Operation and method for prediction and management of the validity of subject reported data
First Claim
1. A computer implemented method of predicting the validity of subject reported data, comprising the steps of:
- a) analyzing validity markers wherein said validity markers comprise a subject'"'"'s timeliness in responding to a question or responding to a prompt, a subject'"'"'s length of response to a question, consistency of a subject'"'"'s response with other collected data, proximity of data on a subject'"'"'s response to an expected data range, completeness of data, a subject'"'"'s voice stress levels, historical information on a subject'"'"'s veracity, failure of a subject to complete a survey, a subject'"'"'s response to a question about morale, a subject'"'"'s preference of a particular good, service or media outlet, a survey environment'"'"'s temperature, a survey environment'"'"'s light level, a survey environment'"'"'s ambient noise level, a subject'"'"'s heart rate, a subject'"'"'s blood pressure, a subject'"'"'s temperature, a subject'"'"'s skin electroconductivity, a subject'"'"'s perspiration, or a subject'"'"'s rate of blinking;
b) analyzing historical protocol data wherein said historical protocol data comprises data on the research protocol of an earlier clinical trial or survey, an earlier question posed to a subject, frequency of prompting of a subject during various times of the day or week, time allowed for a subject to respond to a question, requirements of a subject'"'"'s behavior, conditions mandating removal of a subject from certain statistical analyses, or conditions mandating removal of a subject as a participant in a clinical trial or survey;
c) generating at least one predictive algorithm for predicting the invalidity of subject reported data by quantitative analysis of said validity markers and said historical protocol data; and
d) translating said at least one predictive algorithm into at least one prediction rule for use with a survey.
12 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system for developing and implementing empirically derived algorithms to generate decision rules to predict invalidity of subject reported data and fraud with research protocols in surveys allows for the identification of complex patterns of variables that detect or predict subject invalidity of subject reported data and fraud with the research protocol in the survey. The present invention may also be used to monitor invalidity of subject reported data within a research protocol to determine preferred actions to be performed. Optionally, the invention may provide a spectrum of invalidity, from minor invalidity needing only corrective feedback, to significant invalidity requiring subject removal from the survey. The algorithms and decision rules can also be domain-specific, such as detecting invalidity or fraud among subjects in a workplace satisfaction survey, or demographically specific, such as taking into account gender or age. The algorithms and decision rules may be optimized for the specific sample of subjects being studied.
125 Citations
51 Claims
-
1. A computer implemented method of predicting the validity of subject reported data, comprising the steps of:
-
a) analyzing validity markers wherein said validity markers comprise a subject'"'"'s timeliness in responding to a question or responding to a prompt, a subject'"'"'s length of response to a question, consistency of a subject'"'"'s response with other collected data, proximity of data on a subject'"'"'s response to an expected data range, completeness of data, a subject'"'"'s voice stress levels, historical information on a subject'"'"'s veracity, failure of a subject to complete a survey, a subject'"'"'s response to a question about morale, a subject'"'"'s preference of a particular good, service or media outlet, a survey environment'"'"'s temperature, a survey environment'"'"'s light level, a survey environment'"'"'s ambient noise level, a subject'"'"'s heart rate, a subject'"'"'s blood pressure, a subject'"'"'s temperature, a subject'"'"'s skin electroconductivity, a subject'"'"'s perspiration, or a subject'"'"'s rate of blinking; b) analyzing historical protocol data wherein said historical protocol data comprises data on the research protocol of an earlier clinical trial or survey, an earlier question posed to a subject, frequency of prompting of a subject during various times of the day or week, time allowed for a subject to respond to a question, requirements of a subject'"'"'s behavior, conditions mandating removal of a subject from certain statistical analyses, or conditions mandating removal of a subject as a participant in a clinical trial or survey; c) generating at least one predictive algorithm for predicting the invalidity of subject reported data by quantitative analysis of said validity markers and said historical protocol data; and d) translating said at least one predictive algorithm into at least one prediction rule for use with a survey. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A computer implemented method of determining the validity of subject reported data, comprising the steps of:
-
