions used to delineate network
activity
•
•
A Project may contain multiple
Organizations and DataMarts
A Project may only belong to one
Group
PopMedNet Entities
Health Data Collaboration Network
IMEDS/Pfizer Group
HMORN Group
Production Query Project
HMORNnet Project
CRNnet Project
Org A
Org B
Org C
Org D
Org E
Org F
Org G
Org H
Org I
Org J
Org K
Org L
Org M
Org N
PopMedNet Entities
Health Data Collaboration Network
IMEDS/Pfizer Group
HMORN Group
Production Query Project
HMORNnet Project
CRNnet Project
Org A
Org B
Org C
Org D
Org E
Org F
Org G
Org H
Org I
Org J
Org K
Org L
Org M
Org N
PopMedNet Entities
Health Data Collaboration Network
IMEDS/Pfizer Group
HMORN Group
Production Query Project
HMORNnet Project
CRNnet Project
Org A
Org B
Org C
Org D
Org E
Org F
Org G
Org H
Org I
Org J
Org K
Org L
Org M
Org N
PopMedNet Entities
Health Data Collaboration Network
IMEDS/Pfizer Group
HMORN Group
Production Query Project
HMORNnet Project
CRNnet Project
Org A
Org B
Org C
Org D
Org E
Org F
Org G
Org H
Org I
Org J
Org K
Org L
Org M
Org N
PopMedNet Entities
Health Data Collaboration Network
IMEDS/Pfizer Group
HMORN Group
Production Query Project
HMORNnet Project
CRNnet Project
Org A
Org B
Org C
Org D
Org E
Org F
Org G
Org H
Org I
Org J
Org K
Org L
Org M
Org N
Rights
• Right: an individual
permission allowing a
single action on a
PopMedNet network
• Rights can be assigned
at every entity level
Rights
• Right: an individual
permission allowing
a single action on a
PopMedNet network
• Rights can be
assigned at every
entity level
Security Groups
• Security Group: a collection
of rights that can be
assigned to a user
• Users can have multiple
security groups
• Security group naming
conventions consist of:
“[Organization or
Project]\[Role]”
• Examples: Clinical Site
3\DataMart Administrator,
Drug Surveillance
Project\Observer
Roles
• A role is a defined
position a user fulfills
within a PopMedNet
network
• A single user may
have multiple roles
Our standard set of roles:
• Observer
• Enhanced Observer
• Investigator
• Enhanced Investigator
• Results Reviewer
• Request Reviewer
• Organization Administrator
• DataMart Administrator
• Network Administrator
• Everyone
Managing User Credentials
• Following
processes for
different network
governances
• Typically requires
additional
tracking outside
of PopMedNet
Supporting Users
• Maintaining PopMedNet support email
• Onboarding – Contacting to-be users with instructions to
set up accounts and/or the DataMart Client
• Troubleshooting and holding calls with users to diagnose
difficult issues
• Giving demos to current and to-be users
• Receiving and managing bug reports and functionality
requests
Maintaining PopMedNet Support Email
• Central location for
network support
• Onboarding new users
• Troubleshooting with
existing users
• Enables easy, organized
triaging
Onboarding Users
• Identifying and contacting
appropriate users for each role
• Walking through PopMedNet
setup
• Providing additional instructions
where necessary
Troubleshooting
• ~95% of issues are resolved via
PopMedNet support email
• ~5% require calls with users
and/or technical teams at
Lincoln Peak
• Frequently requires testing and
replication
Summary
• Very granular access control scheme – enables flexibility but requires
establishing standards to remain organized
• High learning curve, difficult to learn every intricacy
• Supporting users requires a significant amount of time – dependent on
size of the network and experience of users
• Maintaining a single organized support contact helps facilitate communication
• Having access to more technical support (e.g. Lincoln Peak) helps to resolve
most difficult problems
• Online documentation (PopMedNet wiki) is frequently referenced
Questions