Medical Survey Software Gets HAPI

US-based NOVA Research Company has released QDS(tm) version 2.4, the latest update of its questionnaire software for clinical and behavioral researchers. The product now includes a handheld HAPI(tm) (Handheld-Assisted Personal Interview) Pocket PC module as well as enhanced data collection.

The company expects the new Pocket PC module to increase user acceptance rates by 30% and reduce the cost of conducting complex multisite field research studies by 40%, in addition to obvious convenience benefits.

QDS(tm) (Questionnaire Development System) produces survey materials simultaneously in a variety of modes - paper, desktop, laptop, tablet PC, and now PDA Pocket PC - all from one set of specifications. It also exports data directly into programs like SAS, SPSS, and MS Access.

President and CEO Peggy L. Young says researchers have asked for a handheld data collection module that will increase interviewee acceptance rates in more public venues. 'The QDS, 2.4 HAPI(tm) Pocket PC questionnaire module lets researchers tailor the method of survey administration to the comfort level of the respondent, which is important when collecting sensitive or personal data or administering surveys in public settings such as shopping malls and bars'.

Phil Batterham, who is Data Management Co-ordinator at the UCLA Center for Community Health in Los Angeles, has used QDS(tm) to implement and administer interviews for research projects including high-risk populations (such as people living with HIV and homeless adolescents), and says it has enabled him to reconcile data quality over a variety of survey methods. .The automated questionnaire's skips and checks are extremely useful' says Batterham, 'as the typical interview can take 1 to 2 hours and involve up to 1,000 questions based on 2,000 or more elements on background characteristics, risk behaviors, emotional well-being, health behaviors, and habits'.

New features in this version also include launch of a second questionnaire for qualifying respondents in a field-administered survey; encryption and password protection, in line with stringent FDA compliance requirements for certain clinical trials and studies; and customized reporting in real time at any point in the baseline interview. Report elements support new types of substitution tokens that retrieve question text, question probes, and interviewer comments from the current interview.

The HAPI(tm) capability is the fourth data collection modules available, the others being paper questionnaires; CAPI; and ACASI (Audio Computer-Administered Self-Interview) for more sensitive data collection and for interviewing respondents with reading difficulties. A QDS-Web(tm) module for Web survey administration is imminent.

Privately held NOVA was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, with onsite research teams in Atlanta, Georgia; Baltimore and Hyattsville, Maryland; and Berkeley, California. It is on the Web at www.novaresearch.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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