munging metadata

What’s in a Value Level Metadata (VLM) Library? SHARE has the capability to store and publish Value Level Metadata (VLM) content. Currently, the only CDISC standard describing VLM is Define-XML. Define-XML provides the structure for VLM along with some guidelines on when it’s useful, but it does not provide standard VLM content. The Define-XML v2.0 specification states that VLM should be applied when it provides information useful for interpreting study data, and that it need not be applied in all cases. Precisely what and where VLM should be used is determined by study implementers. Since there are no hard and fast rules describing when to use VLM, what should be included in a SHARE library of VLM content? It might be useful to ask, “where is VLM being used today?” Based on input so far, most implementers add VLM where they think the regulatory reviewers might want to see it. Since many organizations are not yet using Define-XML as a machine-readable specification, but are inst...

Despite just being released in Q2 of 2014, a number of freely available tools are already available to work with Dataset-XML files. The recently-introduced CDISC Dataset-XML standard enables the interchange of tabular datasets, like SDTM or ADaM, using ODM-based XML, and provides a convenient alternative to SAS V5 XPORT files. Tools supporting Dataset-XML are listed on the publicly accessible CDISC Dataset-XML Resources page on the CDISC Wiki. Early versions of many of these tools were available before Dataset-XML was released as a final standard. The speedy availability of these tools highlights the CDISC community’s culture of innovation as inspired by the availability of machine-readable standards. The availability of software tools with the release of Dataset-XML enabled the FDA to begin planning the "Transport Format for the Submission of Regulatory Study Data” pilot prior to the standard’s final release. In order to test Dataset-XML’s suitability as a replacement for SA...