The iCRF Generator
Generate Interoperable CRFs for major EDC.
About
Data need to be FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) to allow them to be used beyond their original purpose. By making data semantically interoperable, they can be exchanged between systems whilst preserving the meaning of the data. Manually mapping clinical items to existing standards, such as SNOMED CT, is complicated, time-consuming and requires expert knowledge of both the domain and the standard. Hence, it is generally easier to reuse an existing codebook.
The iCRF Generator provides access to several well-known online codebooks and allows the user to select items from these codebooks to build their case report forms. Codebooks include the Basic Health Dataset (Basisgegevensset Zorg), the Clinical Building Blocks (Zorginformatiebouwstenen) and The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment’s national screening codebook of bowel cancer and cervical cancer (RIVM bevolkingsonderzoeken).
In 2022/2023 the iCRF Generator was further developed with the NWO Open Science Grant. Several major improvements were made, such as access to openEHR codebooks and support for ODM-XML. For more information, check out the iCRF Generator on GitHub.
Best suited for
Generating CRFs that can be based on the codebooks currently available for interoperable data collection at the source.
Specific features
- Generate interoperable CRFs in multiple languages (if supported by the codebooks)
- Generate interoperable CRFs for a variety of Electronic Data Capture systems (EDCs) / output formats
- Castor EDC
- REDCap
- OpenClinica 3 / LibreClinica
- Molgenis EMX
- ODM-XML
- Search functionality within a codebook for specific items
- I18N user interface (currently Dutch and English)
- EDC specific customization
Pros
- Easy to use Wizard guides user through the process
- CRFs can be generated for a variety of EDCs
- Distribution available for Windows and Mac
- Open Source
- New features can be developed
- Easy to add new codebooks
Cons
- Limited number of codebooks available at this time
- Codebooks can have conflicting definitions
- Locally running software
Why Lana Meiqari, data steward at the Netherlands Cancer Institute uses iCRF Generator.
Getting Started
The iCRF Generator is a JAVA tool. To start using it, you can download and unpack it.
- Distributions: https://github.com/aderidder/iCRFGenerator/releases
- Source code: https://github.com/aderidder/iCRFGenerator
As the tool is distributed with its own Java Runtime Environment, it should work out of the box. More information can be found in the second link.
Support
For issues, questions and requests send an email to a.deridder1@amsterdamumc.nl
Further information
The iCRF Generator currently offers access to six codebooks. If you feel you have a codebook available which would be suitable for national usage, please contact us and we can discuss adding it to the iCRF Generator!
- Publication: https://f1000research.com/articles/9-81
- Distributions: https://github.com/aderidder/iCRFGenerator/releases
- Source code: https://github.com/aderidder/iCRFGenerator
Acknowledgements
We would like to specifically thank Gerrit Meijer (NKI / Health-RI) and Jan-Willem Boiten (Lygature / Health-RI) for making this project possible. Furthermore, we would like to thank Gerben Rienk Visser (Trial Data Solutions) and Maarten Ligtvoet (Nictiz) for their invaluable input and Wessel Sloof (UMCG) for testing the REDCap crfs.
Funding
Registry in a Box was funded by the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF) TraIT2HealthRI (grant 8166).
