Study statuses and valid next statuses are automatically configured for studies and should only be changed by advanced users.

Statuses and valid next statuses must be configured for the study. A study has a status that describes in high level terms how a record progresses during its lifetime. For instance, typical statuses might be "Referred", "Consented", "Complete", "Withdrawn", "Deceased", etc. All records in the Dataset will always reference one of the Dataset's statuses. As well as defining the statuses themselves, we define the transitions between them.

A new status is created using the 'Add' button.

Figure 5.6. New Dataset Configuration Dialog - Statuses and Transitions

Each of the fields for a new status should be completed. Status name requires a short entry to describe the status for a record (e.g. Screened, Baseline Completed, Consented). The code field requires a numbered entry (e.g. 0, 1, 2). A generic state must also be assigned to each status: this generic state maps the new status onto a state recognised by openCDMS Collect. It might be desirable to define specific statuses for a given study (e.g. for more fine-grained reporting purposes) but it is necessary to map this new status onto a generic state so that it can be used and recogised by openCDMS Collect. A description of each of the Generic States follows:

Figure 5.7. Add status dialog

When two of more statuses have been defined, it is possible assign valid next statuses to control the flow of data entry within the application. For example, you may wish to allow transitions from Consent to Referred.

To do this, ensure that status1 is selected in the drop down box as show above, then select status2 in the 'next valid statuses' box and click the -> button to move the state to the valid next statuses list. Assigned transitions describe the possible flow of a record from one status to another.