FAQ

• What is Acticard?
• How was Acticard born?
• Why should I use Acticard?
• How much does Acticard cost?
• What about copyright?
• How can I use Acticard?
• How can I enter dates in Acticard: should I use a specific format?
• How can I view and use my data outside Acticard?
• I skipped some pages when I was reviewing Acticard and received an error message. What should I do?

What is Acticard?

Acticard is a computerised data base that will help you to monitor disease activity, response to therapy and damage development in SLE patients.

It will help you to keep a record of your SLE patients and enable you to calculate a series of disease activity indices(ECLAM, SLAM, SLEDAI, SIS) rapidly and reliably.

Furthermore by using ACTICARD you will be able to build a complete data base of your SLE patients.

How was Acticard born?

Between 1990 and 1995, a European Consensus Group carried out a multicentre study aimed at reaching agreement concerning the definition of disease activity in SLE; the result was the development the European Consensus Lupus Activity Measurement (ECLAM) index. In order to validate the ECLAM index against some of the more widely used activity indexes (BILAG,SLAM, SLEDAI, SIS), a standardised clinical chart was designed that included all of the clinical and laboratory items of the five indices. A computer program was then developed at the University of Pisa, able to calculate the scores for all of these indices on the basis of the data recorded in the patients’ clinical charts. The computerised programme has been validated and shown to be reliable in prospectively calculating all five indices (1,2).
In collaboration with Novartis Pharma, the computer program was re-built in 1999: starting from the original algorithm, the new software was designed to be compatible with the new Windows-based environment and to allow the management of multiple patient databases. The result of this long development process was Acticard 1.0.

In 2005 the chart was transforemd into a data base and new clinical, laboratory and instrumental variables were included as well as a page to calulate the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC/ACR) damage index. In 2006 completely restyled version of ACTICARD 2.0 was delivered and is not available for use free of charge upon registration to this web site.

Why should I use Acticard?

Acticard offers you a rapid and reliable means of calculating 5 disease activity indices in SLE and the SLICC/ACR damage index and therefore represents a tool for the follow up of your patients in assessing disease activity, response to therapy and development of damage.  It also offers you a user-friendly way of storing your patient data and constructing one or more patient databases according to your needs.

You will be using a computerised chart designed:

1. to gather patient demographic and clinical data at each observation;
2. to automatically calculate 5 disease activity indices and the SLICC/ACR damage index;
3. to create a patient data base
4. to review and print all of the previously entered data, as well as a summary of the calculated disease activity indices
5. to create graphs of all the numerical variables across the patients follow up

How much does Acticard cost?

Acticard is free. Once you have subscribed to Acticard via the Registration Page, you will be able to download the program. The programme will be upgraded automatically every time that is launched. Please read the disclaimer.

What about copyright?

Acticard is a 1999 copyright of Clinical Experimental Rheumatology and all rights are reserved.

How can I use Acticard?

What should I do to create a new database and start working with Acticard?

When you launch the program, you will only see an empty program window without any prompt to open a database. There is no specific menu-item for creating a new database. The "Open database" function under the “File” menu can be used to create new databases and open existing databases. If you enter the name of a new database (i.e. a file name that does not exist), Acticard will prompt you to confirm that you want to create a new database. Once the database is created, you can start entering patients.

How can I enter dates in Acticard: should I use a specific format?

The dates format is managed by Windows. Acticard accepts dates according to the format set in the control panel’s "Regional settings" utility. If you double click 'My computer', select 'Control panel' and then 'Regional settings', you can check whether the date is in the format dd/mm/yy or mm/dd/yy (American default). You can also check the date separator. Please note that years may be entered indifferently with 2 or 4 digits (00 or 2000).

How can I view and use my data outside Acticard?

Acticard stores your data in .MDB files, which can be directly accessed using Microsoft Access. You need Access 2000 or higher to read the data. Please note that any direct manipulation of Acticard-created databases using other programs could make the data inaccessible via Acticard. We recommend copying the database before accessing it with programs other than Acticard.

I skipped some pages when I was reviewing Acticard and received an error message.

What should I do?

The first version of Acticard (1.0) required you to run through each page in order to obtain a valid calculation of the disease indices. This is the correct way to use Acticard because running through each page ensures that you see all of the questions to be answered. Acticard will consider any unentered data as missing. However, if you just want to have a quick look at the program and skip some pages, you may receive the above-mentioned error message: in order to resolve the question, simply download the upgrade to version 1.2, which allows pages to be skipped without generating any error.