DADOS-Survey: an open-source application for CHERRIES-compliant Web surveys.
BACKGROUND
The Internet has been increasingly utilized in biomedical research. From online searching for literature to data sharing, the Internet has emerged as a primary means of research for many physicians and scientists. As a result, Web-based surveys have been employed as an alternative to traditional, paper-based surveys. We describe DADOS-Survey, an open-source Web-survey application developed at our institution that, to the best of our knowledge, is the first to be compliant with the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES). DADOS-Survey was designed with usability as a priority, allowing investigators to design and execute their own studies with minimal technical difficulties in doing so.


RESULTS
To date, DADOS-Survey has been successfully implemented in five Institutional Review Board-approved studies conducted by various departments within our academic center. Each of these studies employed a Web-survey design as their primary methodology. Our initial experience indicates that DADOS-Survey has been used with relative ease by each of the investigators and survey recipients. This has been further demonstrated through formal and field usability testing, during which time suggestions for improvement were incorporated into the software design.


CONCLUSIONS
DADOS-Survey has the potential to have an important role in the future direction of Web-survey administration in biomedical research. This CHERRIES-compliant application is tailored to the emerging requirements of quality data collection in medicine.
Shah
Anand
A
School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 3450 Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. shaha@mail.med.upenn.edu
Jacobs
Danny O
DO
Martins
Henrique
H
Harker
Matthew
M
Menezes
Andreia
A
McCready
Mariana
M
Pietrobon
Ricardo
R
D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000379:methods*; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D028744:Ethics Committees, Research; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015143:Philadelphia; D011786:Quality Control; D012107:Research Design; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires