# Synthea data in openEHR format **Category:** [Tools](https://discourse.openehr.org/c/tool-dev/36) **Created:** 2025-06-11 05:34 UTC **Views:** 194 **Replies:** 10 **URL:** https://discourse.openehr.org/t/synthea-data-in-openehr-format/6906 --- ## Post #1 by @Koray_Atalag Has anyone attempted to export synthetic data in openEHR format? It's a treasure trove for anyone testing stuff as well since it's realistic data possibly answer some preliminary research questions and understand feasibility. @christian --- ## Post #2 by @ian.mcnicoll @bna worked with some students on this a few years ago and it has been talked about before. Perhaps it would be a quick win for FHIR-Connnect. Synthea in FHIR->openEHR --- ## Post #3 by @Koray_Atalag Thanks Ian, yeah I found old threads but nothing tangible. I'll reach out to involved folk and see if there's anything reusable. Also agreed, it's a winner ingredient for testing and validating any openEHR to/from FHIR transforms. If nothing I think I'll dive into it myself. --- ## Post #4 by @richard.kavanagh @Koray_Atalag did you get anywhere with this? I have been looking and think I may have an approach to getting sample openEHR data. Maybe one day it will use FHIR-Connect, but I think that’s still got a way to go before all the wrinkles are sorted out with it. --- ## Post #5 by @ian.mcnicoll I'd be really interested in this and need to work on it imminently. I had a wee play with the nhs fork of synthea . @johnmeredith might also have an Interest. The flat format /import call might be useful. --- ## Post #6 by @Koray_Atalag Hi Richard, I'm afraid not. Just didn't have the time. I honestly think it'll need to be a team effort if we want something real and useful. --- ## Post #7 by @richard.kavanagh Ah, OK, let’s see how far I get. I suspect the real challenges will (as ever) be the Observations. I may be back for advice in a few places :-) --- ## Post #8 by @ian.mcnicoll For observation we have a few common questionsloinc to openehr mappings from openrhr Finland that we can share --- ## Post #9 by @richard.kavanagh I’ve worked out how the code works at a high level and have actually started making changes (the toughest bit was getting to grips with Java :slight_smile: ) At the moment, I am anglicising it and aligning it to the UK Core FHIR profiles (as opposed to US Core). The tricky part (maybe ?) is when I start to emit openEHR compositions. As the data Synthea produces is very episodic, all the data is focused around a series of ‘Encounters’ - For me, I’m going for a mixed mode of FHIR and openEHR, so I will need to emit both FHIR resources and openEHR compositions. I’m not sure how I can create one composition that contains all the clinical content that Synthea creates. I’m pondering on that, but first I’ll get it aligned to UK Core. --- ## Post #10 by @joseph.kane Is it necessary to create one composition for the whole clinical bundle, or could you simplify the problem by creating multiple compositions and wrap them in a contribution? Sorry if this is a dumb question, I haven’t done a lot of practical modeling myself but I’m interested in the outcome of this project. --- ## Post #11 by @ian.mcnicoll If you were emulating a ‘proper’ openEHR source of truth EHR, then you would normally split the data into multiple composition and contribution wrapper, but that does make life more complex. Part of the work that @heidi.koikkalainen is doing with the IPS template on CKM, is to re-factor it so that individual sections can be reused, either in multiple templates or in a single composition. --- **Canonical:** https://discourse.openehr.org/t/synthea-data-in-openehr-format/6906 **Original content:** https://discourse.openehr.org/t/synthea-data-in-openehr-format/6906