For human clinical trials, there is a growing movement to replace the term "study subject" with a terminology that is more respectful and recognizes the agency of those who consent to be treated and have their data collected. The term "participant”, rather than "study subject", is now used in ICH E6 R3 guidelines. The TransCelerate Biopharma Common Protocol Template states that "participant" may be used in patient-facing documents.
SDTM describes several types of datasets. This diagram illustrates hierarchical view of these types of datasets. Findings may be findings about a study subject or about an associated person. A finding record can be linked to supplemental qualifiers, to comments, or to other records via relationships represented in RELREC.
A query about adverse events is, at heart, an observation. Data on the adverse event may also include location and pattern. This concept map includes those details, as well as terminology that would be used in SDTM.
A substance administration consists of a substance and the activity of administering the substance. Some data items describe the substance, others the administration.
This is an example for the familiar test Temperature.
If data is collected in a log form, and if you know the range of dates or visits for collection of log data then The date or visit at which the log is initiated can be used to populate STTPT and CDASH PRIOR or ONGO can be used to populate STRTPT, The date or visit at which the log is finalized can be used to populate ENTPT and CDASH PRIOR or ONGO can be used to populate ENRTPT. STRF and ENRF are not needed and should not be used.
In ordinary conversation, depending on what “that” is, the question, “When did that happen?” could be answered in many ways. The fact that there are so many ways to say when something happened helps to explain why there are so many timing variables in SDTM.
Pre-specified Events Collection of adverse event, clinical events, and medical history events can follow two approaches: Were there any events? If yes, what were the events? Did event X occur? If yes, record the details of the event(s)
ADaM datasets include names that start with "AD", therefore "AD" must not be used as the name of a custom SDTM domain. Analysis datasets that are not based on ADaM may have names that start with "AX", so "AX" must not be used as the name of a custom SDTM domain. The SDTM Domain Abbreviations codelist includes "AD" and "AX" as a reminder that these domain abbreviations must not be used for SDTM custom domains.
This diagram illustrates the steps that go into assessing the causality of an adverse event. For certain kinds of adverse events, some steps are almost automatic (e.g., an infectious disease can't happen without a pathogen), but for other kinds of adverse events, there may be many possible causes, and the steps can be quite distinct.
This example shows information for all-cause death, including primary and secondary causes and location.
This example shows 24-hour urine protein results for two subjects.