Part of National Diabetes Footcare Audit bulk uploads
Bulk uploads
As part of the design of the Clinical Audit Platform (CAP), it is possible to enter NDFA information into CAP either manually or by bulk file uploads.
Bulk file upload presents a great advantage to submit large amounts of data.
Bulk uploading requires users to transfer data from local systems into CAP using a .csv file.
Before uploading any information into CAP it is necessary to determine locally which option is to be used. Where necessary any mapping to the CSV specification should be completed before uploading begins. We have provided some guidance on uploading files within this section.
The appendix details are taken from the NDFA section of ‘Annex B - National Diabetes Audit Programme Technical Specification v1.3 where you will find the relevant document under, ‘user documents’.
Pre-Conditions
- User has access to NDFA Audit
- User enters patient details
- User prepared to proceed to a new option of file submission dashboard
Criteria
- Same validations as exist in the manual entry should apply to bulk upload.
- Same fields to be used for bulk upload as per manual entry
- Meaningful error / warning messages is returned to users when data does not meet the validation criteria.
- A file specification needs to be produced so that users have the format they need to enter the data in – this is provided below.
- Upload should be in .csv
The CSV file specification is shown in this diagram
Existing clinical systems
Where it is decided locally to use existing clinical systems, it will be necessary to ensure that all the NDFA items can be appropriately extracted from those systems and mapped to the CSV specification, prior to any submission to CAP.
The actual system development undertaken will need to be determined locally, but may include for example:
- the inclusion of additional NDFA fields within existing patient records
- specific NDFA templates associated to a patient record.
Mapping to the upload file
File upload will involve the creation of a .csv file from the data source used following the examples in proforma above. (Further template example at Appendix 3).
This will include:
- sequencing the data collected locally onto a CSV file in the order listed within the CSV specification
- the header row for each file is optional. If one is used, then the name of the first column has to be preceded by the word HEADER_. You will need to create one file –and it must be called Episode_.csv
- ensure that the data entered match the format and type indicated in the ‘Reference Data’ worksheet in the upload file.
- Save the file using the correct name: Episode_.csv
As long as the spreadsheet is saved as a .csv file, it does not matter what identifiers or files names are used after the underscore ‘_’ as long as the files are saved and uploaded into CAP as .csv document.
Once the relevant record type files have been created, these can then be uploaded to CAP.
If you open a CSV extract in Excel you may need to change the properties of some of the columns to display the data correctly. The required values can be found in the reference data tab of the CSV specification.
Excel sometimes removes leading zeroes, for example 0123 456 will be changed to 123456. Excel does not display double quotes. Once the relevant record type files have been created these can then be uploaded to CAP.
File uploads
The Upload Files will be available from within CAP using the file submission dashboard.
From the home screen select File submission dashboard.
Select Browse to find the file on your computer
Select Upload once all files have been selected.
Last edited: 14 July 2022 2:04 pm