ADAMS Report

The Anti-Doping Administration & Management System (ADAMS) coordinates and simplifies anti-doping activities. “ADAMS is designed to be a secure and cost-free web-based system that centralizes doping control-related information.    
A survey containing 21 questions was conducted online, over the span of a month and received responses by 92 participants. The survey assessed the user experience of ADAMS in terms of overall satisfaction, functionalities, technical performance, further developments as well as communication by its operator, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The survey was created due to the many complaints from users about ADAMS.

While the various functionalities of ADAMS are made use of and most of them fulfill their purpose as a tool for Anti-Doping Organizations (ADOs), the majority still wants to see WADA develop more functionalities or have them improved. The highest priority is a data sharing solution for the many systems being used other than ADAMS. An open application programming interface (API) is highly recommended.

The survey also reveals the issue of ADAMS’ technical performance. More than half of the respondents say they experienced a technical issue at least once. Almost a quarter of them experience one every week. Technical issues such as slow system speed, server errors and log-in issues are amongst the most named. Security standards in ADAMS seem to be very high as respondents say they feel safe entering personal data into the system.

Another critical aspect of ADAMS is its general assessment. Almost half of the participants express dissatisfaction with ADAMS’ adequacy as a whole system. One of the main purposes, which is allowing ADOs to effectively communicate between each other for test planning is very disputed amongst the respondents.

Considering all the above, there is potential for WADA to transform ADAMS into a more efficient and effective system that coordinates and simplifies anti-doping activities. As various comments from the survey already implied, this is not to critique WADA and ADAMS but use this as an opportunity to make ADAMS better and allow for effective and time-saving work in Anti-Doping.