A web-based, real-time quality control and progress monitoring tool for multicenter environmental health surveys

Abstract

Background: Large multicenter surveys are increasingly popular in the environmental health field. The quality of the data and management of surveys is crucial to the success of the project. However, none of the existing survey tools include remote, multirole, and real-time quality control of the survey. We have therefore developed an electronic investigation system (EIS), with multirole real-time quality control and progress monitoring modules. Methods and Results: Our investigation system has three levels of quality control officers. Questionnaires verified by the lower-level quality control officers can also be verified at a higher level. The strictly hierarchical verification roles improve quality control even more than retaining quality control officers at each study center. Project investigators can also monitor the progress of the project and each center daily and annually, for a real-time understanding of the performance of each investigator and quality control officer. Conclusion: Our EIS has met the requirements for multicenter studies in the environmental health field. Researchers may use our design to conduct multicenter surveys more efficiently in future.

Keywords

• Multicenter survey tool
• progress monitoring
• real-time quality control
• web-based