BASUG Quarterly Meeting Announcement

 

 

 

Short Meeting Description

 

The non-profit Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (aka CDISC) continues to develop data standards that are being warmly embraced by the FDA.  Come learn about streamlining the implementation of these standards.  Resistance is futile.

 

This meeting is particularly relevant to SAS programmers, Biostatisticians, Clinical Data Managers, and Regulatory Specialists in the Biotechnology/Pharmaceutical and Medical Device industries.  Those outside clinical research in these industries may find this meeting helpful for informing development of standards for their own data.

 

 

Immediately following the meeting, we will provide an informal light buffet (free) lunch for all meeting attendees. We hope you can stay for this opportunity to network and socialize with your fellow SAS users. 

 

 

Additional Background

 

The mission of the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) is to “develop and support global, platform-independent data standards that enable information system interoperability to improve medical research and related areas of healthcare.”  Since its formation as an independent, non-profit in 2000, CDISC has made substantial progress towards it mission and has developed a suite of data and metadata standards that are being adopted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  

 

The ultimate goal of data standardization across organizations is to maximize efficiency and quality of the FDA submission process overall.  Often, however, efficiency is initially reduced until processes are developed and streamlined to fully implement standards.   The speakers will discuss challenges and opportunities related to implementing two CDISC standards, the Study Data Tabulation Model (SDTM) and Case Report Tabulation Data Definition Specification using define.xml. 

 

Given that the FDA has adopted SDTM and define.xml for submitting tabulation data it is inevitable that all submissions will eventually be expected to conform to these standards.  Thus it is imperative for those working with clinical data in the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical industry to become proficient in these standards. 

 

 

 

Topic:

Managing Clinical Data in the Age of CDISC

 

When:

March 2, 2011

8:15am – Noon

 

Where:

 

Microsoft New England Research & Development Center

One Memorial Drive

Conference Center First Floor

Cambridge, MA 02142

(857) 453-6000 

 

Directions:

Please visit the meeting site directions page.

 

How:

Individual, On-Line Registration Required. No Email!

 

To register:

Please visit the meeting registration page.

 

Contact:

If you have questions about the meeting,
contact Asli Memisoglu or Manjusha Gokhale

 

 

Agenda*

8:15

Sign in and Refreshments

9:00

Announcements

9:15

In-Depth Review of Validation Tools to Check Compliance of CDISC SDTM-Ready Clinical Datasets by Bhavin Busa, Sr. Statistical Programmer, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

10:30

Break

10:45

The Use of Metadata in Creating, Transforming and Transporting Clinical Data  

by Gregory Steffens, Director, Data Management and SAS Programming, ICON Development Solutions

Noon

Meeting Adjourned

Noon-1:00pm

FREE Networking Lunch

 

*Note: Times (and sequence) are approximate and subject to change. Please re-visit the BASUG website for updated information.

 

Abstracts and Bios

 

In-Depth Review of Validation Tools to Check Compliance of CDISC SDTM-Ready Clinical Datasets   by Bhavin Busa, Sr. Statistical Programmer, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

 

Abstract

 

As the pharmaceutical organizations becomes increasingly involved in developing efficient and cost effective ways to produce CDISC SDTM-compliant clinical trial domains, it has become more crucial to identify a validation tool to check compliance and streamline operations for the preparation of submission-ready files in accordance with the most recent SDTM Implementation Guide. The ultimate need of a SDTM validation tool is to check the compliance of the SDTM domains for successful load into Janus (clinical data repository at FDA) and thereby reducing risk of delay in the submission review process.

 

The presentation will provide an in-depth review of various SDTM validation tools and provide some insight on the framework, installation and pros & cons of each solution by implementing them on a real submission-ready clinical datasets. The high-level outline of the presentation is as follows:

·         Brief introduction of CDISC SDTM standards

·         FDA initiatives on CDISC SDTM standards

·         SDTM Data Flow from Sponsor to FDA

·         Needs and requirements of an SDTM validation tool

·         In-depth Review of various SDTM validation tools:

o        Lincoln Technologies WebSDM™

o        SAS® – Clinical Standard Toolkit

o        OpenCDISC Validator

o        In-House SAS Macro Based Solution

·         Side-by-Side comparison of SDTM validation tools

·         Summarizing evaluation results and recommendation

·         Open the floor for discussion on other implementation ideas and strategies

 

 

Speaker Bio

 

Bhavin Busa is a Senior Statistical Programmer at Cubist Pharmaceuticals. He is an active participant in CDISC initiative and is well adept with SDTM, ADaM, and Define.xml standards.  He is a regular presenter at Pharmaceutical SAS User Group, Mass Biotech Council, and is a committee member of Boston Area CDISC User Network.  In the past, he has been honored with the best paper award in the Regulatory Submission section of the PharmaSUG 2008 on the very topic of CDISC SDTM validation.  In addition to his expertise in CDISC SDTM, he has also developed various SAS based solution to automate creation of analysis tables and Define.xml. On a personal note, he believes in sharing knowledge and is therefore very active in presenting topics that will benefit the SAS community and the industry as a whole.

 

 

The Use of Metadata in Creating, Transforming and Transporting Clinical Data  

by Gregory Steffens, Director, Global SAS Programming, ICON Development Solutions

 

Abstract

 

Pharmaceutical companies must address the need to define database structures quickly and easily in order to

 

·         support clinical trial analysis databases

·         import data from central laboratories and CROs

·         export data to Data Safety Monitoring boards

·         share data between corporate sites within and without the United States

·         submit data to the FDA and other regulatory agencies

 

Industry-level standards are being discussed and developed to help address this need and most pharmaceutical companies have corporate standards of database structures.  However, generally these industry and corporate standards are stored in .pdf or MSword documents.  As such they are accessible only to people reading the documents.  Storing this same information in meta data sets adds much value to the effort put into defining these standards because this information is now available to computer programs.  This presentation describes standard meta data set structures that are capable of storing specifications for any of the above database requirements.  These meta data, along with SAS macros and a SAS/AF application that access these meta data, supports the specification, creation, importation, exportation, comparison and validation of databases and format catalogs.  Further, these meta data can be used to export data and metadata to XML format.  The meta data structures can be implemented in any relational database or in SAS itself.   The macros support such functions as:

 

·         printing the specification in several formats, including the define.xml and define.html formats

·         adding all the data set and variable attributes to the database

·         listing discrepancies between the specification and the database

·         sorting the data by primary keys

·         reordering variables according to FDA preferences

·         creation of format catalogs

·         creation of character decode variables from code variables

·         comparison of database structures to assist in enforcing project standards

·         transforming a database from one database structure to another, using map metadata

 

As industry and corporate standards are developed there is great value in documenting these in meta data sets, that are accessible to computer programs, rather than in word or .pdf.

 

In summary, when importing data from outside sources, the data specification is implemented in meta data so that computer programs can automatically compare the data submitted by the lab or CRO to the specification and list discrepancies where the database does not conform to the specification.  When specifying study analysis databases, macros assist in the building of the database by automatically adding all the specified variable and data set attributes, such as labels and formats, adding decode variables, sorting the data, building format catalogs, etc.  When submitting data to the FDA a thorough specification can be printed from the metadata or exported to XML format, with bookmarks and hyperlinks.

 

Speaker Bio

 

Greg Steffens has been using SAS for programming and applications development since 1981, primarily in the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries.  He has held job positions ranging from lead technical to director-level management.  He is currently Director of SAS Programming at ICON PLC and a member of two CDISC teams.  Greg's experience includes the design and development of metadata and software to automate data definition, data transformation, data validation and FDA submissions.

 

BASUG Membership

 

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