a) analyzing at least one set of data selected from the group consisting of historical validity markers and historical protocol data; i) wherein said historical validity markers comprise a subject'"'"'s timeliness in responding to a question or responding to a prompt, a subject'"'"'s length of response to a question, consistency of a subject'"'"'s response with other collected data, proximity of data on a subject'"'"'s response to an expected data range, completeness of data, a subject'"'"'s voice stress levels, historical information on a subject'"'"'s veracity, failure of a subject to complete a survey, a subject'"'"'s response to a question about morale, a subject'"'"'s preference of a particular good, service or media outlet, a survey environment'"'"'s temperature, a survey environment'"'"'s light level, a survey environment'"'"'s ambient noise level, a subject'"'"'s heart rate, a subject'"'"'s blood pressure, a subject'"'"'s temperature, a subject'"'"'s skin electroconductivity, a subject'"'"'s perspiration, or a subject'"'"'s rate of blinking; ii) wherein said historical protocol data comprises data on the research protocol of an earlier clinical trial or survey, an earlier question posed to a subject, frequency of prompting of a subject during various times of the day or week, time allowed for a subject to respond to a question, requirements of a subject'"'"'s behavior, conditions mandating removal of a subject from certain statistical analyses, or conditions mandating removal of a subject as a participant in a clinical trial or survey; b) generating at least one algorithm reflective of said at least one set of data selected from the group consisting of said historical validity markers and said historical protocol data by quantitative analysis of said at least one set of data; c) translating said at least one algorithm into at least one decision rule for analyzing information on the validity of subject reported data; d) obtaining validity markers for at least one event; and e) analyzing said validity markers with said at least one decision rule to determine if corrective action is needed. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A computer implemented method of determining the validity of subject reported data, comprising the steps of:
-
a) analyzing historical validity markers and historical protocol data; i) wherein said validity markers comprise a subject'"'"'s timeliness in responding to a question or responding to a prompt, a subject'"'"'s length of response to a question, consistency of a subject'"'"'s response with other collected data, proximity of data on a subject'"'"'s response to an expected data range, completeness of data, a subject'"'"'s voice stress levels, historical information on a subject'"'"'s veracity, failure of a subject to complete a survey, a subject'"'"'s response to a question about morale, a subject'"'"'s preference of a particular good, service or media outlet, a survey environment'"'"'s temperature, a survey environment'"'"'s light level, a survey environment'"'"'s ambient noise level, a subject'"'"'s heart rate, a subject'"'"'s blood pressure, a subject'"'"'s temperature, a subject'"'"'s skin electroconductivity, a subject'"'"'s perspiration, or a subject'"'"'s rate of blinking; ii) wherein said historical protocol data comprises data on the research protocol of an earlier clinical trial or survey, an earlier question posed to a subject, frequency of prompting of a subject during various times of the day or week, time allowed for a subject to respond to a question, requirements of a subject'"'"'s behavior, conditions mandating removal of a subject from certain statistical analyses, or conditions mandating removal of a subject as a participant in a clinical trial or survey; b) generating a spectrum of invalidity representative of said historical validity markers or said historical protocol data by quantitative analysis of the historical validity markers and the historical protocol data; c) obtaining validity markers for at least one event; and d) comparing said spectrum of invalidity to the historical validity markers to determine if corrective action is needed. - View Dependent Claims (16)
-
-
17. A computer implemented method of detecting subject fraud, comprising the steps of:
-
a) analyzing historical validity markers and historical protocol data; i) wherein said historical validity markers comprise a subject'"'"'s timeliness in responding to a question or responding to a prompt, a subject'"'"'s length of response to a question, consistency of a subject'"'"'s response with other collected data, proximity of data on a subject'"'"'s response to an expected data range, completeness of data, a subject'"'"'s voice stress levels, historical information on a subject'"'"'s veracity, failure of a subject to complete a survey, a subject'"'"'s response to a question about morale, a subject'"'"'s preference of a particular good, service or media outlet, a survey environment'"'"'s temperature, a survey environment'"'"'s light level, a survey environment'"'"'s ambient noise level, a subject'"'"'s heart rate, a subject'"'"'s blood pressure, a subject'"'"'s temperature, a subject'"'"'s skin electroconductivity, a subject'"'"'s perspiration, or a subject'"'"'s rate of blinking; ii) wherein said historical protocol data comprises data on the research protocol of an earlier clinical trial or survey, an earlier question posed to a subject, frequency of prompting of a subject during various times of the day or week, time allowed for a subject to respond to a question, requirements of a subject'"'"'s behavior, conditions mandating removal of a subject from certain statistical analyses, or conditions mandating removal of a subject as a participant in a clinical trial or survey; b) generating at least one fraud detection algorithm for detecting subject fraud by quantitative analysis of the historical validity markers and the historical protocol data; and c) translating said at least one fraud detection algorithm into at least one fraud detection rule for use with a survey.
