[Types of medical registries - definitions, methodological aspects and quality of the scientific work with registries]

A Comprehensive Assessment Tool for Patient Registry Software Systems: The CIPROS Checklist

Background: Patient registries are an important instrument in medical research. Often their structure is complex and their implementation uses composite software systems to meet the wide spectrum of challenges.

Objectives: For the implementation of a registry, there is a wide range of commercial, open source, and self-developed systems available and a minimal standard for the critical appraisal of their architecture is needed.

Methods: We performed a systematic review of the literature to define a catalogue of relevant criteria to construct a minimal appraisal standard.

Results: The CIPROS list is developed based on 64 papers which were found by our systematic review. The list covers twelve sections and contains 72 items.

Conclusions: The CIPROS list supports developers to assess requirements on existing systems and strengthens the reporting of patient registry software system descriptions. It can be a first step to create standards for patient registry software system assessments.

[What can and cannot be achieved by registries : Perspective of the registry working group of the German Network of Health Services Research]

In addition to clinical trials, registries and cohort studies are the fundamental basis of patient-orientated research. The importance of registries is increasing because more questions involving patient care under routine conditions (real world data) need to be answered. This article supplies answers to the questions: what can be achieved with registries and what are the limitations? Starting with a consensus definition of a registry from the German Network of Health Services Research (DNVF), the question of existing registries was examined and it was concluded that there was a lack of transparency. Consequently, a registry of registries similar to clinical trials registries is urgently needed as well as an evaluation of the quality of existing registries. Criteria are deduced that allow an assessment of the quality of a registry and which comprehensive possibilities registries can provide are discussed in eight different areas of interest to clinicians. The limitations of registries compared to randomized clinical trials and cohort studies are emphasized and discussed in this article. In the future, the use of registry-based randomized clinical trials (RRCT) will allow data related to efficacy as well as to effectiveness to be collated.

Implementation of a population-based epidemiological rare disease registry: study protocol of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)--registry Swabia

BACKGROUND

The social and medical impact of rare diseases is increasingly recognized. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most prevalent of the motor neuron diseases. It is characterized by rapidly progressive damage to the motor neurons with a survival of 2-5 years for the majority of patients. The objective of this work is to describe the study protocol and the implementation steps of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) registry Swabia, located in the South of Germany.

METHODS/DESIGN

The ALS registry Swabia started in October 2010 with both, the retrospective (01.10.2008-30.09.2010) and prospective (from 01.10.2010) collection of ALS cases, in a target population of 8.6 million persons in Southern Germany. In addition, a population based case-control study was implemented based on the registry that also included the collection of various biological materials.Retrospectively, 420 patients (222 men and 198 women) were identified. Prospectively data of ALS patients were collected, of which about 70% agreed to participate in the population-based case-control study. All participants in the case-control study provided also a blood sample. The prospective part of the study is ongoing.

DISCUSSION

The ALS registry Swabia has been implemented successfully. In rare diseases such as ALS, the collaboration of registries, the comparison with external samples and biorepositories will facilitate to identify risk factors and to further explore the potential underlying pathophysiological mechanisms.