How to Manage Studies?

Audiqueen Analytics is a powerful module to query patients and extract test results based on several criteria and export them to Excel.   Audiqueen Analytics has a powerful tool to run studies.

A typical study would look like this:  

for all patients that have received a cochlear implant in the first year of life and after 2013, I want to have a preoperative unaided audiogram and postoperative aided audiograms at 1 month, 3 months, and 5 years after surgery and an aided speech audiogram at 5 years after surgery.

A Study is defined by 

• Patient inclusion criteria
• One event
• Several evaluation moments before and/or after the event
• Test results at the evaluation moments

This can be shown in a matrix like this:

The matrix contains the event (here: cochlear implant), one preoperative evaluation moment, and 3 postoperative moments.
The study comprises 2 test results: (1) audiometry, which is assessed at every evaluation; and 
(2) speech audiometry, which is assessed only at the 5-year postoperative evaluation moment.

Create a new study

Click on Analytics and then on Manage Studies to open the Study Management window.

This window displays the studies (now empty). You can choose to display 
the ongoing studies only, or also the ones that have reached their  'Finish Date'.
You can also display studies that have been archived.

Name the study

Click on New to start designing the study.

Enter a study name, start and end date, and some description.  The start and end date define how long the study appears as 'active' in the study management window.  They are also used for the automatic enrollment of patients (not yet implemented).

Include/Exclude patients

Click on Set Criteria to set the inclusion criteria.  This opens the Patient Query screen on the Patient Filter.  After setting the enrollment criteria, you can close this window with the Make Patient Filter button.

Before saving this, you can also run the query (click on Search) to get an idea of how many patients will be enrolled.  Here you can also exclude a patient from the study by deselecting the checkbox.

In case you want to enroll a patient who does not fully meet the criteria, you can add him/her manually by typing the unique identifier in the field 'Add patient manually'.

Design the Study Protocol

This will create the matrix as shown above.  The study pivots around the event chosen in the inclusion criteria.

Add Time Point

First add the evaluation moments, like Preop or 1-month postop.  For this, click on Add Time Point and enter the valid time window.  For pre-event moments, enter a negative value (like -90 days after the event). 

This example shows that the preop time window is set from 180 to 0 days before the event.

Add Outcome

Now add all the outcome types (test result types) that you want to use.  Clicking on the arrow of the Add Outcome button gives you a list of all available test types.  Select one, e.g. Speech Audiometry.

This builds the matrix.  All fields are still red.

Now double-click on a field to define the selection criteria that apply to this particular outcome.  This opens the Patient Query screen on the Result Filter.  Here you can define, for instance, that the preoperative audiometry should be the last unaided in the time window.  

After setting the criteria, you can close this window with the Make Result Filter button.

Before saving this, you can also run the query (click on Search) to get an idea of how many results qualify.  If more than one event meets the selection criteria, several result lines may appear.  Here you can also exclude a result from the study by deselecting the checkbox.

Now the field turns green to show that it is ready to be part of the study design and yield results.

You can do this for all other fields...

Now the matrix shows that the study design looks for audiometric results 
at all evaluation moments and for speech audiometry at the 5-year session.

Run or Save the Study

Now you can run the study and export the results to excel (like in Patient Query) or save the study,  either to be accessible for you alone or all colleagues in your centre.

The excel book  displays all results, grouped per matrix field in different worksheets

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