Web-based system will integrate data used by UK cancer research network
The UK's National Cancer Research Network (NCRN) will pilot a product developed by New York-based Medidata Solutions to manage and streamline data for clinical trials.
The UK's National Cancer Research Network (NCRN) will pilot a product developed by New York-based Medidata Solutions to manage and streamline data for clinical trials.
The product - Rave - has the potential to include more than 250 trials within NCRN's portfolio. With IT support and project management from British Telecom (BT), this collaboration represents the first nationwide deployment of e-clinical trial technology.
Funded by the UK Department of Health (DoH), the NCRN was created in 2001 to improve the infrastructure of clinical research in cancer and to ensure that research is better integrated with cancer care. In an effort to simplify processes for 35 networks and 500 staff members throughout England, the NCRN sought to replace paper-based clinical trials with an electronic solution.
The NCRN's technology group spent a year evaluating a wide range of electronic data capture vendors. Rave was chosen from a group of five vendors for the pilot phase of the project for its browser-independence and zero-client architecture, which will enable easy deployment within the heterogeneous NHS infrastructure for study build, data entry and data management activities.
In addition to Rave's simple deployability, key factors in the NCRN's selection were the system's ease-of-use, scalability and early insight into clinical data through real-time data access.
'Because the NCRN will eventually roll out this technology on a national basis, involving thousands of users and multiple locations in the UK, we needed a web-enabled, 21st century solution that allows users to log on from any system and easily manage online study development,' said Monica Jones, information systems manager for the NCRN.
During the first year, the NCRN will pilot Rave for up to eight trials over six trial units and 30 recruiting centres. It is hoped that, following a successful pilot, Medidata Solutions and BT would have the opportunity to replicate the NCRN model across five additional therapeutic areas for the DoH, including diabetes, stroke, mental health, medicines for children, dementia and neuro-degenerative diseases, as part of the UK Clinical Research Network.