- EpiData-list - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

Re: EpiData / External systems Integration
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 08 Feb '09

08 Feb '09

Mark from TriSano asked on the list about how to best integrate analysis with other systems. The whole issue of integration has a lot of room in the EpiData Project and a number of tools are already capable of solving various aspects of this. E.g.: 1. EpiC: Batch data conversion, documentation, validation, backup, encryption 2. EpiData Analysis: Reporting systems for repeated analysis. 3. Documentation and examples - see the documentation part of the main website. - in particular study the technical documents. The documentation for EpiC is available from the documentation site and the conversion process of this year for EpiData Analysis and EpiData Entry adds to the diversity of integration possibilities. I expect the whole documentation for this to be ready later the coming year, but would in general say that the path follows this line for using EpIData Analysis with data created in other systems. The first thing would be to know whether exported csv files from the other system can be read. If not we could extend the import routines based on the experiences. Errors or inconsistencies can be reported to the Mantis database. Looking forward to a possible collaboration in this sense. (I will contact TriSano directly off list.). regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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EpiData / TriSano Integration
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 05 Feb '09

05 Feb '09

To introduce myself, I am the Program Manager for TriSano - an open source, next generation disease surveillance and outbreak management application: http://www.trisano.org We just finished planning for TriSano 1.1 and one item we are in the process of determining is if there is a statistical package we should integrate with. EpiData seems to have potential. I thought I would reach out to you to see if you could point us in the right direction for the best way to do this with EpiData. I cc'd a number of my TriSano collaborators. Thanks in advance, Mike -- Mike Herrick Program Manager, Collaborative Software Initiative mike(a)csinitiative.com M: +1 971.340.0302 O: +1 503.295.7970 Extension: 104 F: +1 503.295.7789 1 SW Columbia Street, Suite 640 Portland, Or 97258 http://www.csinitiative.com

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Double entry for a longitudinal study
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 28 Jan '09

28 Jan '09

I am preparing a double entry verification dataset for a longitudinal study; each participant has 6 follow-ups. Obviously, I'd like the double entry to compare the original entry with the correct follow-up number. For example, ID 100 has 6 follow-ups. I'd like to compare the original entry of follow-up 6 for ID 100 to the new entry of follow-up 6. As far as I know, you can only use ONE identifiable number to compare each entry, which makes double entry for a longitudinal study inconvenient. Is there a way to use both the ID number as well as the follow-up number while doing double entry? Thank you for your time and attention! Lindsay Lindsay Iser, M.A. University of South Florida Florida Mental Health Institute Department of Aging and Mental Health 13301 N. Bruce B. Downs BlVd. MHC 1403 Tampa, FL 33612 Tel-(813)-974-1975 Fax-(813)-974-1968

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Definition of copyrights for EpiData software and documentation
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 27 Jan '09

27 Jan '09

One of the topics for decision on the pathway to open-source of the software is declaration of copy-rights. Formally the copy-right of current products lies with the EpiData Association in combination with the authors of documents etc, which in principle is defined as the sum of persons involved (users, developers, initiators, contributors), but in practice a core group of more influential persons. See the credit pages of the website. There are an abundance of various software open-source/freeware/,..... formulations of copyrights and license principles. Basically as I see it there are three considerations a. By releasing the software one does not take responsibility for errors, timeloss or other losses by using the software (protection against claims from users). b. Someone else should not take the documentation and or software and use for their own purpose without proper referring to those who created the various parts. c. How can we protect the development for future use without restrictions imposed by patents, licensing or similar. And how can we make sure to keep it from being "taken over" under changed conditions. I am not asking for a lengthy discussion of this on this list, but should anyone have viewpoints on the topic let us know. Currently I am favouring the use of this one: "Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence" which can be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ as well in English as many other languages. The "Unported" means not translated. Kind regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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Alyshia Landry is out of the office.
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 17 Jan '09

17 Jan '09

I will be out of the office starting 01/17/2009 and will not return until 01/20/2009. If you require immediate assistance, please contact Celina Sousa at extension 5300. Thanks, Alyshia

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IMIF command Problem
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 17 Jan '09

17 Jan '09

Dear All, I am finding a problem while using IMIF command to tabulate the Opportunistic infections of the database aids.rec. The PGM being used is AIDSP which is meant to tabulate the Opportunistic infections. When I run the PGM there is no tabulation of the Opportunistic infections. However select and freq commands do display the Opportunistic infections in the database. I was using IMIF command because the PGM was getting stuck where there were no Opportunistic infections data in the record. I am attaching the sample database and PGM file for testing in Try.zip file with this message.. Any help will be appreciated. Dr. Shavinder

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Current development of Entry and Analysis - and a question
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 15 Jan '09

