Dynamic tables: an architecture for managing evolving, heterogeneous biomedical data in relational database management systems.
Data sparsity and schema evolution issues affecting clinical informatics and bioinformatics communities have led to the adoption of vertical or object-attribute-value-based database schemas to overcome limitations posed when using conventional relational database technology. This paper explores these issues and discusses why biomedical data are difficult to model using conventional relational techniques. The authors propose a solution to these obstacles based on a relational database engine using a sparse, column-store architecture [...]
Author(s): Corwin, John, Silberschatz, Avi, Miller, Perry L, Marenco, Luis
DOI: 10.1197/jamia.M2189