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A "query" is a request that your organization sends to Particle Health to retrieve clinical records for a specific patient.

Organizations use different criteria for when and how frequently a query is sent to Particle Health. Typically it is set prior to a scheduled patient appointment, but can be customized by your organization depending on your workflows.

No matter what event(s) or criteria trigger a query, queries are to be initiated for treatment purposes only as outlined in Purposes of Use here.

Life of a Query

When the Particle Health gets a request (query) to retrieve clinical records for a patient, we serve back a response with an indication that we're doing some processing behind the scenes. But what exactly is going on under the hood? We've outlined the life of a query below so that you can better understand how the platform works.

1. Confirm the Match: The first step each query takes is match the patient demographics in the request; we do a variety of double checks to be sure that we provide you with the right patient's information.

2. Update the Patient Demographics: Then, we update Particle's Master Patient Index so we can ensure we always have the latest demographics being represented for that person.

3. Apply a Record Locator: Next, we'll use the geographic information provided in the patient's demographics, as well as any location hints provided, to feed our proprietary Record Locator algorithm to determine all of the network partners that may have data for this request.

4. Split Subqueries: Using this list of network partners, we split the query into a multitude of subqueries, each representing the patient demographics and a unique healthcare entity to request data from.

5. Query the Networks: Each of those subqueries then requests information about the patient. While each network partner has its own process behind the scenes, it always boils down to the same steps for each. They first identify if they have data for the patient based on the demographics provided, then they identify if they have any associated documents, and finally, they will return all documents. See also Network Variability for some of the issues that may come up during this step.

6. Data Transformation: Subqueries are responsible for retrieving certain file formats (e.g. C-CDA) directly from the EMRs to which we are connected. Once all subqueries have been completed, we transform the files into a different format, depending on your needs. Note: Certain files like PDFs, PNGs, DICOM (e.g. radiology CT, MRI, Xray image files) etc. are not converted, but can still be retrieved.

7. Data Aggregation: With hundreds of subqueries all making requests in parallel, it's a tricky process to ensure we've got all of the data back before we finish processing. When all subqueries have returned, we take all of the resulting files and bundle them into a single ZIP file, and our data stores for retrieval. The query is then marked complete.

8. Data is Ready: Once the query is complete, the data can be retrieved based on the approach and tools that your organization has established for your workflows. See also Insights in Action for some examples of how a query can support your ability to provide safe, quality, and effective patient care.

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What is the typical turnaround time for a query?

The time needed to go through these steps this may vary depending on the number of documents and the magnitude of content within those documents. Given this, the vast majority of queries are completed in less than 10-15 minutes.

So... when your organization sends a query for information, what do you except to get? Read about it in Breadth & Depth: Data Sources.