One of the major challenges facing any data collection endeavor is data verification. It is essential to assure the quality of data analysis and the reliability of results which is two-pronged: data completeness and data accuracy.
Following the EACTS Council directives and internationally admitted rules of data verification the EACTS Congenital Database management has created and applied the stepwise protocol for control of the data completeness and accuracy.
The initial approach to this issue was to create and inbuilt the internal data validation software that has been working quite effectively using predefined data accuracy criteria (see Data validation rules). This tool regularly excludes ca 15% of data lacking internal consistency, and/or completeness.
Recently the advanced and scientifically proven methodology has been applied to retrospective data verification. This important project involves five centers each year, where the complete data of previouse year are being verified on site (Source Data Verification – SDV) according to ten parameters. This will create pool of complete and verified data and subsequently allow comparison between verified and not verified sets of data.
The following documents have been specifically designed to facilitate the verification protocol:
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