Data Science Department Of Khrc

November 02, 2020 | Department | Reading time: 3 min

The Data Science Department is the department responsible for three core activities, namely;

Data processing: This involves an input into the design of questionnaires and field forms for data collection, the development of systems to receive completed forms from the field teams and also logging out and in of forms, queries, listings and labels to the field office (Filing Office duties) and develop data processing applications (database management systems) for every project. This involves the designing of data entry screens to the exactitude of the field forms, developing a “Verification” system to check for typographical errors committed during data entry, writing programs to check for range and consistency errors in the “verified” data, writing programs to do inter-database checks (to ensure that events and their related data is captured), generating listings and sticky labels for projects which do follow up, generating “project progress statistics”, extracting cleaned data for secondary analysis and finally doing daily and weekly backups of all data. Same processes as above apply for the “paperless” systems (the use of tablets to collect data in the field) in the Centre

ICT Support: This involves building the ICT infrastructure for the Centre, maintaining all the ICT hardware and software, aims to develop the most robust and yet financially moderate systems, align ICT with business processes, ensure total security for the systems that range from data processing through web development and website management to internet management, exploring for the best anti-virus and malware and managing same for all users. Finally, the ICT Support Unit ensure internet and application systems are available 24/7. This Unit also makes recommendations and specification requirements of ICT equipment to the Procurement Unit, inspecting procured ICT equipment to ensure that they are of the correct quality and meet the specification requirements.

Paper Forms Storage: Developing archiving systems for storing all paper/case report forms (CRFs). These systems are established with best practices to ensure easy form retrievals and ensuring and maintaining confidentiality of the data collected on the forms.