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Data Exploration

Data Exploration is a no-code, interactive way to explore the persons of a data source. You combine filter cards to describe the persons you are interested in, and the charts update immediately. Save the result as an exploration, share it, or turn it into an ATLAS cohort definition.

Which filter cards, attributes and charts are available depends on the configuration your administrator has set up for the data source.

Explorations​

Select Data Exploration in the navigation bar. The page lists your saved explorations:

  • Data source: choose the data source to explore, if you have access to more than one.
  • Start new exploration: opens an empty exploration.
  • Search and Sort by: find explorations by name, sorted by Last updated, Name A-Z or Name Z-A.
  • Filters: turn on Show shared exploration to also list explorations other users have shared.
  • Compare: select two or more explorations and compare them in a bar chart.
  • Delete: deletes the selected explorations.

Each exploration card offers further actions, among them Filter summary, Duplicate and Materialize cohort, which saves the persons that match the filters as a cohort.

Build an exploration​

Filter cards​

The filter area on the left holds the filter cards. Each filter card describes one criterion, for example a condition, a drug exposure or the person's age.

  • Select Add Filters to add a filter card. Choose the type of filter card, then the criteria. For example, choose a condition filter card and select a concept set.
  • Filter cards in the Inclusion section include matching persons. Filter cards in the Exclusion section exclude them.
  • Enter search terms in the fields of a filter card to get suggestions. If the list says "Too many values to list. Type to search.", keep typing to narrow down the suggestions.
  • Use the menu of a filter card to add further attributes, or to remove, reset or rename the card.

Combining filter cards: filter cards are combined with AND by default, so persons must match all of them. Select AND to switch to OR, so persons must match at least one of them.

Time relationships: use Advanced Time in the menu of a filter card to relate it in time to another filter card, for example "a drug exposure within 30 days after the diagnosis".

Person count​

The number at the top right shows how many persons match the filters, out of the total number of persons in the data source. Depending on your access rights, this may be a restricted number of persons.

If no persons match, or the number drops below a minimum, a warning is shown. This protects the privacy of persons in small groups.

Chart​

The chart area on the right shows a bar chart by default. It updates whenever you change the filters.

  • Move the cursor over a bar to see the group and its value.
  • Choose attributes for the x-axis to group the bars, and for the y-axis to change the measure.
  • Select a bar and use Filter by Selection to add its attributes as filters.
  • Change the sort order of the groups in the x-axis selector. For numeric attributes, use binning to combine values into ranges.
  • Groups with fewer persons than the configured minimum are not shown.
  • Download the chart as a CSV or PNG file, if your administrator has enabled it. The export does not contain your filters or person-level data.

If your administrator has enabled it, the Attrition Plot shows how many persons each filter keeps.

Person List​

Switch to the Person List to see the individual persons that match the filters, if your administrator has enabled it. You only see persons you are allowed to access. Add columns for further attributes and interactions.

Select Export to download the Person List, if enabled. Export to ZIP File creates one CSV file per interaction type shown in the list, with the person ID and the attributes shown. You can use these files for further analysis in other tools.

Save and share an exploration​

  1. Select Save and enter a name.
  2. Turn on Enable sharing to make the exploration visible to other users of the data source.

Turn an exploration into an ATLAS cohort definition​

Open the Filter summary of an exploration to see all its filters. Select Create ATLAS cohort definition to create an ATLAS cohort definition from it. The new definition appears in Cohort Definitions, where you can refine and generate it.

The conversion is not one-to-one. Check the new cohort definition before you use it.