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ELT

elt
technology·Updated Jul 6, 2026

Definition

ISO-11179 Definition

An alternative to traditional ETL that loads raw data into a target data warehouse first and then applies transformation logic using the computational power of the warehouse itself, rather than transforming data before loading. ELT has become the dominant paradigm in modern healthcare data platforms built on cloud warehouses such as Snowflake and BigQuery, enabled by tools like dbt that define transformations as SQL models executed within the warehouse, replacing complex ETL server infrastructure.

Standard Abbreviation

elt

Category

technology

Production DDL — DIM_SYSTEM

DIM_SYSTEM.sql
CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE DIM_SYSTEM (
    sys_key         INTEGER       NOT NULL  -- surrogate key,
    sys_id          VARCHAR(50)   NOT NULL  -- system identifier,
    sys_nm          VARCHAR(200)  NOT NULL  -- system name,
    sys_type_cd     VARCHAR(50)             -- system type code,
    sys_vrsn        VARCHAR(50)             -- system version,
    vndr_nm         VARCHAR(200)            -- vendor name,
    intfc_type_cd   VARCHAR(50)             -- interface type code,
    intfc_proto_cd  VARCHAR(20)             -- interface protocol,
    env_cd          VARCHAR(20)             -- environment code,
    host_nm         VARCHAR(200)            -- hostname,
    ip_addr         VARCHAR(45)             -- IP address,
    sts_cd          VARCHAR(20)             -- status code,
    eff_dt          DATE          NOT NULL  -- effective date,
    exp_dt          DATE                    -- expiration date,
    rec_creat_dt    TIMESTAMP     NOT NULL  -- record created date
);

Standard Snowflake DDL for the canonical technology table. Convert to BigQuery or Databricks →

Why This Term Matters

Healthcare data terminology is foundational for any data engineer working in this industry. Precise understanding of standard terms enables accurate schema design, reduces downstream data quality issues, and ensures pipelines meet the regulatory and interoperability requirements imposed by HIPAA, HL7 FHIR, and CMS reporting frameworks. Without this foundation, even technically well-built pipelines produce data that fails validation when it reaches payers or regulators.

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