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The OBSERVATION_PERIOD table contains records which uniquely define the spans of time for which a Person is at-risk to have clinical events recorded within the source systems, even if no events in fact are recorded (healthy patient with no healthcare interactions).
Field | Required | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|
observation_period_id | Yes | integer | A unique identifier for each observation period. |
person_id | Yes | integer | A foreign key identifier to the person for whom the observation period is defined. The demographic details of that person are stored in the person table. |
observation_period_start_date | Yes | date | The start date of the observation period for which data are available from the data source. |
observation_period_end_date | Yes | date | The end date of the observation period for which data are available from the data source. |
period_type_concept_id | Yes | Integer | A foreign key identifier to the predefined concept in the Standardized Vocabularies reflecting the source of the observation period information |
One Person may have one or more disjoint observation periods, during which times analyses may assume that clinical events would be captured if observed, and outside of which no clinical events may be recorded.