A fully integrated interface between SPARCRequest and OnCore has been developed under the promotion of the Medical University of South Carolina. Roll-out with OnCore enterprise went live in September 2020.
SPARCDashboard → OnCore Minimal Footprint API
The purpose of SPARCRequest having a minimum footprint Interface (7 fields) with OnCore:
Reduce manual and duplicative data entry
Improve data consistency across systems
User/research provider management
CTMS (OnCore) facilitation across the MUSC research enterprise systems
Table 1. Fields Interfaced between SPARCRequest and OnCore via Minimal Footprint API
OnCore Console | Tab | OnCore Field Name | Field Description | OnCore Field Type | SPARC Field |
PC CONSOLE | Main/Details | Protocol No. | Indicates the main identifier for a protocol. The protocol number displays in the Protocol Header and is used in most reports. The protocol number is used to find a protocol in any of the Select Protocol find-as-you-type fields throughout OnCore. | Alphanumeric; | protocols.id |
PC CONSOLE | MAIN/Details | Title | The title is the name of the protocol study (full length). The title entered here populates to other screens within the OnCore application and is displayed in some reports. The title and short title both populate the SIP Console. Use the SIP Console to select which title format will display on the public website. | Free-Text | protocols.title |
PC CONSOLE | MAIN/Details | Short Title | Free-Text | protocols.short_title | |
PC CONSOLE | MAIN/Details | Library | The Library associated with a protocol will affect several things within the protocol such as: forms, configuration choices, annotations, signoffs, and reference codes. The Library field will default to the Library associated with the primary Managing Group that is assigned to the user. The Library selection can not be modified after the protocol is submitted. Used in Multi-Department enterprise configurations only. | Special Ref Code | default to "Non-Oncology" |
PC CONSOLE | MAIN/Details | Department | Department that is leading this study. The department selection cannot be modified after protocol is submitted. Used in Multi-Department enterprise configurations only. | Special Ref Code | primary pi's department |
PC CONSOLE | MAIN/Details | Organizational Unit | Organizational Units(OUs) are the highest level category used to group protocols and staff within OnCore. Ous are used to facilitate reporting by major groups and may also be used to limit the scope of a user's access within the context of a protocol, and other user privileges. | Special Ref Code | default to "MUSC Enterprise" |
PC CONSOLE | MAIN/Details | Protocol Type | Protocol Type (equivalent to Primary Purpose) identifies the type of treatment the protocol is using. The Protocol Type is used in the NCI Data Table 4 report and the PHS-398 Enrollment Report. Protocol Search provides a search by protocol type option. The Accrual Monitoring menu item uses the parent category of Protocol Category = Therapeutic as a limiting attribute. | default to "Treatment" | |
Protocols (records) that are created by users in SPARCRequest can manually be pushed from SPARCRequest to OnCore via the “Push to OnCore” button inside of a protocol. Only users with oncore_endpoint_access have access to push records to OnCore.
Information pushed from SPARCRequest to OnCore comes from the Study Summary section (see Figure 1) of SPARCRequest, which creates the initial protocol creation in OnCore.
Figure 1
Figure 2. Example of a successful Minimal Footprint API Push
Once the initial push was successful, the same protocol cannot be pushed to OnCore again, with warning message shown.
Figure 3
Figure 4. Record Shows in OnCore
Minimal Footprint API Configurations:
To turn on and utilize the minimal footprint API, the following settings have to be configured:
use_oncore = true
oncore_api =
oncore_default_department
oncore_default_library
oncore_default_organizational_unit
oncore_default_protocol_type
To give specified users access to the interface-related frontend access, users have to be added to the setting below:
7. oncore_endpoint_access
OnCore → SPARC RPE and CRPC Endpoint Interface
In OnCore, SPARCRequest can be configured as an RPE Endpoint destination once the endpoint address is added into OnCore.
Figure 5
If a study does not have an existing calendar, OnCore can push a RPE and then CRPC push into SPARCRequest to initiate a study calendar with arms and visits.
SPARCDashboard OnCore Log Page
In SPARCDashboard, users with the oncore_endpoint_access are able to see the “OnCore Log” button (Figure 6), which lists which protocols have received CRPC pushes from OnCore.
Figure 6
Once the user clicks the "OnCore Log" button, they are able to see the OnCore CRPC Push log for protocols that have been pushed from OnCore .
Figure 7 shows the protocols that have both been Successfully and Unsuccessfully pushed, as well as the PI, Calendar Version, Last Push Date, and Push History.
OnCore Log UI | OnCore Log History Window |
|---|---|
 |  |
Figure 7
Technical Specs
Format: Health Level Seven (HL7) messaging, based on an XML encoding
Protocol: Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
The API can be used for other Clinical Trial Management Systems as a template
For more details about the minimal footprint API, please check the links below to the GitHub codes: https://github.com/sparc-request/sparc-request/blob/36113d1c28e5ef6f7cc8118fb741ef515a8d8bf0/app/lib/oncore_protocol.rb
For more details about the RPE/CRPC endpoint API, please check the link to the GitHub codes: https://github.com/sparc-request/sparc-request/blob/36113d1c28e5ef6f7cc8118fb741ef515a8d8bf0/app/controllers/oncore_endpoint_controller.rb