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- What if a medication is taken on a different dosing schedule within the same day?
- Since data analysis is at the "Day" level, whether or not this is one or two entries depends on whether the information is needed. For example, those with patient registries may prefer two entries because they are using StudyTRAX to generate clinic notes and the specificity is needed. Conversely, those only interested in the daily total may combine it into one total dose entry.
- Should I use the medication feature or create a concomitant?
- The time saving analytical routines of the Medications feature nearly always trumps building a separate concomitant medications form and handling data collection just like another form. Because the fields are hard coded, in some cases research groups will create a separate form because there is an interest in a broad range of specific medication usages characteristics (e.g., was it titrated, did another medication have to be stopped, etc.).
- What if a medication is not taken every day (e.g., PRN)?
- What to do depends on the aims of the study/registry. For instance, if total prescribed dose is what is of interest, then it is entered as if taken every day. If mean daily dose is what is of interest, then that is what is entered for dose (i.e., once a day). If documentation of usage is what is of interest, then enter the dose and put PRN in the notes. The main thing to consider is StudyTRAX pulls whatever is entered into the dose field into data sets, thus analytical concerns mainly drive the decision.
- What if the start date isn't known?
- What to do depends of the aims of the study. Some examples:
- If the patient is currently on the medication and they don't when they started, if the research question of interest is length of time on medication, researches will develop a conservative rule (e.g., use the date of the visit)
- What to do depends of the aims of the study. Some examples: