Container for running synthea.

Repository: https://github.com/FirelyTeam/firely.synthea-docker

This is based on https://github.com/intersystems-community/irisdemo-base-synthea. I (Christiaan) added powershell scripts build_synthea.ps1 & build.ps1 to run the whole thing on Windows.

The scripts are mainly use to build the Docker image. After building it, you can use the image to run Synthea without installing it (and Java) locally.

If you can use a version that is prebuilt, you don't need this repository at all :-) I registered the built image for Synthea 3.0.0 in the FirelyTeam docker repository. By the time you read this, other versions may be available. Check (the repository)[https://portal.azure.com/#view/Microsoft_Azure_ContainerRegistries/RepositoryBlade/id/%2Fsubscriptions%2F888f4097-c254-483a-9596-a5863a11c4a9%2FresourceGroups%2Fbuildserver%2Fproviders%2FMicrosoft.ContainerRegistry%2Fregistries%2Ffirely/repository/firely%2Fsynthea].

You may need to log in first:

docker login --username USER_NAME --password PASSWORD firely.azurecr.io

Then you can pull it:

docker pull firely.azurecr.io/firely/synthea:v3.0.0

• set the version of Synthea you want to use in the VERSION file (use the corresponding (tag from the synthea repository)[https://github.com/synthetichealth/synthea/tags]). (This will also be the tag of the image to build)
• run build.ps1, which will
  • run build_synthea.ps1, which:
    • will retrieve (the same) version from VERSION
    • clone the synthea repository at this tag
    • build Synthea binaries
    • bundle them in synthea_dist/synthea.tar
  • build an image of the tar file as specified in the Dockerfile
• The dockerfile:
  • maps the /output directory for the generated output
  • has synthea/bin/synthea as entrypoint, so you can use the container like you would use the synthea.exe.

Check the result:

docker image ls

This example will generate 25 Patient records (including all resources for their health history), in FHIR R4 ndjson (Bulk Data Export) format. It also skips the US-Core profiles, useful if you want valid resources w.r.t just the Core FHIR spec.

docker run --rm -v $PWD/output:/output --name synthea-docker firely/synthea:v3.0.0 -p 25 `
--exporter.fhir.bulk_data true `
--exporter.fhir.transaction_bundle false `
--exporter.fhir.use_us_core_ig false

As the ./output directory is mounted to the container for the generated output, you can find the resource here:

dir ./output/fhir

You can find all the --exporter* settings in the (synthea repo)[https://github.com/synthetichealth/synthea/] in /src/main/resources/synthea.properties ((direct link)[https://github.com/synthetichealth/synthea/blob/master/src/main/resources/synthea.properties]).

This step is optional, but can be useful for e.g. new major versions of Synthea.

You may have to login first, see above.

docker push firely.azurecr.io/firely/synthea:v3.0.0