STEER Project

1
STEER Project

• IT Project - Spring 2008
• Emily Meyer Database Administrator

2
The Problem

• Nationally, mammography screenings have helped
  stabilize breast cancer incidence and mortality
• One million Florida women over the age of 40 have
  never had a mammogram
• Rural women have far poorer access to cancer
  services and are less likely to have had a
  mammogram than urban women
• Especially those of lower socio-economic status
  who are less educated and who are non-white

3
Part of the Solution

• STEER - an automated system for more effectively
  reminding clinicians and patients of the need for
  regular screenings
• This project bridges the gap of cancer screening
  needs among rural Floridians
• Goal of the STEER system
• To provide an automated, patient-tailored
  reminder system for clinicians
• The physicians can then contact patients for
  scheduling their mammogram appointments

4
STEER Project - My Role

• Database Administrator
• Create a working backend database for the STEER
  website that communicates and works along with
  the front end of the site
• The Database will work along with the front end
  of the system to
• Send regular alerts to physicians to provide
  timely referrals in accordance with breast cancer
  screening guidelines
• Generate screening reminders tailored to
  patients' specific needs or perceived barriers to
  cancer care
• Users will be able to add additional resources to
  database as they become available
• Database will be fully documented

5
What I Learned

• Scheduling meetings with STEER development team
  is not as easy as is sounds
• Timelines change
• I am a hands on learner
• Face to Face meetings
• Enhanced my knowledge of
• Database design
• Database implementation
• Heidi SQL
• Documentation
• ER Diagram
• Backups
• Database Naming Conventions

6
Passing off my reins

• What still needs to be done with the database
• Patient data that has been collected needs to be
  imported
• Database Backup
• ER Diagram needs to be updated with any new
  changes to database as the database is modified

7
Overall Experience

• Database Administration could be a possible
  career path for me
• Projects take longer than you expect them to
• Working on the STEER Project
• Great experience
• I learned a great deal