Building and using your Database

Building and using your

Database

Presenters

John Clark

Susan Fisher

Stephanie

Oppenheimer

Amy Wahlquist

Agenda

● Introduction

● Statistical considerations

● Importing of data

● Questions

● Graphical View and Stats

● Report Builder

● Questions

Some statistical considerations

● Things to think about

○ who is answering the questions/doing the data input ○ longitudinal vs. classic (and other options)

○ types of questions you want to ask ○ what information is PHI

○ how to make it easy to enter data and for analysis at the end

Who is entering the data

● Lots of options

○ Participant - directly into REDCap

○ Participant - (from paper) and then someone else entering the data

○ Study coordinator - directly into REDCap from participant visit (e.g., over the phone)

○ Study coordinator - from previously existing sources (charts, labs, old Excel files, etc)

● Method can impact what type of REDCap

database to create

Longitudinal vs. classic

● Same instruments/forms being used multiple

times per patient

● Certain types of data only being collected

one time

Another option

● Survey followed by longitudinal database (e.

g., screening a large number of participants

and only enrolling a select number)

Types of questions

● Validation is important!

● Validate as much data as possible

○ date/number/zip/email

○ minimums and maximums ○ number of decimals

○ drop down boxes/radio buttons

● How do you handle missing data?

○ leave blank

○ include option for "did not answer" or "no data available"

Protected Health Information (PHI)

● Mark identifiable information

○ MRN, name, dob, all dates

● Use Check for Identifiers Tool

● Exporting privileges

○ de-identified ○ all data

Make it easier on you and your

statistician

● Variable name considerations

○ scq1-scq40 vs. short description of question

● Think about outcomes/questions you want to

ask

● Think about how/when questions will be

asked

Importing of Data

● Consideration: Why?

○ Does it already live somewhere? ■ Excel or Access - probably

■ Existing DB system - probably not ○ At or near completion?

○ Does it just need to be analyzed? ■ Give data to your statistician ○ To provide access?

■ Emailing PHI a no-no ■ Filelocker.musc.edu ■ REDCap Send-It

Still want to import data?

Options

● MUSC

Enterprise Data Warehouse

■ automated upload ■ adjudication required

■ fee-for-service - unique to each project ■ cleared through IRB

● Data Dump (CSV)

○ You already have the data from somewhere ○ Requested dump from warehouse

Importing data from data dump

● Understand your data structure

○ See source data first!

● Build data dictionary from variable names

○ online or excel

● Use data import template

Importing data from data dump

(Simple) Example

-

VIDEO

1. Download Data Import Template (rows)

2. Open source data file

3. Copy / Paste to Template

4. Upload your CSV file

Questions

● Limit to 5 minutes

Graphical View and Stats

● You've collected data - now what?

REDCap offers basic graphs and stats

■ Limited options, but gives overview of data ■ Allows for identification of missing data

■ Quick way to identify potentially incorrect data ○ Found under 'Applications'

Available Graphical Views

● View as either Pie or Bar Graph

Available Graphical Views

● Scatter Plots - Show

validated

numerical

data

○ Quickly see trends or common answers ○ Quickly notice outliers

Benefits of Graphical Views

● Quickly identify outliers

○ Determine potentially wrong data

■ Can click on data point to go to the record ■ Data can be verified and corrected if needed

Shortcomings of Graphical Views

● Graphs display all records in a project

○ Unable to drill down into a particular subset of records

● Only works for questions with predefined

choices or validated numbers

● Simple graphs

Available Stats Data

● Offers basic statistical analysis

○ Percentages

○ Mean, Median, Mode ○ Standard Deviation ○ Min and max

Using Graphs and Data

Graphs can be used elsewhere - in Word or

Powerpoint

○ There is no 'save' or 'export' option

○ Use screen shots to capture the graph for use elsewhere

■ Mac OS: 'Grab' application or Cmd-Shift-4 ■ Windows 7: Snipping Tool

Report Builder Summary

● Start from the end. Include reporting needs

in database design

● Consider:

○ Creating a field for selecting event name in longitudinal model

○ Creating a field for selecting date categories

● Sometimes it's best to export to Excel

● Need assistance?

○ [email protected] for questions

REDCap User Group

Proposal

● Once a month or more frequently

● User-on-user help

● Real examples and projects

● You set the agenda like today

● We host

● Suggestions and to join: [email protected]

● Survey to follow - please sign in

Thanks to...

● Aimee McRae-Clark for letting us use her

graphical views and stats

● Mary Mauldin for continuing to ask us to give

presentations

● Biostats and Amy Wahlquist for our first

collaborative presentation

● Bioengineering for allowing us to use this

great classroom