Manual data capture and automated capture are two types of data capture. Electronic data capture (EDC) is a computerized system designed to collect clinical data in electronic format for use in clinical trails among other uses.

There are various types of EDC systems and they would be used for pharmaceutical, medical, and biotechnology industries in all aspects of clinical research. Electronic data capture increases accuracy of data as well as quickening the process of collecting data for studies of pharmaceuticals and devices.

Set up costs for electronic data capture are relatively high, which makes it a financial risk to test something that will not reveal helpful test results. Additionally, EDC is not always less expensive in the long run to use, especially if its set up is not planned well. EDC could collect data in various ways.

A sensor from a medical device could be connected to a computer for data capture.

Remote data entry has made it possible for hospitals and clinics to do their data entry online. This decreased the amount of errors, and information could be checked during data entry.

Data capture for documents or data is common as well. Indexing, archiving, and categorization are a few of the primary uses for document data capture.

Automatic identification and Data Capture and refers to the collection of information from an individual, object, image, sound, or document without any manual work. Companies that do distrubution, manufacturing, transportation, medicine, government, and retailing often use this type of technology.