Data quality assurance, monitoring, and reporting.

In conclusion, the quality assurance and monitoring program is an integral and continuing part of study operations. A system must be devised and implemented by the coordinating center investigators, with the endorsement of the study leadership and support of the field site and resource center personnel. Proactive mechanisms for promoting high-quality data acquisition and reporting must be implemented. Data quality monitoring must address the entire process by which the data are gathered, transmitted, stored, and analyzed. Data quality should be monitored continually, with summary reports prepared and distributed to the study leadership. Appropriate training and certification enhance data quality, and site visits allow data collection and storage processes to be observed directly. The quality assurance and monitoring system must be documented. It should be flexible enough so that new means of quality assurance or monitoring can be added when necessary during the course of the study. At the completion of the study, quality monitoring results should be summarized in a final report regarding the level of quality achieved by the study investigators and personnel. Finally, for a quality assurance and monitoring program to be successful, the coordinating center investigators and personnel must provide prompt feedback and suggestions for corrective action whenever a data quality problem is discovered. This need can be met only when the coordinating center staff understand data quality goals and are up to date with all phases of data management and reporting. Delays in initiating any stage of data management and quality monitoring may result in uncorrectable data problems. Thus, knowledgeable and efficient coordinating center personnel are essential to achieving good data quality studywide.