Development these months is focused on getting towards compliance with the legal regulations on access to data containing health information. In short this concerns: - definition of users and what they can do (change structure, modify users, export data ....) - logging of which users did what
The total development list contains as well: - inclusion of scripting during Entry. Could be used for user defined functions such as summation af scales or reading of data from external lookup software). - rewriting of Analysis based on the new xml file format. And extension with more specific functions for routine reporting.
A number of International Standards describe requirements of user control and logging in detail (piles of descriptions). This is difficult legal and technical documentation. For those using ISO standards this referes to ISO 27001 and 27002.
A formal certification with an external auditing body would be a huge investment and NOT possible within the economic constrains of the EpiData project. Just as an example rewriting from one standard to another would cost 5000 Euro. Which is better spent on development. But implementation of the principles is required to secure continued use in some countries and some situations. E.g. for research in pharmaceutical products.
More news will follow on this development, which is also dependent on continued donation of funding for the development of the EpiData software products.
The remaining development is expected to take about 2-2½ years. Software will be released as open-source, when specific modules are ready with all decided functionality. The reason for working in this way is that before principles are settled it is a highly fragile situation. There is however continued correspondance and exchange of components with other users applying the Free-Pascal solution in Lazarus, which is the basis of EntryClient and Manager programming.
Regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association.