Add new fields to existing Natural objects

Background and Strategy

It is not unusual for source data to include information for which there is no appropriate destination field in the data model, but which is associated with a concept that does already exist as an Natural object. For example, organization-specific patient features, such as a home-grown patient disease severity score; the Patients Natural object is the appropriate object to store that type of information, but no field on that object exists to receive it.

This scenario was introduced in an earlier task from the perspective of semantic mapping. (See Create or extend Semantic Mapping Templates, scenario 2.) This task discusses the process of adding a field to an existing Natural object.

The Natural Object Layer collects and consolidates records from all relevant data sources. (See Natural Objects for more information.) The typical mechanism is to first collect source records in a Dedicated Precursor Integrator object, then resolve duplicates and perform other data augmentations (e.g., publishing descriptions of certain coded values by linking to the appropriate reference tables) in the terminal Natural object. Extending an existing Natural object to incorporate one or more new fields involves making changes to both the precursor and the terminal object.

Detailed Implementation Guidance

1. To add a field to an Integrator object, open the Integrator Output Fields panel and use the "plus" icon to insert a new field. Note that the order in which the field appears in the Integrator Output Fields panel determines the order the field will appear in the list of published fields for that object.
2. Remember that the precursor must be run as part of an ELT to generate these new fields in the database, which makes them visible to downstream objects. Since the Natural object precursors are typically views, this ELT should not take more than a few seconds.
3. Publishing the new fields in the terminal Natural object will usually be as simple as selecting those fields in the appropriate Available Fields panel. It's a good practice to then review the Published Fields panel to confirm that the field group and position of the new fields are correct.