title: DEVELOPING AN IPAD® APPLICATION FOR DATA COLLECTION IN A RHEUMATOLOGY RESEARCH CLINIC.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Clinical research data are often collected on paper and later inputted onto an electronic database. This method is time consuming and potentially introduces errors. Therefore, to make primary data collection more efficient and less error prone we aimed to develop a touch-screen application for data collection in a psoriatic arthritis research clinic and compared it with the pre-existing paper-based system.
  
  
  METHODS
  We developed a Web application using Java and optimized it for the iPad®. It highlights missing fields for physicians in real time, and only permits submission of data collection form after corrections are made. For its evaluation, seven physicians participated, and before each patient visit they were randomly assigned paper or iPad® data entry. Number of errors, length of visit, and time between clinic visit and completion of data entry were measured.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 106 patients seen in the clinic who agreed to participate were randomly assigned to be evaluated by clinic physicians using the iPad® (fifty-three patients) or a paper protocol (fifty-three patients). On average, 3.34 omissions were found per paper form, of which 2.24 would have been detected on the iPad®. The iPad® increased the mean patient encounter time from 37.2 minutes to 46.5 minutes, but eliminated delay between a clinic visit and its data entry.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Entering data using the iPad® application makes the patient encounter slightly longer, but reduces "missing fields." It also eliminates the delay between clinic visit and data entry thus improving the efficiency of clinical data capture in a research setting.
authors.affiliation: University of Toronto,Institute of Medical Science Summer Student,Psoriatic Arthritis Program,University Health Network,Centre for Prognosis Studies in the Rheumatic Diseases,Toronto Western Hospital.
authors.forename: Hussam
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kaka
authors.affiliation: IPART (International Psoriasis and Arthritis Research Team) Program,Toronto Western Hospital.
authors.forename: Renise
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ayearst
authors.affiliation: Psoriatic Arthritis Program,University Health Network,Centre for Prognosis Studies in the Rheumatic Diseases,Toronto Western Hospital.
authors.forename: Maithy
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tran
authors.affiliation: Psoriatic Arthritis Program,University Health Network,Centre for Prognosis Studies in the Rheumatic Diseases,Toronto Western Hospital.
authors.forename: Zahi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Touma
authors.affiliation: University of Toronto Rheumatology Training Program,Psoriatic Arthritis Program,University Health Network,Centre for Prognosis Studies in the Rheumatic Diseases,Toronto Western Hospital.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bagovich
authors.affiliation: University of Toronto Rheumatology Training Program,Psoriatic Arthritis Program,University Health Network,Centre for Prognosis Studies in the Rheumatic Diseases,Toronto Western Hospital.
authors.forename: Ophir
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Vinik
authors.affiliation: Psoriatic Arthritis Program,University Health Network,Centre for Prognosis Studies in the Rheumatic Diseases,Toronto Western Hospital.
authors.forename: Mansour
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Somaily
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology,Department of Medicine,University of Toronto,Toronto,Canada.
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haddad
authors.affiliation: University of Toronto,Toronto Western Research Institute,Psoriatic Arthritis Program,University Health Network,Centre for Prognosis Studies in the Rheumatic Diseases,Toronto Western Hospital.
authors.forename: Dafna D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Gladman
authors.affiliation: University of Toronto,Psoriatic Arthritis Program,University Health Network,Centre for Prognosis Studies in the Rheumatic Diseases,Toronto Western Hospitalvinod.chandran@uhnres.utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Vinod
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Chandran
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000379:methods*; D034201:Computers, Handheld; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D012219:Rheumatology; D013997:Time Factors; D014584:User-Computer Interface
keywords: Data collection; Data quality; Research database; Tablet computers