Associated Person Domain Handling

[SFJohnson24]

Currently there is not logic to override USUBJID in favor of APID for AP-- datasets. We need to go into the library metadata logic and use the dataset_metadata.is_ap property to override in this case.

As @pendingintent also pointed out-- there also may be some issues with required variables not being such for the AP counterpart of certain domains. He is doing research for this. If they do inherit the requirement, no change is need but if not, we will need to work a solution out (potentially adding AP and using is_ap to ID for scoping inclusion/exclusion criteria and selectively excluding AP from required variable rule checks would be a potential solution)

[pendingintent]

I have done some initial investigation and I think we are safe. I am using MH and APMH as an example below.

AP domains have the following required variables: STUDYID, DOMAIN, APID, --SEQ, SREL.
Events domains (of which MH is one) have the following required variables: STUDYID, DOMAIN, USUBJID, --SEQ, --TERM.

Therefore, in the case of APMH, the following variables are Required: STUDYID, DOMAIN, APID, MHSEQ, SREL, MHTERM.
There is a new Expected variable in APMH: RSUBJID (must be present but can also be NULL).

Section §2.1 of the AG IG 1.0:

The structure of AP domains is therefore the same as those for study subject domains, with the exception of variables that are only applicable to study subjects (such as the identifiers USUBJID and SPDEVID). Unless otherwise stated in this implementation guide, all other general assumptions about SDTM and SDTMIG variables and domains will apply to AP data.

So, in the case of a APMH domain, the TOPIC variable from the parallel subject domain is (inherited as) Required.

Some confusion is likely for users when implmeneting AP domains since the documentation is versioned as 1.0 and released in 2013 while we are now working from SDTMIG 3.4 in 2026.

We should consider releasing a new version of the AP documentation that is clearer with its relationship to parallel subject domains and TOPIC variables. Keeping consistent with software release best practices, we should keep the document versions inline when any new version of SDTMIG is released.