Clinical data sets

  • 08 Oct 2024
  • Informatics and Audit Sub-committee

A clinical data set is an operational standard which is a list of well-defined variables relevant to clinical activity. The information must be unambiguous and should not contradict existing standards, so for example date of birth is recorded in a standard manner.

Clinical Dataset Archetypes

The college has created and published a first set of archetypes to help with the creation of new Clinical Dataset Archetypes

The existing datasets contain some overlapping fields. Some form of distance visual acuity, for example, is present in most (if not all) existing clinical datasets. These shared measurements were identified and used to create approximatively twenty common field types, or archetypes. Suggested specifications, data formats and comments are included withing the downloadable spreadsheet. We encourage those interested in creating new clinical datasets to explore and use these published archetypes where possible. These standards will be updated as needed in the future.

Please contact us via [email protected] with any suggestions for subsequent releases.