Copying Designs from Other Studies

When designing a study in EDC Studio, you can use templates or existing Study definition objects. You can copy Items, Codelists, and Units from within your Study, and you can create Event Groups, Events, and Forms in your study by copying them from another study.

Copying from Another Study

You can copy Event Groups, Events, Forms, and Rules from other Studies that you have access to. When you copy these components, Vault also copies their child components, for example, the Item Groups and Items associated with the copied Form. Vault also copies the coding configuration of any copied Forms.

Copying Event Groups

You can copy an event group (Event Group Definition) from one Study to another Study in your vault. When you copy an event group, Vault also copies that event group’s properties and, optionally, its rules.

For example, Tracey, a clinical programmer at Verteo Pharma, designed the Veeofen study last month. This month, she is designing the Wonderdrug study. The Treatment Visits event group from Veeofen is identical to what she needs for the Wonderdrug study. Tracey can copy that Treatment Visits event group from Veeofen into Wonderdrug, instead of manually creating it a second time.

To copy an event group:

  1. Navigate to Studio > Event Groups.
  2. Click Copy From Study.
  3. Select Create a copy or Use existing to handle duplicates. See details below.
  4. Optional: Select the Rules checkbox to also copy any Rule Definitions associated with the event.
  5. Select a Vault.
  6. For Copy From Study, choose where you want to copy from (From Another Study or From Library.)
  7. Select a Study Environment to copy from.
  8. Search or scroll to locate the Event Definition you want to copy.
  9. Select the Event Group you want to copy.
  10. Optional: Select the Select all checkbox to select all Events for copying.
  11. Click Copy Event Groups. Vault begins copying the Event Definition into your Study.
  12. Optional: In the Copy from Study dialog:
    • Click View Summary to see a list of the copied forms and the status of the copy.
    • Click View Log to see detailed status information for each object record copied.
  13. When finished, click Close. Once you click Close, you can no longer access the summary or log file.

Copying Events

You can copy an event (Event Definition) from one Study to another Study in your vault. When you copy a form, Vault also copies that event’s properties and, optionally, its rules.

For example, Tracey, a clinical programmer at Verteo Pharma, designed the Veeofen study last month. This month, she is designing the Wonderdrug study. The Ongoing Treatment Visit from Veeofen is identical to what she needs for the Wonderdrug study. Tracey can copy that Ongoing Treatment Visit event from Veeofen into Wonderdrug, instead of manually creating it a second time.

To copy an event:

  1. Navigate to Studio > Events.
  2. Click Copy From Study.
  3. Select Create a copy or Use existing to handle duplicates. See details below.
  4. Optional: Select the Rules checkbox to also copy any Rule Definitions associated with the event.
  5. Select a Vault.
  6. For Copy From Study, choose where you want to copy from (From Another Study or From Library.)
  7. Select a Study Environment to copy from.
  8. Search or scroll to locate the Event Definition you want to copy.
  9. Select the Event you want to copy.
  10. Optional: Select the Select all checkbox to select all Events for copying.
  11. Click Copy Events. Vault begins copying the Event Definition into your Study.
  12. Optional: In the Copy from Study dialog:
    • Click View Summary to see a list of the copied forms and the status of the copy.
    • Click View Log to see detailed status information for each object record copied.
  13. When finished, click Close. Once you click Close, you can no longer access the summary or log file.

Copying Forms

You can copy a form (Form Definition) from one Study to another Study in your vault. When you copy a form, Vault also copies that form’s properties, its Item Groups, its Items, its Codelists and Units, and optionally its rules.

Rule Copy: Vault will not copy any cross-form Rules associated with a copied Form.

For example, Lateef, a clinical programmer at Bryce Pharma, designed the Deetoza study last month. This month, he is designing the Veeofen study. The Physical Exam form from Deetoza is identical to what he needs for the Veeofen study. He can copy that Physical Exam form, and all of its related records, from Deetoza into Veeofen, instead of manually creating those object records a second time.

To copy a form:

  1. Navigate to Studio > Forms in Browse view.
  2. Click Copy From Study.
  3. Select Create a copy or Use existing to handle duplicates. See details below.
  4. Optional: Select the Rules checkbox to also copy any Rule Definitions associated with the form.
  5. Select a Vault.
  6. For Copy From Study, choose where you want to copy from (From Another Study or From Library.)
  7. Select a Study Environment to copy from.
  8. Search or scroll to locate the Form Definition you want to copy.
  9. Select the Form you want to copy.
  10. Click Copy Forms. Vault begins copying the Form Definition into your Study.
  11. Optional: In the Copy from Study dialog:
    • Click View Summary to see a list of the copied forms and the status of the copy.
    • Click View Log to see detailed status information for each object record copied.
  12. When finished, click Close. Once you click Close, you can no longer access the summary or log file.

