lab2godata: essential tools for matching lab results

10 October 2022

Overview

Go.Data is a software for outbreak response and contact tracing developed by WHO in collaboration with partners in the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN). Go.Data focusses on case and contact data including laboratory data, hospitalization and other variables collected through investigation forms. It generates contact follow-up lists and allows visualisation of chains of transmission.

The lab2godata package was built to allow the Go.Data user community to easily match new laboratory results with existing cases or lab records in Go.Data, in order to create new Go.Data lab records or update them, respectively. lab2godata has been developed with a broad user base in mind; a central feature is the lab2godata shiny app, which can be launched from the user’s desktop with the click of a button, or if preferred, by running the runlab2godata() command within RStudio. The app provides an intuitive interface that allows users to upload a file of laboratory data and choose how they wish to match this data with existing Go.Data records. Once choices are submitted, the app will produce a summary of the successful matches and a more detailed match report line list. The match report and a clean file of matched data ready for importing into Go.Data are then available for download.

Prerequisites:

As with godataR, users will need to have their Go.Data credentials in order to start using the app (or the R package). The following credentials are needed:

• The web address of the Go.Data instance, e.g. https://www.mygodataserver.com/
• Go.Data user name (the email address used to log in to your Go.Data instance)
• Go.Data password (the password you use to access your Go.Data instance)

In addition to this, advanced users may wish to match labdata for an outbreak that is not currently active; if this is the case, you will also need the Go.Data outbreak ID. You can retrieve a list of outbreak IDs with godataR::get_all_outbreaks() and your Go.Data login credentials.

Fetching records from Go.Data to match on:

Depending on whether the user wants to match new lab results or update existing ones, the new godataR functions get_cases_epiwindow(), get_contacts_epiwindow() and get_labresults_epiwindow() are used to retrieve case, contact and laboratory records from Go.Data, respectively. If you wish to use these functions independently of the app, you will also need to install godataR in your normal R environment.

Matching lab data with Go.Data records:

The primary function that performs the matching is called match_cases(). It has a few additional options compared to the Shiny app, so may be useful to run from an R environment for more experienced users. The function uses two main methods to perform matching;

• 1. First names and surnames are converted to soundex codes and then compared;
• 2. Age, dates of birth and identity card numbers are compared with the Damerau-Levenshtein method, allowing for a single transposition (except for age).
• 3. Exact matching (with no deviations allowed) is also available.

This function was developed to address some record linkage challenges. Currently within the Go.Data graphical user interface, it is only possible to perform bulk uploads of new laboratory data if you also have the Go.Data case IDs that they are linked to in the same file. Due to variations in workflows, it is not always possible to provide Go.Data case IDs to laboratories in advance of receiving their results. lab2godata solves this problem, by matching on core patient identifiers that are typically available in laboratory data (and are mandatory fields in Go.Data), such as patient names and dates of birth or age. A passport or national identity card number can also be used (so long as it has already been entered into Go.Data). Within the app or when using the lab2godata_wrapper() function from R, users can select which combination of columns they wish to match on. The app can be quite useful at this stage for testing out different combinations of columns to match on and experimenting with different matching protocols. It usually takes a few seconds for the results to appear. As long as the app remains open, the user can modify some of their choices and run it again, without needing to enter all the parameters from scratch.

Limitations:

Currently, the match_cases() function can only work on text written in the Roman (i.e. English language) alphabet; however methods to expand its functionality to the other four UN languages in the first instance, are actively being sought. Developper contributions in this area are also welcome.

Installation

This package is hosted on the WHO Github Repository here: https://github.com/WorldHealthOrganization/lab2godata. Install the package within your R console by executing the code below.

# Install package
devtools::install_github("WorldHealthOrganization/lab2godata")

In addition, a downloadable executable file will be available soon for non R users. The file will install this package, as well as dependent packages and R and RStudio (unless already present) on the user’s computer. Watch this space!

Usage

Provide parameters (your Go.Data credentials):

You must have valid Go.Data user credentials with appropriate roles/permissions to successfully receive an access token to make any API calls. You can set your parameters at the outset of your R session, to call them more easily when fetching your collections. You can also specify ad-hoc if you are working across various outbreaks.

### Set Go.Data login credentials:

# Load libraries:
library(getPass)
library(godataR)

# Your Go.Data URL
url <- "https://MyGoDataServer.com/" 

# Your email address to log in to Go.Data
username <- getPass::getPass(msg = "Enter your Go.Data username (email address):") 

# Your password to log in to Go.Data
password <- charToRaw(getPass::getPass(msg = "Enter your Go.Data password:")) 

# Get ID for active outbreak:
outbreak_id <- godataR::get_active_outbreak(url = url, 
                                            username = username, 
                                            password = rawToChar(password))

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API documentation:

Go.Data is running on LoopBack. You can access the self-documenting description of all available API methods in using Loopback Explorer by adding /explorer to the end of any Go.Data URL.

You can find more information on the Go.Data API here.

How to provide feedback or contribute:

Bug reports and feature requests should be posted on github under issues. All other questions and feedback, feel free to email us at godata@who.int or post a query in the Go.Data Community of Practice

Contributions are welcome via pull requests.