MEDCIS is a cross dataset query interface for SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in EPilepsy) research. The goal of MEDCIS is to be directly used by clinical researchers, for activities such as data exploration seeking to formulate, clarify, and determine the availability of support for potential hypotheses as well as for cohort identification across multiple datasets. MEDCIS has two main components:

1. Query Builder, with terminology support and visual controls such as slider bar and checkboxes;
2. Query Manager, which stores and labels queries for reuse.

Clicking the sub menu Query Builder under the menu Query will lead you to the Query Builder page^[Fig01].

• In the "Area for data sets selection" (blue box 1), you can select datasets of interest such as "UH".
• In the "Area for looking up core terms" (blue box 2), you can look up a specific core term in two ways. The first way is "search" (red circle), where you can search for core terms like "tonic" in the text box. Then a list of candidate variable terms, which partially match the search term, will be automatically displayed. The second way is "browse" (red circle in Fig02), where you can browse core terms in terms of categories. For example, clicking the category "Epileptiform Discharge" (Arrow C) will pop up a sub menu with all the core terms or sub categories under this category.
• Clicking an appropriate candidate term (Arrow A) will add a corresponding individual query widget to the "Area for query composition" (blue box 3), where you can specify the query based on the type of the term. If the term is a categorical type, then checkboxes will be provided for you to select. If the term is a numeric type, then a slider bar along with two text boxes specifying range will be provided so that you can either slide the bar or enter a range in the text boxes. If the term is a hierarchical type, then a list of all subtypes of this term will be provided for you to select or further drill down to more specific level.
• Clicking the button "Add Properties" (Arrow B) in a query widget will display all the properties of the core term for you to further specify query criteria (e.g., choosing "Generalized" for the property "Modifier").
• Clicking the "Query" button on the top left corner of the "Area for query result" (blue box 4) will generate the patient reports satisfying the composed query criteria. For example, Fig01 shows a sample query for UH patient reports where patients are female and with generalized tonic-clonic seizure. Fig02 shows a sample query for UH patient reports where patients are female and with epileptiform discharge sharp wave.

While you are exploring or done with the query composition, you can also scroll down and save the constructed query^[Fig03].

Clicking the "Save Query" button in Fig03 will lead you to the Query Manager page^[Fig04], which allows you to keep track of saved queries and retrieve record information on the queries. You can also click the sub menu Query Manager under the menu Query or click the tab Query Manager to get to the Query Manager page^[Fig04]. Clicking a name of a saved query (blue box) will link to the Query Builder page with query widgets automatically loaded for the saved query, where you can review and update query criteria.

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