title: UceWeb: a web-based collaborative tool for collecting and sharing quality of life data.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This work aims at building a platform where quality-of-life data, namely utility coefficients, can be elicited not only for immediate use, but also systematically stored together with patient profiles to build a public repository to be further exploited in studies on specific target populations (e.g. cost/utility analyses).
  
  
  METHODS
  We capitalized on utility theory and previous experience to define a set of desirable features such a tool should show to facilitate sound elicitation of quality of life. A set of visualization tools and algorithms has been developed to this purpose. To make it easily accessible for potential users, the software has been designed as a web application. A pilot validation study has been performed on 20 atrial fibrillation patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A collaborative platform, UceWeb, has been developed and tested. It implements the standard gamble, time trade-off and rating-scale utility elicitation methods. It allows doctors and patients to choose the mode of interaction to maximize patients’ comfort in answering difficult questions. Every utility elicitation may contribute to the growth of the repository.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  UceWeb can become a unique source of data allowing researchers both to perform more reliable comparisons among healthcare interventions and build statistical models to gain deeper insight into quality of life data.
authors.affiliation: Enea Parimbelli, Università degli studi di Pavia, Department of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering, Via ferrata 5, 27100 Pavia, Italy, E-mail: enea.parimbelli@gmail.com.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Parimbelli
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sacchi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rubrichi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mazzanti
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Quaglini
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003625:Data Collection; D004467:Economics; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D020407:Internet; D000070516:Intersectoral Collaboration; D011788:Quality of Life; D012984:Software
keywords: Utility elicitation; collaborative platform; quality of life; repository; web-application