The aggregation for enterprise distributed databases: A case study of the healthcare national immunization information system in Taiwan

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a data framework to support the incremental aggregation of, and an effective data refresh model to maintain the data consistency in, an aggregated centralized database.

Design/methodology/approach

It is based on a case study of enterprise distributed databases aggregation for Taiwan's National Immunization Information System (NIIS). Selective data replication aggregated the distributed databases to the central database. The data refresh model assumed heterogeneous aggregation activity within the distributed database systems. The algorithm of the data refresh model followed a lazy replication scheme but update transactions were only allowed on the distributed databases.

Findings

It was found that the approach to implement the data refreshment for the aggregation of heterogeneous distributed databases can be more effectively achieved through the design of a refresh algorithm and standardization of message exchange between distributed and central databases.

Research limitations/implications

The transaction records are stored and transferred in standardized XML format. It is more time‐consuming in record transformation and interpretation but it does have higher transportability and compatibility over different platforms in data refreshment with equal performance. The distributed database designer should manage these issues as well assure the quality.

Originality/value

The data system model presented in this paper may be applied to other similar implementations because its approach is not restricted to a specific database management system and it uses standardized XML message for transaction exchange.

Citation

Chiu, R., Lenny Koh, S.C. and Chang, C. (2007), "The aggregation for enterprise distributed databases: A case study of the healthcare national immunization information system in Taiwan", Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 18 No. 7, pp. 889-903. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410380710817318