Overview: Available Data & MPI
The record systems linked by our Enterprise Master Patient Index (MPI) are Allscripts TouchWorks, GE Centricity, and axiUm Dental. Centricity contains Houston area administrative (billing) data. The Allscripts EHR uses Centricity for billing data, so Allscripts patients are a subset of patients in the Centricity set. axiUm Dental, on the other hand, is a completely independent billing system. We can measure patient overlap using the MPI.
Record Consolidation
The systems linked by our MPI are Allscripts, Centricity, and axiUm. Patients in Allscripts use Centricity for billing data, so the Allscripts patients are already a subset of patients in the Centricity set. The axiUm EHR, on the other hand, is a completely independent billing system and patient overlap is only measurable using the MPI.
TouchWorks by Allscripts is the health record system for UT Physicians. Allscripts contains data on patients seen in outpatient UTP clinics. (Main page)
We also process hundreds of gigabytes of free-text clinical notes from medical records into a pipeline suitable for NLP research. Since 2004 we've collected over 30 million note events.
Centricity is the UT Physicians billing system. We pull demographics and billing data. Centricity contains information on patients seen in both outpatient and inpatient settings, for providers that invoice with the UT Physicians network. (Main page)
Total Counts as of 2025-06-14
| Count | # of Patients |
|---|---|
| Patients with administrative data | 6,945,309 |
| With both administrative and dental school records | 197,913 |
| In axiUm and with clinical data in Allscripts | 93,936 |
| Patients with an Allscripts record number | 5,135,077 |
| Total dental school records | 487,487 |
| with both Clinical and Dental school records | 153,681 |
| Patients with clinical data, first visit as of today | 3,867,604 |
| With both medical and dental school records | 220,231 |
| Patients from Centricity | 5,501,776 |
| Patients in MPI | 9,047,037 |
| Patients from MHH | 870,772 |
| Patients from Tyler | 559,819 |
| Patients from RGV | 682,354 |
axiUm is an EHR used by the School of Dentistry and attached clinics. This data is loaded into the BigMouth Dental Data Repository. (Main page)
Deduplication
To facilitate research across multiple data sources, we've implemented an eMPI (Enterprise Master Patient Index) to give every patient a unique ID distinct from their local MRN. This allows us to consolidate records of patients who may have been seen in different settings. It also identifies duplicate patient records, improving quality for clinicians.
An MPI can prevent duplicate patient records by linking those with identical or nearly identical demographic data. This ensures a high quality of care.
The MPI database is updated nightly.