Over the past several years, researchers have adopted data integration in their clinical trials. The aim is to save on time while helping increase the chance of carrying out successful clinical trials. CROs like Veristat use data integration solutions to ease the trial planning process. These solutions also help organizations interpret and use the collected data to complete their clinical trials successfully. Next, let’s look at some reasons why you should consider data integration for your clinical trials.
Decrease of redundant data entry processes
There are times when you will be required to enter data twice during the clinical trial planning process. One when using the primary healthcare system and another when using the EDC system. This comes about due to the lack of effective integration between the two systems. That means you will not have a complete overlap between the research domains and the healthcare systems. As such, research information is only required in a research context but not in regular healthcare. Therefore, there’s a need for a hybrid solution that combines both EHR systems and research systems.
With protocol feasibility
This refers to collecting a pool of anonymized patient data from the EHR systems. The subset of the data is available for querying, and the sponsors can validate the choice of the trial eligibility criteria for directional information. It is used to avoid protocol amendments proactively, reducing the time used on the study.
Through subject and site selection
Site and subject allocation remain one of the most taxing and expensive areas of a clinical trial. However, with data integration, you can use a query around a pool of consented patients’ data and identify sites and subjects you can recruit successfully. Here you can identify platforms where patients have to consent so you can use the data for investigational research. Such resources help improve the chances of having more subjects for the clinical trials, thus increasing the success rate of your clinical trials.
Through virtual observational studies
The use of data integration means that trials will use information from historical EHR records. What’s more, doing observational research means you’ll be exposed to a larger pool of patient data sources. A large pool of patient data will always increase the chances of trial success. An initiative such as Sync4Science applies consent directly to patients who remain in control of their data.
Through genome-wide association studies
Genomic studies involve putting genotypic information in a pool of aggregated and clustered patients based on their Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) patterns. The phenotypic information is then compared against different EHR records. Genomic studies are speculated to take over the research world in the years to come. That’s considering they are likely to become more critical for initiatives around personalized medicine. Genome-Wide Association studies will help identify different drug responses based on individual patients’ genomes.
Data integration may cut the research time in half since most information is readily available for use. Moreover, it makes it easy to identify patients for the trials, which is a crucial factor while ensuring the success of a trial.
