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    H3ABioNet provides guidelines on the use of clinical data, data management and data standardization

    Data Standardisation

    Our data standardisation efforts aim to harmonize data derived from different H3Africa projects and map them to ontologies, where applicable. This is to enable data retrieval and comparison and to make the data FAIR.
    Phenotype Standards

    Standard CRF

    H3ABioNet has worked with the Phenotype Harmonization Working Group of H3Africa to establish data collection tools for a recommended set of phenotype data elements. This has been dubbed the “Std. CRF”.

    The acronym ‘CRF’ stands for Case Report Form and these are forms (hardcopy or electronic) that are used to collected research data from study participant for the study database. 

    Data collected with these forms provides the phenotype data complementing the genomic data generated from DNA samples from the H3Africa studies participants.  

    H3ABioNet has built resources for the Std. CRF in the form of a REDCap template (this offers a REDCap xml file which can be immediately uploaded in the REDCap platform as a complete project incorporating a Data Dictionary with the standardised data definitions and formats for H3Africa recommended phenotypes for collection.

    A Std. CRF Guidelines document describes the H3Africa Std. CRF and provides the full set of CRFs with instructions and guidance on each data element.

    Pdf files of Case Report Forms collecting the recommended variables were generated using Microsoft Publisher which is included in the Office suite and as Data Managers generally would take these variables and add in their own study required variables, editable MS Publisher files of each CRF are also available for adaption in this zipped file (WARNING: Caution is advises if rearranging the order of questions on the forms – ensure the flow of data collection and skip patterns does not get disrupted)

                  OR, select individual pdf forms from the Std. CRF

    Additional work is currently underway to establish a recommended set of standardised paediatric phenotype data elements to include in the Std. CRF.

    Domain-Specific Minimum Data Reporting Guidelines

    Domain-specific studies can be poorly articulated and indexed, raising the need for minimum reporting requirements and (or) guidelines to fully understand the context, methods, data and conclusions that pertain to a study and/or experiment. The primary aim of a guideline is to provide broad guidance for a specific study’s data collection and management.

    Based on the Phenotype Standards captured within the Standard CRF, H3ABioNet is developing domain-specific minimum reporting guidelines, subdivided into three sections (participant-; study-; and experiment-specific information) which can be employed to promote comprehensive and harmonized data collection within specific domains. These domains include:

    • Kidney Disease
    • Stroke

    H3ABioNet has built resources for the reporting guidelines in the form of a XML schemas, which can be uploaded on a data management platform such as REDCap.

    Associated data dictionaries have been completed for each reporting guideline and are available in .csv format. These data dictionaries outline ontologies to which each data element is mapped to.

    A Domain-Specific Minimum Information Data Reporting Guidelines: Recommendations for Use document has been created in order to guide users in the employment of these reporting guidelines and data dictionaries.

    Work is ongoing to extend domain-specific data reporting guidelines where the needs arise.

    Ontology Mapping
    FAIR Data
    H3ABioNet is funded by NIH Common Fund Award / NHGRI Grant Number U24HG006941
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