Model-View-Controller (MVC)
Still trying to decide if MVC is relevant to fm2x (or anything else)! Have a look:
http://heim.ifi.uio.no/trygver/themes/mvc/mvc-index.html
http://www.pointy-stick.com/blog/2008/11/30/removing-model-view-controller-straitjacket/
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/28/1335248&tid=156
Object oriented databases
A discussion (http://www.ddj.com/database/212001606) that makes OODBs worth considering:
Another challenge of healthcare is to enable graceful evolution of data models. Certain clinical data remains valuable for years or decades, rather than the weeks or months found in other application domains. This requires an ability to add new data, new data types, and new relationships without "breaking" existing applications and structures and without requiring disruptive database reorganizations or unload/reload cycles. Object database technology facilitates this through schema evolution, enabling incremental "nondestructive" changes to database structures ...
Fortunately, fm2x's column store database approach does much the same.