1.8.0 Release Notes

i2b2 1.8 Release includes ACT/OMOP V41 Ontology download with easy ANT script install for MSSQL and ORACLE databases, a newly redesigned i2b2 Web interface, and bug fixes.0 Release introduces two major improvements to the platform that enhance usability and applicability: a redesigned and completely rewritten i2b2 Web Interface to improve the user experience, and core support for the OMOP data model on MSSQL and Oracle databases. These changes represent a major step forward in i2b2.

Highlight of Features

Top New Features

Community-Contributed Features

Detailed Documentation on New Features

ACT i2b2 on OMOP

ACT i2b2 on OMOP enables the i2b2 Software to run against a database that uses the OMOP CDM (multiple fact tables) using ACT Ontology. The following steps will load the required OMOP Views and metadata tables to configure your database and query the OMOP tables using the webclient.

Step 1: Load Ontology tables

1. Download and extract the new install zip package from "Download Binary Distribution" section of https://www.i2b2.org/software
2. Edit the  edu.harvard.i2b2.data\Release_1-7\NewInstall\Metadata\db.properties file to update the project properties to 'ACT-OMOP'; example: db.project=ACT-OMOP
3. From the edu.harvard.i2b2.data\Release_1-7\NewInstall\Metadata folder, run the ant command: ant -f data_build.xml db_metadata_load_data
1. This will execute the SQL scripts from the edu.harvard.i2b2.data\Release_1-7\NewInstall\Metadata\act\scripts\<db type> folder and will create and load ACT-OMOP Ontology metadata tables 
4. You can now verify the new Ontology by logging into the web client.

Step 2: Load OMOP views and Concept dimension

1. From the edu.harvard.i2b2.data\Release_1-7\NewInstall\Crcdata folder, run the ant command: ant -f data_build.xml db_demodata_load_data
1. This will execute the  BUILD_ACT_OMOP_Views _<dbtpye> script from the edu.harvard.i2b2.data\Release_1-7\NewInstall\crcdata\act-omop\scripts\<db type> folder and will create the OMOP views under the Views section in the database.
2. In addition, the corresponding ACT-OMOP concept_dimension data is populated by executing the scripts form the crcdata.zip folders.

              2.  You can now run queries against the OMOP data from the webclient

Step 3: Execute Totalnum counts

Load and execute file totalnum_usp/sqlserver/totalnum_fast_prep_OMOP.sql and run the following command:

exec totalnum_fast_prep_OMOP 'observation_fact','dbo','@

When finished, verify by checking that c_totalnum columns in your ontology tables contain numbers. These total counts will be visible in the ontology browser in the web client for 2b2 users with DATA_AGG user permission.

ACT OMOP Totalnum Scripts

Totalnum Scripts (patient counting scripts) have been updated to improve the counter's performance on both multiple ontology tables and very large(>1.5 million) ontologies  such as ACT medications. Debug messages have also been added for troubleshooting and profiling purposes. Support for multiple fact tables has been added and bugfixes have been made.

Totalnum Scripts Setup

1. If upgrading, create the totalnum and totalnum_report tables. In Release_1-7/Upgrade/Metadata, run the ant upgrade script.
   ant -f data_build.xml upgrade_tables_release_1-7-12a
2.  In the Release_1-7/NewInstall/Metadata/ run the ant script to create the stored procedures. 
   ant -f data_build.xml create_metadata_procedures_release_1-7 
3. Set privileges: If using multiple schemas, the stored procedure should be run from the metadata schema. Make sure the stored procedure can read the tables in the crcdata schema (observation_fact, visit_dimension, patient_dimension) and can both read an update ontology tables in the metadata schema (including table_access). 
4. If using multiple fact tables, the recommended approach is to create a fact table view as the union of all your fact tables. (This is essentially going back to a single fact table, but it is only used for totalnum counting. This is needed to correctly count patients that mention multiple fact tables within a hierarchy.)

       e.g., 
          create view observation_fact_view as
          select * from CONDITION_VIEW 
          union all
          select * from drug_view
   
   If running the counting script in SQL Server, add the wildcard flag, to ignore multifact references in the ontology:
         e.g. exec RunTotalnum 'observation_fact_view','dbo','@','Y'
   This is automatically accounted for in the other database platforms.
   Note this approach does not work if you have conflicting concept_cds across fact tables.

