The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) is a standardized system to quantify or grade the severity of adverse events (AE) that occur with drug treatment or from medical devices. A definition of mild (grade 1), moderate (2), severe (3), life-threatening (4) and death related to AE (5) events is provided for each AE term. The CTCAE v4.02 was published by NCI on October 6, 2009, and is used by many healthcare providers and researchers to characterize adverse events consistently.

The Center for Biomedical Informatics (CBMi) at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has converted the 190+ pages of the CTCAE v4.02 document into an intuitive iPhone application. With this application, healthcare providers can reference the full CTCAE v4.02 with an iPhone or iPod Touch, allowing for bedside grading at the time of a visit and generally allowing the information to be accessed from anywhere at any time.

The application contains all published grading standards for all 26 categories of adverse events as well as event definitions.

The application also offers a variety of advantages over the flat file CTCAE v4.02, including:

* Hierarchical navigation of adverse event categories
* Ability to bookmark adverse events and categories to quickly access frequently graded events
* Search for events across names, definitions and grades

This application is one example of the many ways in which CBMi helps transform clinical care and research at our institution and across the industry.

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is a non-profit entity as defined by Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.

About The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country, ranking third in National Institutes of Health funding. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 460-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu.

About The Center for Biomedical Informatics: The Center for Biomedical Informatics (CBMi) resides in The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute as the home for development of innovative solutions to healthcare's immediate and long-term informatics needs. We provide informatics-focused services, products, and educational programs to Children's Hospital clinicians and researchers and seek to transform their craft with high-impact, low-cost solutions. For more information, visit http://www.research.chop.edu/cbmi.

References:
Please note that NCI has directed us to use the May 29, 2009 reference without regard to updates. Our app uses the most updated version of the CTCAE despite our reference to the original.

National Cancer Institute
Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v4.0
NCI, NIH, DHHS. May 29, 2009
NIH publication # 09-7473