Developing an ACE-27 form in REDCap for quantitative analysis of comorbidities and their effect on cancer outcomes Jonah Graves 1, Ronnie Blackburn 1, Kristen Strasser 1,2, Jill Moormeier 1,2, Mark Hoffman 1 1 UMKC School of Medicine, 2 Truman Medical Center BACKGROUND Comorbidities are present in more than two-thirds of cancer patients, and the care and prognosis of those patients is negatively affected by the presence of those comorbidities 1. The presence of severe comorbidities, including cardiovascular disease and liver disease, significantly decreases the 5 year survival rate of cancer patients. This is due to a patient’s ability to handle that disease or their ability to handle certain cancer treatments 2. Due to their significant impact on clinical outcomes, comorbidities must be considered in cancer research. The Adult Comorbidity Evaluation-27 (ACE-27) is a validated tool used to grade comorbidities in cancer patients on a scale of 0 (no comorbidity) to 3 (severe comorbidity) at the time of diagnosis 3. At present it is a paper-based system making its use cumbersome and error-prone when transferring data into an electronic environment for analysis. PURPOSE AND METHODS The purpose of this project was to develop an electronic platform of the ACE-27 to aid a cancer study. In order to build the platform, Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) was utilized. REDCap is a secure, web-based data capture platform for building and managing online surveys and databases. The REDcap Consortium is composed of over 1000 active institutional partners. The REDCap Shared Library is a curated repository of validated data collection instruments used by researchers in REDCap affiliated institutions. At present, an ACE-27 data collection instrument does not exist in the library. REDCap’s form creation capability was used to create an ACE-27 data collection instrument. The instrument displays 27 fields, each a multiple choice displaying comorbidity conditions from most to least severe. Data collectors are instructed to select the present comorbidity in the patient’s chart and to choose the least severe condition in the case of ambiguity. Internal coding was used in an embedded calculation to determine the overall comorbidity score upon data entry. This allows for data exported from REDCap to include the overall score without manual computations. RESULTS Through this project, we have created an electronic platform of the ACE-27 to be used in a cancer study and is currently under review for inclusion in the REDCap Shared Library. Data collectors will now be able to enter data from several locations to be stored in one, secure location. Data exported from the ACE-27 collection instrument will contain a calculated score, simplifying downstream analysis. REFERENCES 1.Ogle, Karen, et. al. "Cancer and Comorbidity: Redefining Chronic Diseases." Cancer 88.3 (2000): Piccirillo, Jay, et. al. "Clinical Symptoms and Comorbidity: Significance for the Prognostic Classification of Cancer." Cancer 77.5 (1996): Kallogjeri, Dorina, et. al. "Comparison of Scoring Methods for ACE-27: Simpler Is Better." Geriatric Oncology 3 (2012): Figure 2: Paper Based Calculations if (([variable] = 1),1, (([variable] = 2),2, (([variable] = 3), 3, (([variable] = 2 AND 2),3,0) ) Figure 4: Auto-Calculation Schematic Figure 3: ACE-27 Form in REDCap Figure 1: ACE-27 Paper Format Figure 5: Electronic Data Entry