A CRF (with its associated versions, groups, and items) is defined globally within an instance of OpenClinica and may be used in one or more studies. The groups and items defined within a particular CRF exist within the scope of the CRF only (though they will have globally unique OIDs). The CRF Physical Exam may have an item with ITEM_NAME blood_pressure and the CRF Vital Signs can have an item also named blood_pressure. OpenClinica treats these items as separate entities and they will have separate OIDs. Response sets also exist within the scope of the CRF only.
A CRF definition may be shared across OpenClinica instances by loading the CRF template spreadsheet into each instance. Each instance of OpenClinica generates OIDs at CRF upload time and those OIDs must be unique within that instance. Therefore the OIDs for the same CRF and items may be different across OpenClinica instances.