Merck
Contact: Sarah Alavi & Manning Smith
Country: USA
Award Category: Community Uplift
Tell how you've used SAS to have a positive impact on your community.
The Rising Professionals Club is a new initiative within our BARDS statistical programming organization at Merck. The club has about 20 entry level members spanning across various functional areas (i.e. Study Data Standards Quality Management, Analysis and Reporting, Global Process and Standards, etc.) within Statistical Programming, with the addition of summer interns. This innovative talent development program, for entry level employees, aims to engage and nurture rising professionals within the statistical programming organization, equipping them with the essential skills and knowledge required for success in both statistical programming and future leadership roles. The club utilizes SAS programming to foster personal and professional development among its members, who are part of the clinical research community. By providing a supportive environment and programming challenges, the club helps members enhance their SAS skills, which are essential in the field of clinical research. This not only benefits the individuals but also contributes to the overall quality and efficiency of clinical trials, ultimately impacting patient care and health outcomes.
What SAS products are you using and how are you using them?
The primary SAS products used by the Rising Professionals Club are SAS Base, SAS EG, & SAS Studio, which offers a comprehensive programming language and environment for data management, analysis, and reporting. All statistical programmers are encouraged to take SAS courses to further develop their skills. In addition, the Statistical Programming Leadership Team supports and encourages our members to become SAS certified. As one of the club initiatives, members are challenged with programming challenges that require them to write and execute SAS code to solve real-world problems encountered in clinical research settings. This hands-on approach allows them to apply their knowledge and develop proficiency and practical skills in SAS programming, data manipulation, statistical analysis, and reporting.
As an example, please see one of the programming challenges, described, below:
During the development of ADaM datasets for clinical trials, we have encountered challenges related to errors in the "Derivation" column of the ADaM specifications. These errors often involved specifying incorrect values that did not match the actual data in the SDTM datasets. Importantly, such discrepancies do not trigger error messages in the SAS log, leading to unnoticed inaccuracies in the ADaM datasets.
To address this issue, the Rising Professional Club members were tasked with developing a SAS macro designed to identify inconsistencies in the derivation rules outlined in the ADaM specifications. Key functionalities of the macro included:
Loading and Parsing Rules: Importing the ADaM specification into SAS datasets.
Validation Through Pattern Matching: Comparing the derivation rule for each variable in the specification against actual SDTM values using Regular Expressions.
Automated Discrepancy Checks: Flagging variables with discrepancies when:
1. The specification refers to a variable in the SDTM dataset that does not exist.
2. The specification specifies a value for a variable in the SDTM dataset that is not present.
By implementing this macro, we successfully minimized the risk of errors in the ADaM datasets, reinforcing our commitment to data integrity in clinical trial analyses.
