The primary purpose of the Study system is to enable researchers to capture experiment results in a secure, auditable, scalable, low cost and easy to use manner. Study was designed to provide much of the flexibility found in using Excel spreadsheets, but with added validation and data authenticity.
Experiment results can be captured in several ways:
- Using the Tasks function, researchers can input results against specific, scheduled experiments for specific animals
- Also, using the Tasks function, researchers and animal technicians can capture unplanned experimental outcomes or observations
- If you have purchased the Connect solution, when experimental measurements, such as bodyweights or caliper measures, are captured for a particular animal, this will automatically record the result in Study – against the correct animal and it will match the closest task by date and time
- If you are capturing results in files, such as spreadsheets, images or video or audio files, you can add these results as attachments to the Study too, or to the specific animal.
The following sections explains how to capture experiment results using the tasks feature.
Capturing unplanned task results and observations
The Task function enables you to capture both unplanned or adhoc study results and animal observations.
Adding an experimental test result
To add a Test result for an experiment, select the option from the main screen to display the data capture screen below.
First select the protocol. Once selected, the system will populate the study, phase and experiment values, if the is only one option to select from. If there are more than one study in a protocol, or more than one phase in a study and more than one experiment in a phase, you must use the drop down list to choose the values you want to record the result against.
Next, click on the Select Animal button to see the list of animals enrolled into your experiment. This will pop up a list of animals – choose the one to record the result against.
Next, select the test method you wish to record the result against. Only the test methods in the experiment will appear in the list to choose from.
The data capture panel will appear to the right, as shown below. The field values that appear will depend on which test method you have selected.
Adding an observation
When you select the Test Method – Observation from the list in the drop down field below the animal record, the page will display fields to enable you to capture the result. For observations, this will be freeform text plus more detailed comments, as shown.
Note: Observations recorded in this way are not visible as completed tasks. They are recorded and can be viewed as a Result on the Animal record – see example below.
Capturing Study results from Connect
If your organisation is using Connect to collect experimental measurements, such as weights (e.g. animal bodyweights) or tumour lengths, widths and volumes, data captured from Connect will automatically match to the tasks in your study based on the nearest time due. Those tasks will be marked as completed and the results will be visible in the Results tab of your study (as well as on the Animal Results tab).