Stand Alone Data Entry
Michael, EpiInfo is using MS Access for both the data and the meta data. Do you have any suggestion how software could automatically create an Access data base?
If you have cell phone capability, one option is IVR (interactive voice response) that allows users to interact with the database through a standard telephone or cell phone. I have heard that OneWorld Health (www.oneworldhealth.org) uses this in their clinical trials and is working with a private vendor called QuesGen (www.quesgen.com) to make their data collection platform available using this technology. If you actually have laptop computers and electricity, but just don't have Internet, you can collect into several different stand-alone systems. We have made Microsoft Access work for distributed data entry with replication and re-synchronization. You split your database into front-end and back-end files, create a single master copy of the back-end and distribute replicas which get returned (e.g. on a USB drive) and re-synchronized. This is probably too complicated for your environment.
Sometimes the best approach is the old fashioned one of collecting data onto paper forms and shipping them to a central location for subsequent transcription into the computer database.
KnutWittkowski - 22 Jun 2009 - 19:22 / 23 Jun 2009 - 05:52
I'm currently looking into the format of the EpiInfo (http://www.cdc.gov/epiinfo/) data dictionary so that WISDOM (https://www.ctspedia.org/CTSpedia/WebServices) would automatically create for you equivalent questionnaires in REDCap (online data entry) and EpiInfo (offline data entry).
PhilMiller - 19 Jun 2009 - 11:17
We are planning an international study where data will be collected in remote locations so web-based data entry solutions are not practical. What software have others found useful for this type of system?