Design of case report forms based on a public metadata registry: re-use of data elements to improve compatibility of data

BACKGROUND: Clinical trials use many case report forms (CRFs) per patient. Because of the astronomical number of potential CRFs, data element re-use at the design stage is attractive to foster compatibility of data from different trials. The objective of this work is to assess the technical feasibility of a CRF editor with connection to a public metadata registry (MDR) to support data element re-use. RESULTS: Based on the Medical Data Models portal, an ISO/IEC 11179-compliant MDR was implemented and connected to a web-based CRF editor. Three use cases were implemented: re-use at the form, item group and data element levels. CONCLUSIONS: CRF design with data element re-use from a public MDR is feasible. A prototypic system is available. The main limitation of the system is the amount of available MDR content.