15 Jan '09

During recent months extensive work was done rewriting core parts of the software to a unified form for Entry and Analysis regarding reading, saving, exporting, importing and validating data in the internal structures. All of this is not visible to the end-user, but remedies some of the problems seen with different functioning of Entry and Analysis. The strategy is to ensure unified modularity of the internal structure instead of the "add lumps" principles which to some extend have been used over the first five years of development. At the same time known problems and deficiencies are fixed, e.g.: a. In Analysis the graph and table dialogs cannot be resized b. In Entry a clearer logic of creating data files and chks can be implemented, and implementation of Good Clinical Practice principles. As part of the core parts development a key highly technical decision has to be taken: One subtle aspect of earlier standards has been that integer variables were treated in a different form depending on the 1-4 or 5 and larger. Where integers of length 5 (#####) and larger actually were kept internally in the software (Entry and Analysis) as float variables with 0 decimals. The reason for this rests in the old Epi6 format and memory usage in the 1980'ies. We have taken the decision that from next versions of Analysis and Entry all will be built upon a common core system, where all integers (up to 14 in length) are treated as integers internally in the system. The change will only have impact for users reading rec files in other software than EpiData. All existing rec files will be read with no changes. For exports and imports the software will adapt appropriately. But users will have to use the most new versions for reading files created after the change. If anyone reject to this decision please discuss the consequences here on the list. -- Jens Lauritsen Coordinator and initiator of EpiData Project http://www.epidata.dk -- Jens Lauritsen Coordinator and initiator of EpiData Project http://www.epidata.dk

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problem with dialog box
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 15 Jan '09

15 Jan '09

I downloaded EpiData Analysis V2.1.0.157 and wanted to conduct a basic analysis. I can read in a dataset and click on the "Analysis" button. If I select something like "Tables", a dialog box opens up that cannot be resized (to see all of the options in the dialog box). Is there an easy solution to this? Dragging the corners of the box with my mouse does not seem to work, nor does pressing any button while dragging the box. It seems like there should be a scroll bar on the right side too so that one can scroll down to see the "Sorting" options; without this ability, the Sorting options are cut off. Reinstalling EpiData does not seem to solve the problem either. Is there a simple solution to this problem? Wayne Enanoria

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Re: Relate example in Epidata
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 23 Dec '08

23 Dec '08

Renate wrote "I am trying to figure out how the relate function works in Epidata. I am following the examples on the epidata website. I downloaded this zip file today: Relate example - Clinical Study with four forms" Unfortunately I think the uploaded copy was with errors. I just uploaded a fresh copy, which worked on my PC. I used EpiData Entry version 3.1, build (060106) with Windows XP. Please download again and report to the list if the new one works. http://www.epidata.dk/php/downloadc.php?file=epidata_clin_study_example.zip I suggest also to try the other relate examples also found on http://www.epidata.dk/examples.php regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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Re: [EpiData-list] Export of file from EpiData Entry to new rec file
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 23 Dec '08

23 Dec '08

Hi Jens Thanks for getting back to me about the error I reported. I'm using Epidata version 3.0, (build 131103) and Windows 2000. I tried doing the Export Data/back up command on my workmates computer (who also has Epidata loaded and is on the same network) and we did not get the error. Everything worked fine. The two differences between the two of us are 1. she is using XP 2. she has adminstrator rights to our network (meaning she could save to the C Drive) However I was not trying to save the file to the C Drive. I had not chosen a location to export to when I got the error, or even selected a file to work with. The error I got came up as soon as I clicked on "Back up" before even a dialogue box appeared. I gave you the name of the last file I had been working with as I noticed this appears by default in the dialogue box when I (sucessfully) used the other Export Data commands I have been using this version of Epidata for some time and have had no other problems. I can't remember if I have tried to do a back up before with this version - it is not a command I use a lot. Perhaps it is just a bug with my computer. It is being upgraded to XP in the new year so it will be interesting to see if the error goes away after that. Merry Christmas and thanks again for this great software. Christine Christine Roseveare Analyst Regional Public Health 570 9194 027 495 9671 >>> <epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca> 21/12/2008 8:27 a.m. >>> Christine reported: > I am having a problem with the Export data command in Epidata. I had made a rec file for someone else and I wanted to show them how they could save the file to another directory after they had completed their data entry. I clicked on EXPORT Data/Back up but I got a message saying "invalid filename." No dialogue box came up at all just the message, so I had not selected a file to export. There was no problem I could see with this file. I had sucessfully created it and entered data into it. > I had no problem here exporting to the name you used with: EpiData Entry (version 3.1, build 060106)) on windows xp The error you are mentioning could indicate to me, that you are working with Windows Vista, since I have seen a number of very strange errors on this. Due to the fact that Vista is by default to dis-allow (reject) many logical choices by the users. The other possibility is that you have insufficient rights to export to the folder, where you try do so, and only the error message is insufficient. On one particular pc I had a problem, that suddenly the Vista system decided to delete the CHK file of a system. Most likely because the work I did coincided with an internal routine cleaning up files (not under user control) and the setup of that pc was to delete all files called CHK, which by windows is used also as the extension for files found by defragmentation. If this happens repeatedly we might have to change the extension of the chk file to something else, e.g. ckh - finally also it could be a bug in the EpiData Entry software. Please try to export on a different pc and see if you can replicate. is it a problem with the file name or with exporting as such to recfile. When reporting problems here it is good practice to tell which software version, build and operation system. regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association -- The information contained in this email and any attachments is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and remove all copies of the message, including any attachments. Any views or opinions expressed in this email (unless otherwise stated) may not represent those of Hutt Valley DHB. Thank you. ** Disclaimer added by HVDHB **

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