-
-
18. A method of detecting subject fraud, comprising the steps of:
-
a) analyzing information on the validity of subject reported data and historical protocol data; i) wherein said validity markers comprise a subject'"'"'s timeliness in responding to a question or responding to a prompt, a subject'"'"'s length of response to a question, consistency of a subject'"'"'s response with other collected data, proximity of data on a subject'"'"'s response to an expected data range, completeness of data, a subject'"'"'s voice stress levels, historical information on a subject'"'"'s veracity, failure of a subject to complete a survey, a subject'"'"'s response to a question about morale, a subject'"'"'s preference of a particular good, service or media outlet, a survey environment'"'"'s temperature, a survey environment'"'"'s light level, a survey environment'"'"'s ambient noise level, a subject'"'"'s heart rate, a subject'"'"'s blood pressure, a subject'"'"'s temperature, a subject'"'"'s skin electroconductivity, a subject'"'"'s perspiration, or a subject'"'"'s rate of blinking; ii) wherein said historical protocol data comprises data on the research protocol of an earlier clinical trial or survey, an earlier question posed to a subject, frequency of prompting of a subject during various times of the day or week, time allowed for a subject to respond to a question, requirements of a subject'"'"'s behavior, conditions mandating removal of a subject from certain statistical analyses, or conditions mandating removal of a subject as a participant in a clinical trial or survey; b) generating at least one fraud detection algorithm for detecting subject fraud by quantitative analysis of said information on the validity of subject reported data and said historical protocol data; and c) translating said at least one fraud detection algorithm into at least one fraud detection rule for use with a survey. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
-
-
25. A medium suitable for use in an electronic device, comprising instructions for execution on the electronic device, said instructions comprising the steps of:
-
a) analyzing at least one data set selected from the of the group consisting of validity markers and historical protocol data; i) wherein said validity markers comprise a subject'"'"'s timeliness in responding to a question or responding to a prompt, a subject'"'"'s length of response to a question, consistency of a subject'"'"'s response with other collected data, proximity of data on a subject'"'"'s response to an expected data range, completeness of data, a subject'"'"'s voice stress levels, historical information on a subject'"'"'s veracity, failure of a subject to complete a survey, a subject'"'"'s response to a question about morale, a subject'"'"'s preference of a particular good, service or media outlet, a survey environment'"'"'s temperature, a survey environment'"'"'s light level, a survey environment'"'"'s ambient noise level, a subject'"'"'s heart rate, a subject'"'"'s blood pressure, a subject'"'"'s temperature, a subject'"'"'s skin electroconductivity, a subject'"'"'s perspiration, or a subject'"'"'s rate of blinking; ii) wherein said historical protocol data comprises data on the research protocol of an earlier clinical trial or survey, an earlier question posed to a subject, frequency of prompting of a subject during various times of the day or week, time allowed for a subject to respond to a question, requirements of a subject'"'"'s behavior, conditions mandating removal of a subject from certain statistical analyses, or conditions mandating removal of a subject as a participant in a clinical trial or survey; b) generating at least one predictive algorithm for predicting invalid subject reported data by quantitative analysis of said at least one data set; and c) translating said at least one predictive algorithm into at least one prediction rule for use with a survey. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
-
-
33. A medium suitable for use in an electronic device, comprising instructions for execution on said electronic device, said instructions comprising the steps of:
-
a) analyzing at least one data set selected from the group consisting of validity markers and historical protocol data; i) wherein said validity markers comprise a subject'"'"'s timeliness in responding to a question or responding to a prompt, a subject'"'"'s length of response to a question, consistency of a subject'"'"'s response with other collected data, proximity of data on a subject'"'"'s response to an expected data range, completeness of data, a subject'"'"'s voice stress levels, historical information on a subject'"'"'s veracity, failure of a subject to complete a survey, a subject'"'"'s response to a question about morale, a subject'"'"'s preference of a particular good, service or media outlet, a survey environment'"'"'s temperature, a survey environment'"'"'s light level, a survey environment'"'"'s ambient noise level, a subject'"'"'s heart rate, a subject'"'"'s blood pressure, a subject'"'"'s temperature, a subject'"'"'s skin electroconductivity, a subject'"'"'s perspiration, or a subject'"'"'s rate of blinking; ii) wherein said historical protocol data comprises data on the research protocol of an earlier clinical trial or survey, an earlier question posed to a subject, frequency of prompting of a subject during various times of the day or week, time allowed for a subject to respond to a question, requirements of a subject'"'"'s behavior, conditions mandating removal of a subject from certain statistical analyses, or conditions mandating removal of a subject as a participant in a clinical trial or survey; b) generating at least one algorithm reflective of said at least one data set by quantitative analysis of said at least one data set; c) translating said at least one algorithm into at least one decision rule for analyzing information on the validity of subject response data; d) obtaining validity markers for at least one event; and e) analyzing said validity markers with said at least one decision rule to determine if corrective action is needed. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36)
