Development of a web-based glaucoma registry at King Khaled eye specialist hospital, Saudi Arabia: a cost-effective methodology

ABSTRACT

In this brief communication, we present the steps used to establish a web-based congenital glaucoma registry at our institution. The contents of a case report form [CRF] were developed by a group of glaucoma subspecialists. Information Technology [IT] specialists used Lime Survey softwareTM to create an electronic CRF. A MY Structured Query Language [MySQL] server was used as a database with a virtual machine operating system. Two ophthalmologists and 2 IT specialists worked for 7 hours, and a biostatistician and a data registrar worked for 24 hours each to establish the electronic CRF. Using the CRF which was transferred to the Lime survey tool, and the MYSQL server application, data could be directly stored in spreadsheet programs that included Microsoft Excel, SPSS, and R-Language and queried in real-time. In a pilot test, clinical data from 80 patients with congenital glaucoma were entered into the registry and successful descriptive analysis and data entry validation was performed. A web-based disease registry was established in a short period of time in a cost-efficient manner using available resources and a team-based approach.