5. Run the stored procedures on your database. This can be done in two ways:
   • Run the ant command to execute the data_build.xml file with below specified target 
     POSTGRESQL : ant -f data_build.xml db_metadata_run_total_count_postgresql
     ORACLE : ant -f data_build.xml db_metadata_run_total_count_oracle
     SQL SERVER : ant -f data_build.xml db_metadata_run_total_count_sqlserver   
   • Execute the RunTotalNum  stored procedure manually against your database from a SQL Client. This can take several hours for large databases or large ontologies.  Examples are below.

Oracle:     

...

begin
    RUNTOTALNUM('observation_fact','i2b2demodata');
end; 

You can optionally include a table name if you only want to count one ontology table (this IS case sensitive):
begin
  runtotalnum('observation_fact','i2b2demodata','I2B2');
end;

Note: If you get the error as: ERROR at line 1: ORA-01031: insufficient privilege, then run the command:
        grant create table to (DB USER)  

Community-Contributed Features

1.8.1 will be released In April 2024 and will add Postgres support for OMOP, Snowflake database support, SQL job scheduling, and improved data export.

Detailed Documentation on New Features

New Web client User Interface

The new Web Client modernizes the i2b2 query tool, and features:

• Removal of antiquated support libraries.
• Creation of new compartmentalized plugin execution environment with support for legacy plugins.
• Drag and Drop system reworked to use browser-native operations.

See i2b2 Web Client Install for installation instructions.

The Admin functionality is still supported through the classic web client. See i2b2 Administration Module Install for more information. In particular, pay attention to the configuration file change in 6.4 Configuration which enables an admin-only version of  the classic webclient.

ACT i2b2 on OMOP for MSSQL and Oracle databases

ACT i2b2 on OMOP functionality uses ACT Ontology in the front-end and enables the i2b2 Software to run against a database that uses the OMOP CDM architecture. 

Documentation on loading the OMOP metadata, CRC tables, and CRC OMOP Views required to query the OMOP tables can be found here: i2b2-on-OMOP With ENACT-OMOP Ontology v4.1

For historical reference on old 2018 OMOP  installation , refer to OMOP Home on i2b2 Community Wiki

ACT OMOP Totalnum Scripts

Totalnum Scripts (patient counting scripts) have been updated with bugfixes, and the MSSQL version has been rewritten and is 5x faster. 

Patient Counting Scripts ("totalnum")

...

When finished, verify it is complete by checking that c_totalnum columns in your ontology tables contain numbers (not nulls). These total counts will be visible in the ontology browser in the web client.

Parent folders will get counts (of all patients with facts in the leaves) except for ontology folders derived from visit_dimension or patient_dimension. These cannot be rolled up because of the way these terms are defined in the ontology. They will have no count at all (not a zero).

Improved CRC scripts execution Process

Prior to 1.8 release, CRC scripts via ANT execution command supported single CRC zip folder structure. 1.8 release will support multiple CRV zip folder execution. The databuild.xml has been modified for this process.

Changelog

Database Drivers

The JDBC drivers were updated to the following versions.

Supported Db Server versions

Supported software versions

Supported Operating Systems

CentOS versions 6 (deprecated) or 7 (highly recommended) 

...

 Rocky linux 8 and 9, CentOS versions  7

Windows 2016 -2019

• There is a new PHP install process for IIS in the i2b2 install guide: 2.5.3.2 PHP for Windows
  

Unofficially, MacOS and other flavors of Linux are likely to work.

i2b2 Server and Client Changes

New Features and Improvements

i2b2 Database Changes

New Features and Improvements

Bug Fixes

Notes for Developers

For Java 11 install, if you change the xsd (REST API message definitions), then you will need to regenerate gensrc via JAXB in Java 8. In the i2b2-core cell directory for which you're regenerating the XSD-Java, run the ant target "jaxb_gen" on Java 8 and then build as usual using Java 11.

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