Hello,

I am interested in setting up LimeSurvey to be used to collect patient data (in the form of a questionnaire asking about their symptoms). I am a complete novice in the context of programming, so I'm hoping to list out my concerns and seek the advice of the community:

1. I would like patients to fill out these questionnaires at home. It is important for me to know who filled it out and when. The responses I'm collecting are scaled from 0-10; in certain cases, if the patient submits a score past a certain number, I'm hoping to get a notification (like an email). It would be even better if the patient gets a prompt saying they have submitted a score that requires further attention. Are these features feasible on LimeSurvey?

2. My main concern is data security. If i choose to host the serve within my hospital network, it is behind a firewall. Would I still be able to collect the surveys from patients who fill it out at home (i.e. not in the hospital)? Alternatively, if i just host the data on cloud, is this advisable?

Many thanks for anyone's help,

J

Hello,

It is important for me to know who filled it out and when

Yes, you create the participants table with your patients. In the answer table you see the date of submitting.

if the patient submits a score past a certain number, I'm hoping to get a notification (like an email)

Is possible with an IF-statement in the email notification field

It would be even better if the patient gets a prompt saying they have submitted a score that requires further attention.

You can display an end message (displayed after submitting) with the score and some further information.

So your first question can be answered with "Yes".

To answer your second question: "Did you try?"
Is there a LimeSurvey installation on the hospital server?
If not and you are not going to use LS regularly I advise to use one of the editions of LimeSurvey.org
www.limesurvey.org/editions-and-prices/l...-prices-professional

Best regards
Joffm

Later this morning I will create a small survey to show the options

Joffm wrote: …
If not and you are not going to use LS regularly I advise to use one of the editions of LimeSurvey.org
www.limesurvey.org/editions-and-prices/l...-prices-professional
…

Warning, in some country (france [*] for example) collecting data about health need specific hosting.

Hospital can host themselves on own server, but externally it's not the same things …


* esante.gouv.fr/services/hebergeurs-de-do...des-donnees-de-sante

If you are a complete novice in this field and you want to collect patient data outside of the hospital, I suggest that you seek professional advise, because there may be several security laws restricting what you can and may do, depending on the country where this takes place.

Patient data is seen as data that needs more protection than just address details.

You could look into:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Insurance_P...d_Accountability_Act
This is law that is valid in the USA, but many other countries also have laws on how to gather and store patient data.



Tammo

And this one:

techcrunch.com/2018/01/20/wtf-is-gdpr/?guccounter=1

Tammo

caudatenucleus wrote: 2. My main concern is data security.

To sum up:

1. Consult people inside the hospital which are already handling patient data.
Is your survey asking for data which might needs special care.

2. Invest time into LimeSurvey and try to create your survey as quick as possible.
See if LimeSurvey is OK for you. Set up an account with LimeSurvey and test a bit.

3. Hosting of LimeSurvey would be the next step.
Consult the IT departments of your hospital and ask, if websites for the public are hosted on hospital servers. If they already opened up the firewall for websites, you will have a chance to get your LimeSurvey installation there too. Since you want people to access your survey, the firewall is not protecting your LimeSurvey installation. The data security is depending on the webserver setup and the quality of the LimeSurvey installation (PHP code itself and configuration).