A Web Application for Structured Management and Reuse of Electronic Case Report Forms in REDCap

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Informatics
• Data Management
• Research Methodology

Background:

• Electronic Data Capture (EDC) systems, including REDCap, are vital in biomedical research.
• Current EDC systems offer limited support for the full lifecycle of electronic questionnaires, especially version control and collaborative development.
• Managing questionnaire versions and enabling reuse is a significant challenge in multi-site or longitudinal studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel web-based platform for managing the lifecycle of electronic questionnaires.
• To enhance existing Electronic Data Capture (EDC) workflows by providing robust version control and reusability features.
• To facilitate structured questionnaire composition and item-level versioning.

Main Methods:

• Development of a web-based platform with a focus on lifecycle awareness and version control.
• Implementation of structured questionnaire composition capabilities.
• Support for standards-compliant CSV import and export for interoperability.
• Evaluation using real-world REDCap data dictionaries to assess functionality.

Main Results:

• The developed platform provides lifecycle-aware management of electronic questionnaires.
• Item-level versioning and structured composition features were successfully implemented.
• Demonstrated reliable round-trip interoperability with existing REDCap data dictionaries via CSV.
• Showcased explicit traceability of questionnaire evolution over time.

Conclusions:

• The new platform effectively complements existing Electronic Data Capture (EDC) systems like REDCap.
• It addresses key limitations in managing the electronic questionnaire lifecycle, particularly version control and reuse.
• The tool enhances collaborative development and ensures data integrity through version traceability.