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CDC Data Coordinating Center and Research Project
Support
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
MANILA operates a data-coordinating center and a comprehensive support
project for the Centers for Disease Control’s HIV/AIDS prevention
research projects. The center supports development of analytic evaluation
databases based on a variety of data collected at research sites across
the United States.
MANILA coordinates data transfer from and information flow to the sites.
To facilitate this, MANILA develops numerous protocols and operates a file
transfer protocol (FTP) site. Evaluative databases are developed through
a process of verification, editing, and coding to enhance the validity
of the original source data. To support the process, MANILA develops a
variety of computer programs, user manuals, and procedures documentation.
At present, we maintain 1,467 databases from 72 sites in CDC’s research
programs.
MANILA also does formative research for program development and research
design, conducts statistical analysis, and develops application programs
in support of CDC’s prevention research. The computer programs we
developed support a range of prevention research activities. Some catalogue
and update the information needed to perform successful random sampling
when applying research designs in field settings. Others track subject
recruitment and participation in prevention programs. We also developed
a program to facilitate collection of complex data and another for cataloguing
and tracking development of multi-site, multi-author research evaluation
reporting results.
We also designed computer programs to facilitate analysis of the variety
of data collected at research sites, particularly qualitative data. These
programs organize, structure, and code text data. In addition, they perform
analysis of inter-coder reliability for multiple coders, full text searching,
and derivation of coded data for quantitative analysis. One program, E-Z
Text (Ver.3), is available to the public on the CDC website. Version 4
is nearing completion, and we are developing a version for research in
Thailand. We plan to develop a fully international version that will allow
the user to select the language to be used and the screens will be automatically
translated into that language. MANILA supports these application programs
through training and technical assistance and production of users manuals
and technical assistance materials.
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