-
-
37. A medium suitable for use in an electronic device, comprising instructions for execution on the electronic device, said instructions comprising the steps of:
-
a) analyzing historical validity markers and historical protocol data; i) wherein said validity markers comprise a subject'"'"'s timeliness in responding to a question or responding to a prompt, a subject'"'"'s length of response to a question, consistency of a subject'"'"'s response with other collected data, proximity of data on a subject'"'"'s response to an expected data range, completeness of data, a subject'"'"'s voice stress levels, historical information on a subject'"'"'s veracity, failure of a subject to complete a survey, a subject'"'"'s response to a question about morale, a subject'"'"'s preference of a particular good, service or media outlet, a survey environment'"'"'s temperature, a survey environment'"'"'s light level, a survey environment'"'"'s ambient noise level, a subject'"'"'s heart rate, a subject'"'"'s blood pressure, a subject'"'"'s temperature, a subject'"'"'s skin electroconductivity, a subject'"'"'s perspiration, or a subject'"'"'s rate of blinking; ii) wherein said historical protocol data comprises data on the research protocol of an earlier clinical trial or survey, an earlier question posed to a subject, frequency of prompting of a subject during various times of the day or week, time allowed for a subject to respond to a question, requirements of a subject'"'"'s behavior, conditions mandating removal of a subject from certain statistical analyses, or conditions mandating removal of a subject as a participant in a clinical trial or survey; b) generating a spectrum of invalidity representative of said historical validity markers or said historical protocol data by quantitative analysis of said historical validity markers and the historical protocol data; c) obtaining validity markers for at least one event; and d) comparing the spectrum of invalidity to the validity markers to determine if corrective action is needed. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39)
-
-
40. A medium suitable for use in an electronic device, comprising instructions for execution on the electronic device, said instructions comprising the steps of:
-
a) analyzing validity markers and historical protocol data; i) wherein said validity markers comprise a subject'"'"'s timeliness in responding to a question or responding to a prompt, a subject'"'"'s length of response to a question, consistency of a subject'"'"'s response with other collected data, proximity of data on a subject'"'"'s response to an expected data range, completeness of data, a subject'"'"'s voice stress levels, historical information on a subject'"'"'s veracity, failure of a subject to complete a survey, a subject'"'"'s response to a question about morale, a subject'"'"'s preference of a particular good, service or media outlet, a survey environment'"'"'s temperature, a survey environment'"'"'s light level, a survey environment'"'"'s ambient noise level, a subject'"'"'s heart rate, a subject'"'"'s blood pressure, a subject'"'"'s temperature, a subject'"'"'s skin electroconductivity, a subject'"'"'s perspiration, or a subject'"'"'s rate of blinking; ii) wherein said historical protocol data comprises data on the research protocol of an earlier clinical trial or survey, an earlier question posed to a subject, frequency of prompting of a subject during various times of the day or week, time allowed for a subject to respond to a question, requirements of a subject'"'"'s behavior, conditions mandating removal of a subject from certain statistical analyses, or conditions mandating removal of a subject as a participant in a clinical trial or survey; b) generating at least one fraud detection algorithm for detecting subject fraud by quantitative analysis of said validity markers and said protocol data; and c) translating said at least one fraud detection algorithm into at least one fraud detection rule for use with a survey. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
-
-
48. A medium suitable for use in an electronic device, comprising instructions for execution on the electronic device, said instructions comprising the steps of:
-
a) analyzing information on the validity of subject reported data and historical protocol data, wherein said information on the validity of subject reported data comprises one or more validity markers; i) wherein said validity markers comprise a subject'"'"'s timeliness in responding to a question or responding to a prompt, a subject'"'"'s length of response to a question, consistency of a subject'"'"'s response with other collected data, proximity of data on a subject'"'"'s response to an expected data range, completeness of data, a subject'"'"'s voice stress levels, historical information on a subject'"'"'s veracity, failure of a subject to complete a survey, a subject'"'"'s response to a question about morale, a subject'"'"'s preference of a particular good, service or media outlet, a survey environment'"'"'s temperature, a survey environment'"'"'s light level, a survey environment'"'"'s ambient noise level, a subject'"'"'s heart rate, a subject'"'"'s blood pressure, a subject'"'"'s temperature, a subject'"'"'s skin electroconductivity, a subject'"'"'s perspiration, or a subject'"'"'s rate of blinking; ii) wherein said historical protocol data comprises data on the research protocol of an earlier clinical trial or survey, an earlier question posed to a subject, frequency of prompting of a subject during various times of the day or week, time allowed for a subject to respond to a question, requirements of a subject'"'"'s behavior, conditions mandating removal of a subject from certain statistical analyses, or conditions mandating removal of a subject as a participant in a clinical trial or survey; b) generating at least one fraud detection algorithm for detecting subject fraud by quantitative analysis of said information on the validity of subject reported data; and c) translating the at least one fraud detection algorithm into at least one fraud detection rule for use with a survey. - View Dependent Claims (49, 50, 51)
-
Specification