Labs: Note that you can’t copy a Lab form with an existing Lab panel between studies.

Copying Rules

You can copy a rule (Rule Definition and Rule Action) from one Study to another Study in your vault.

For example, Lateef, a clinical programmer for Bryce Pharma, designed the Deetoza study last month. He wrote several complicated date comparison rules. This month, he’s building rules for the Veeofen study. He can use the same rule expressions that he wrote for Deetoza’s date comparisons if he updates the identifiers to match Events in the Veeofen study. He can copy those date comparison rules from Deetoza into Veeofen, update the identifiers in the rule expressions, and then reactivate those rules to use them in the Veeofen study.

When you select rules to copy, Vault checks whether or not the rules are valid (if identifiers in the rule expressions match up to design definition records in the target study). On any invalid rules, Vault shows an Invalid indicator.

Invalid indicator on an invalid Add Assessment rule
Invalid indicator on an invalid Add Assessment rule

You can still copy these invalid rules into your Study, but Vault moves them into the Inactive status. You’ll have to update the rule expression and rule action to point to identifiers or objects that exist in your study before you can use these rules.

To copy rules:

  1. Navigate to Studio > Rules.

  2. Click Copy From Study. Copy From Study button for Rules

  3. Select Create a copy or Use existing to handle duplicates. See details below.
  4. Select a Vault.
  5. For Copy From Study, choose where you want to copy from (From Another Study or From Library.)
  6. Select a Study Environment to copy from.
  7. Search for or scroll to locate the Rule Definition you want to copy.
  8. Select the rules you want to copy.
  9. Optional: Select the Select all checkbox to copy all rules.
  10. Click Copy Rules. Vault begins copying the Rule Definitions and related records into your Study.
  11. Optional: In the Copy from Study dialog:
    • Click View Summary to see a list of the copied rules and the status of the copy.
    • Click View Log to see detailed status information for each copied rule.
  12. When finished, click Close.

Once you click Close, you can no longer access the summary or log file.

Copying Codelists

To copy a Codelist (a Codelist Definition and its Codelist Definition Items) from another Study:

  1. Navigate to Studio > Codelists.
  2. Click Copy From Study.
  3. Select Create a copy or Use existing to handle duplicates. See details below.
  4. Select a Vault.
  5. For Copy From Study, choose where you want to copy from (From Another Study or From Library.)
  6. Select a Study Environment to copy from.
  7. Search or scroll to locate the Codelist you want to copy.
  8. Select the Codelist you want to copy.
  9. Optional: Select the Select all checkbox to copy all codelists.
  10. Click Copy Codelists. Vault begins copying the Codelist into your Study.
  11. Optional: In the Copy from Study dialog:
    • Click View Summary to see a list of the copied codelist and the status of the copy.
    • Click View Log to see detailed status information for each object record copied.
  12. When finished, click Close.

Once you click Close, you can no longer access the summary or log file.

Copying Units

To copy a Unit (a Unit Definition and its Unit Definition Items) from another Study:

  1. Navigate to Studio > Units.
  2. Click Copy From Study.
  3. Select Create a copy or Use existing to handle duplicates. See details below.
  4. Select a Vault.
  5. For Copy From Study, choose where you want to copy from (From Another Study or From Library.)
  6. Select a Study Environment to copy from.
  7. Search or scroll to locate the Unit you want to copy.
  8. Select the Unit you want to copy.
  9. Optional: Select the Select all checkbox to copy all units.
  10. Click Copy Units. Vault begins copying the Units into your Study.
  11. Optional: In the Copy from Study dialog:
    • Click View Summary to see a list of the copied units and the status of the copy.
    • Click View Log to see detailed status information for each object record copied.
  12. When finished, click Close.

Once you click Close, you can no longer access the summary or log file.

Duplicate Handling

If you attempt to copy Form or Event from another Study that already exists in your Study, you can choose how Vault handles the conflict. Vault identifies duplicates by the CDM Key value. For both of these options, Vault creates a new object record if there are no duplicates.

Create a Copy

If you choose Create a copy, Vault copies the existing definition record into a new Form, Event, or Event Group and adds the new record to your study.

Use Existing & Update with Changes

If you choose Use existing, Vault uses the existing definition record and logs the reuse.

If you selected Update with Changes, Vault uses the existing definition record, but it also applies any changes from the matching record in the other study. These changes are included in the log.

Copy Log

You can choose to download a CSV log for your copy job from within the Copy from Study dialog. Note that once you close that dialog, you can no longer access the log file.

The log file lists each object that was copied, whether or not the copy was successful, and details about any errors that occurred during the copy.

Versioning for Copied Definitions

When you copy a form, Vault sets the form, and its related object records, to the same version as the Study you’re copying it into.