Evaluation of a Teleform-based data collection system: a multi-center obesity research case study.
Utilizing electronic data capture (EDC) systems in data collection and management allows automated validation programs to preemptively identify and correct data errors. For our multi-center, prospective study we chose to use TeleForm, a paper-based data capture software that uses recognition technology to create case report forms (CRFs) with similar functionality to EDC, including custom scripts to identify entry errors. We quantified the accuracy of the optimized system through a data audit of CRFs and the study database, examining selected critical variables for all subjects in the study, as well as an audit of all variables for 25 randomly selected subjects. Overall we found 6.7 errors per 10,000 fields, with similar estimates for critical (6.9/10,000) and non-critical (6.5/10,000) variables-values that fall below the acceptable quality threshold of 50 errors per 10,000 established by the Society for Clinical Data Management. However, error rates were found to widely vary by type of data field, with the highest rate observed with open text fields.
Cincinnati Children׳s Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, MLC 7000, Cincinnati, OH 45229-3039, USA. Electronic address: todd.jenkins@cchmc.org.
Todd M
TM
Jenkins
Cincinnati Children׳s Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, MLC 7000, Cincinnati, OH 45229-3039, USA. Electronic address: Tawny.Wilson@cchmc.org.
Tawny
T
Wilson Boyce
Cincinnati Children׳s Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, MLC 7000, Cincinnati, OH 45229-3039, USA. Electronic address: Rachel.Akers@cchmc.org.
Rachel
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Akers
Cincinnati Children׳s Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, MLC 7000, Cincinnati, OH 45229-3039, USA. Electronic address: Jennifer.Andringa@cchmc.org.
Jennifer
J
Andringa
Cincinnati Children׳s Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, MLC 7000, Cincinnati, OH 45229-3039, USA. Electronic address: Yanhong.Liu@cchmc.org.
Yanhong
Y
Liu
Cincinnati Children׳s Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, MLC 7000, Cincinnati, OH 45229-3039, USA. Electronic address: Rosemary.Miller@cchmc.org.
Rosemary
R
Miller
Cincinnati Children׳s Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, MLC 7000, Cincinnati, OH 45229-3039, USA. Electronic address: Carolyn.Powers@cchmc.org.
Carolyn
C
Powers
University of Cincinnati, PO Box 670056, Cincinnati, OH 45267 0056, USA. Electronic address: Ralph.Buncher@uc.edu.
C
C
Ralph Buncher
D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001330:Electronic Data Processing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008492:Medical Informatics Computing; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012984:Software
Data collection; Data quality; Technology; Teleform; Validation