VODAN in a Box is a toolset to facilitate the capture of data related to virus outbreaks and the publication of metadata describing these datasets. VODAN in a Box is one of the highlighted outcomes of two GO FAIR Foundation projectsfunded by the Philips Foundation and ZonMw, that focus on making SARS CoV-2 virus data FAIR. As a result, real world COVID-19 patient data is available for research, under well-defined conditions and with patient privacy well protected.
The first step to make this happen was to create a semantic data model based on the Case Report Form (CRF) model following the WHO standards. This CRF is used globally to document COVID 19 patient data. The CRF semantic model allows computers to interpret these data, and allows automatic interoperation with other related data sets. The second step was to deploy a user-friendly wizard that would allow data stewards to capture patient data in the CRF at the local clinic or hospital. The third step was to set up localized VODAN FAIR Data Points (FDP’s), where the metadata about the patient CRFs are hosted also following the FAIR Principles. The final step was to configure the FDPs according to the VODAN community specifications. A team of data stewards at the Kampala International University in Uganda was the first to successfully deploy a VODAN specific FAIR Data Point based on these specifications. With the VODAN FDP successfully installed, it is now possible for algorithms to “visit” COVID data, performing analysis locally ensuring that sensitive patient data NEVER leaves the FDP, the hospital or the country, without the permission of the custodian.
VODAN in a Box allows the VODAN semantic model based on the WHO CRF file, the FAIR Data Point software, a dedicated VODAN Data entry wizard, and search/query functionality that enables to query multiple FDP’s for numbers of patients with a specific characteristic, in one user friendly solution. VODAN in a Box makes instalment of a VODAN FAIR Data Point easy.
Please see https://docs.vodan.fairdatapoint.org/en/latest/ for more information.
VODAN Documentation
We have created several resources to help you along in your VODAN FAIR data projects.