Duke Scleroderma Clinic Patient Registry

The Duke Scleroderma Registry (DSScR) will include 3 types of data collected at each standard of care office visit, generally every 3-6 months. The data will include:

1. Clinical data obtained by clinicians and entered electronically into a secure database
2. Laboratory, procedure, and imaging data obtained over the course of clinical care
3. Photographs of clinically relevant physical findings.

Data that will be stored include historical data on patients' disease and concurrent medical conditions, physical exam findings, laboratory values, imaging and other diagnostic testing results, detailed list of medications and treatments, and quality of life questionnaire data. Historical information will include detailed medical, obstetric, surgical, procedural, social, and family history of disease comparable to information gathered at a typical initial visit. No protected health information will be collected or stored on family members. Data collected will be stored in a secure computer database as well as in a clinic note and will be used for patient care purposes. Protected health information (PHI) that will accompany subject data include name, medical record number, address, phone number, date of birth, dates of diagnoses, dates of procedures, and dates of clinic visits.

The database will be maintained indefinitely; there is no planned endpoint to the collection of the data and maintenance of the database as the investigators are planning a long term prospective evaluation of persons with these diseases.

Subjects will be serially approached/recruited from existing patients in the Duke Rheumatology Adult Clinic. The project will be introduced to each prospective subject by someone involved in their clinical care. A waiver of consent and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) authorization has been filed for the Duke Scleroderma Registry. Persons who have been diagnosed with scleroderma will be identified through monitoring of outpatient clinic lists and the inpatient consult service.

Research records will be archived upon completion of the study. Subject initials and study number will be used to identify subjects in the research material and on research specimens. All electronic data is stored on the shared drive and secured through the following Duke Health Technology Services approved methods: access rights granted and terminated for authorized users only, secure laptops and workstations, individual identifier plus password protection, routine electronic back up, network restrictions.

During the initial screening process, no identifying information (e.g., name, address) will be kept. During the consent process, participants will be informed of data storage and confidentiality safeguards, which are practiced according to HIPAA regulations. Each participant will be assigned a unique identifier (ID) number. All data will be de-identified and coded with this number only.