Imaging and image-based measurements nowadays play an essential role in controlled clinical trials, but electronic data capture (EDC) systems insufficiently support integration of captured images by mobile devices (e.g. smartphones and tablets). The web application OpenClinica has established as one of the world’s leading EDC systems and is used to collect, manage and store data of clinical trials in electronic case report forms (eCRFs). In this paper, we present a mobile application for instantaneous integration of images into OpenClinica directly during examination on patient’s bed site. The communication between the Android application and OpenClinica is based on the simple object access protocol (SOAP) and representational state transfer (REST) web services for metadata, and secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) for image transfer, respectively. OpenClinica’s web services are used to query context information (e.g. existing studies, events and subjects) and to import data into the eCRF, as well as export of eCRF metadata and structural information. A stable image transfer is ensured and progress information (e.g. remaining time) visualized to the user. The workflow is demonstrated for a European multi-center registry, where patients with calciphylaxis disease are included. Our approach improves the EDC workflow, saves time, and reduces costs. Furthermore, data privacy is enhanced, since storage of private health data on the imaging devices becomes obsolete.

Date Published: 19 March 2014
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 9039, Medical Imaging 2014: PACS and Imaging Informatics: Next Generation and Innovations, 903909 (19 March 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2042847

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9039:
Medical Imaging 2014: PACS and Imaging Informatics: Next Generation and Innovations
Maria Y. Law; Tessa S. Cook, Editor(s)