Uniformly formatted sets of data are collected from a remote site and electronically transmitted back to a central collection site. In this process, data to be collected is specified. Then, a questionnaire specification file is generated. The questionnaire specification file defines the file specification and associated data structure for creating questionnaires. A telecommunications link is established between a central computing/data processing unit at the central collection site and a remote computing/data processing unit at the remote site. The questionnaire specification file is electronically transmitted to the remote data processing unit. In the remote unit, the defined file specification and associated data structure in the questionnaire specification file is used to create at least one questionnaire. The questionnaire is completed at the remote site by entering questionnaire data into the remote unit. The data is then transmitted in report format back to the central unit at the central collection site.