The CARRA Registry

This protocol represents one aim of a larger clinical project that will advance the infrastructure of the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA) network, facilitate expanded clinical and translational pediatric research, and rapidly transform the culture of pediatric rheumatology toward universal participation in research. Through the creation of sophisticated informatics infrastructure, provision of comprehensive site support and the engagement of families, patients, and communities, CARRA will provide the opportunity for affected children at every CARRA site to participate in high quality clinical and translational research.

The larger clinical project includes development of a CARRA-wide informatics platform with capabilities for capture, storage, visualization, and secure HIPAA-compliant sharing of validated disease metrics and relevant subject demographics, utilizing centralized Electronic Data Capture (EDC) and phone interviews where appropriate, and ontology-based data storage using a distributed database structure based on the NIH-supported i2b2 (Informatics Integrating Biology and the Bedside) framework. This will enable efficient, observational, disease-related data capture across CARRA sites. The CARRA Registry described in this protocol will form the foundational database and will involve the capture of data including pediatric rheumatic diseases as described in Appendix A.

The CARRA Registry will support data collection from the use of consensus treatment plans (CTPs), clinical trials, observational disease registries, comparative effectiveness research, and other research on patients with pediatric rheumatic disease. The CARRA Registry will form the basis for future CARRA studies and the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) is serving as the CARRA Data Coordinating Center (DCC) for this protocol.