Conquery: an open source application to analyze high content healthcare data

Introduction: Big data in healthcare must be exploited to achieve a substantial increase in efficiency and competitiveness. Especially the analysis of patient-related data possesses huge potential to improve decision-making processes. However, most analytical approaches used today are highly time- and resource-consuming. Objectives: The presented software solution Conquery is an open-source software tool providing advanced, but intuitive data analysis without the need for specialized statistical training. Conquery aims to simplify big data analysis for novice database users in the medical sector. Methods: Conquery is a document-oriented distributed timeseries database and analysis platform. Its main application is the analysis of per-person medical records by non-technical medical professionals. Complex analyses are realized in the Conquery frontend by dragging tree nodes into the query editor. Queries are evaluated by a bespoke distributed query-engine for medical records in a column-oriented fashion. We present a custom compression scheme to facilitate low response times that uses online calculated as well as precomputed metadata and data statistics. Results: Conquery allows for easy navigation through the hierarchy and enables complex study cohort construction whilst reducing the demand on time and resources. The UI of Conquery and a query output is exemplified by the construction of a relevant clinical cohort. Conclusions: Conquery is an efficient and intuitive open-source software for performant and secure data analysis and aims at supporting decision-making processes in the healthcare sector.