Castor EDC

Opmerkingen: I use Castor for two studies, one of which is a long-term multicentre study. I have designed these studies in Castor and am very happy with the product.

Pluspunten: Castor is easy to use. In designing studies, I like how variables and answers are easily created, and that answers can be re-used for multiple variables. I also really appreciate the feature to have a variable depend on a (hidden) calculation. In using that feature, I have found that https://www.castoredc.com/tools/calculation-helper/ is a great way of testing your calculations are syntactically correct. It is also helpful that additional information can be given per variable. All these and other features make data entry clear and understandable for users, which in turn ensures that data entry mistakes are minimised or even prevented. Furthermore, it helps each study with an audit trail, so that changes are clearly documented for audit purposes. In my contact with customer support I have found that they responded swiftly and were always able to help me with any queries. Lastly, Castor keeps improving on its exisiting product, which to me is a significant sign of long-term viability. This is especially relevant when considering Castor for long-term research projects.

Minpunten: Getting to know Castor takes a bit of time, but it is very helpful to be aware of the structure of Castor, which allows you to fully utilise its potential.

Opmerkingen: Very positive. It's a compliant, easy to use, intuitive system that is affordable.

Pluspunten: After a quick initial learning curve the system is easy to build out without having someone on staff that is an IT expert. Our clinical study managers are able to build out each study with little to no help from Castor. The database is easy to use by both clinical sites and sponsors. The company continues to improve the features of the system and provide webcasts to review the changes and answer user questions. The value can't be beat. As an early-stage start up company we are happy to have found a high-quality compliant system we can afford.

Minpunten: The one feature we feel is lacking is the ability of an investigator to "batch approve" once they have reviewed the data. It is labor intensive to approve each study visit and each record generated. Other systems provide this ability and investigator's expect this from all systems.

Opmerkingen: Before they were using Castor EDC in this hospital, not everyone was working GCP-proof. With Castor EDC, they do. Benefits are that I can re-use some of the previously created eCRFs, which saves a lot of time and promotes standardization of databases.

Pluspunten: The software is user friendly, and it is clear that (medical) researchers were involved in the development of the software - which is very convenient.
The software offers a lot of options, so users can design their own eCRF and databases.
The manual offer a lot of information if you do not know you to create something you have in mind. Moreover, the helpdesk is Always very quick in responding to your questions.
What I also appreciate is that Castor EDC is open for any suggestions for improvement.

Minpunten: I do miss some options that I appreciated a lot while working with other similar software (in other hospitals). However, a pro is that I have mentioned those to the helpdesk and either they responded that they will incorporate them in future, or put them on a whish list, or they provided me a kind of work around. Unfortunately, not all the options I appreciated in the other software will be incorporated.

Opmerkingen: Dont let the cons bother you too much. Its a future proof software which every researcher should seriously consider using.

Pluspunten: + Ease of use, it didnt take long to master it.
+ Castor EDC is supported by many companies as a reliable partner.
+ Castor keeps updating its product and services in order to keep up with developments in research law and good clinical practice.
+ No more paper! (Or rather.. less paper)
+ The ability to create case report forms of measurement instruments for future use in other studies.
+ Large amount of options for all types of studies.

Minpunten: - The way the database is set up enforces the user to decide how he/she wants her data to be exported.
- The system is not really designed for a high amount of measurements per step. It leads to some lagg in inserting data and it will nog let you make entire steps missing when applicable -> meaning you have to tag every single item as missing which is not very efficient.
- The use of previously used/exported CRFs is still in development. For instance, only entire steps can be exported for future use though often steps contain multiple instruments or measurements.

Opmerkingen: I used the platform for 5 international retrospective multi-center cohort studies and it was a great experience to see how researchers at all the participating centers interacted so easily with the software. Everyone loved it.

Pluspunten: Castor is a GDPR compliant tool to capture and store baseline characteristics, patient surveys, and clinical outcomes. It's affordable, easy to set up and easy to use. What I love most about it is that it improves the study quality so much compared to traditional methods of data capturing. I also love all the automatic calculations (e.g. age from date of birth and procedure date) the system can perform. The ePro feature to send out surveys to patients directly is great!

Minpunten: The platform could be even better if it offered functionality to design/structure all variables, definitions, input value options, and calculations in Excel and upload it to Castor. This would make it so much easier to translate (parts) of existing databases to new projects. Also, I missed an option to directly export the database to STATA. Castor currently only supports CSV/Excel/SPSS. Otherwise, no cons.