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. 2021 Apr;1(4):e111.
doi: 10.1002/cpz1.111.

The PhenX Toolkit: Establishing Standard Measures for COVID-19 Research

Michelle C Krzyzanowski  1 , Ian Terry  2 , David Williams  1 , Pat West  1 , Lauren N Gridley  1 , Carol M Hamilton  1
Affiliations

The PhenX Toolkit: Establishing Standard Measures for COVID-19 Research

Michelle C Krzyzanowski et al. Curr Protoc. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

The PhenX (consensus measures for Phenotypes and eXposures) Toolkit (https://www.phenxtoolkit.org/) is a publicly available, web-based catalog of recommended, well-established measurement protocols of phenotypes and exposures. The goal of PhenX is to facilitate the use of standard measures, enhance data interoperability, and promote collaborative and translational research. PhenX is driven by the scientific community and historically has depended on working groups of experts to recommend measures for release in the PhenX Toolkit. The urgent need for recommended, standard measures for COVID-19 research triggered the development of a "rapid release" process for releasing new content in the PhenX Toolkit. Initially, PhenX collaborated with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, the National Human Genome Research Institute, and the NIH Disaster Research Response (DR2) program to create a library of COVID-19 measurement protocols. With additional support from NIH, PhenX adapted crowdsourcing techniques to accelerate prioritization and recommendation of protocols for release in the PhenX Toolkit. Prioritized COVID-19-specific protocols were used to anchor and define specialty collections of protocols that were subject to review and approval by the PhenX Steering Committee. In addition to the COVID-19-specific protocols, the specialty collections include existing, well-established PhenX protocols, use of which will further enhance data interoperability and cross-study analysis. The COVID-19 specialty collections are Behaviors and Risks; Ethnicity, Race and Demographics; History, Treatment and Outcomes; Information Resources; Psychosocial and Mental Health; and Socioeconomic. The development and usage of PhenX COVID-19 specialty collections are described in this article. © 2021 The Authors. Basic Protocol: Selecting COVID-19 protocols.

Keywords: COVID-19; PhenX; common data elements; health disparities; standard measures.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The PhenX Toolkit homepage.
Figure 2
Figure 2
PhenX COVID‐19 library.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The PhenX COVID‐19 Research Collections page.
Figure 4
Figure 4
A measurement protocol information tab.
Figure 5
Figure 5
A measurement protocol administration information tab.
Figure 6
Figure 6
A measurement protocol detailed information tab.
Figure 7
Figure 7
A measurement protocol source information tab.
Figure 8
Figure 8
A measurement protocol general information tab.
Figure 9
Figure 9
My Toolkit contents after selecting measurement protocols.
Figure 10
Figure 10
My Toolkit showing need to add Essential Protocols.
Figure 11
Figure 11
The Social Determinants of Health: Core collection (protocols not seen in the figure: Health Insurance Coverage, Health Literacy, Occupational Prestige, Sexual Orientation).
Figure 12
Figure 12
Results of search using keyword “nutrition.”
Figure 13
Figure 13
PhenX COVID‐19 page sorted by subtopic.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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