[{"innerBlocks":[],"name":"core\/freeform","postId":1218,"blockType":{"name":"core\/freeform","keywords":[],"attributes":{"content":{"type":"string","source":"raw"},"lock":{"type":"object"}},"providesContext":[],"usesContext":[],"selectors":[],"supports":{"className":false,"customClassName":false,"reusable":false},"styles":[],"variations":[],"apiVersion":3,"title":"Classic","description":"Use the classic WordPress editor.","category":"text"},"originalContent":"Researchers at UC San Francisco say they have successfully developed and validated the feasibility of using blockchain technology to securely share clinical trial data.

The way the proof-of-concept web portal operates is that each time new data is entered on a trial participant, the sender, receiver, timestamp and file attachment containing the data\u2014as well as the hash of the previous block of data pertaining to that patient\u2014is recorded onto a new block with its own distinct signature.

\u201cWe showed that a blockchain-based file and data structure could be used to reliably safeguard data in a clinical trials network, and provide an immutable and fully traceable audit trail,\u201d conclude the authors of a study<\/a> published on Friday in the journal Nature Communications<\/i>.

By using clinical trials data from a previously completed major study, the researchers contend that they demonstrated how \u201cdata entry, storage and adverse event reporting can be performed in a more robust and secure manner, which could withstand attacks from both other people in the network and infrastructure damage at the storage level.\u201d

Also See<\/b>: Blockchain pilots expected to show results in specific use cases<\/a>

\u201cIt makes it really obvious when someone\u2019s changing something,\u201d says co-author Daniel Wong, a Ph.D. candidate in biological and medical informatics at UCSF, who built the blockchain system to operate via a web portal. \u201cYou can see who put their hands on it, who made it, who changed it and who received it.\u201d

According to the researchers, the auditing of data for regulators of clinical trials\u2014such as the Food and Drug Administration\u2014is challenging given that there is no easy and secure way of accessing or viewing the complex network of data transactions as they happen.

What differentiates UCSF\u2019s clinical trial prototype from most decentralized blockchain applications is that it relies on having a regulator with centralized authority\u2014such as the FDA\u2014to operate the web portal, register all parties, and keep a ledger of the blockchain\u2019s hashes.

\u201cEveryone is talking about how blockchain is going to revolutionize many of the data challenges in medicine, and here is one use that finally might make sense,\u201d says co-author Atul Butte, MD, who is the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Distinguished Professor and director of the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute at UCSF. \u201cWe think it could someday be useful for pharma companies running clinical trials.\u201d","saveContent":"Researchers at UC San Francisco say they have successfully developed and validated the feasibility of using blockchain technology to securely share clinical trial data.

The way the proof-of-concept web portal operates is that each time new data is entered on a trial participant, the sender, receiver, timestamp and file attachment containing the data\u2014as well as the hash of the previous block of data pertaining to that patient\u2014is recorded onto a new block with its own distinct signature.

\u201cWe showed that a blockchain-based file and data structure could be used to reliably safeguard data in a clinical trials network, and provide an immutable and fully traceable audit trail,\u201d conclude the authors of a study<\/a> published on Friday in the journal Nature Communications<\/i>.

By using clinical trials data from a previously completed major study, the researchers contend that they demonstrated how \u201cdata entry, storage and adverse event reporting can be performed in a more robust and secure manner, which could withstand attacks from both other people in the network and infrastructure damage at the storage level.\u201d

Also See<\/b>: Blockchain pilots expected to show results in specific use cases<\/a>

\u201cIt makes it really obvious when someone\u2019s changing something,\u201d says co-author Daniel Wong, a Ph.D. candidate in biological and medical informatics at UCSF, who built the blockchain system to operate via a web portal. \u201cYou can see who put their hands on it, who made it, who changed it and who received it.\u201d

According to the researchers, the auditing of data for regulators of clinical trials\u2014such as the Food and Drug Administration\u2014is challenging given that there is no easy and secure way of accessing or viewing the complex network of data transactions as they happen.

What differentiates UCSF\u2019s clinical trial prototype from most decentralized blockchain applications is that it relies on having a regulator with centralized authority\u2014such as the FDA\u2014to operate the web portal, register all parties, and keep a ledger of the blockchain\u2019s hashes.

\u201cEveryone is talking about how blockchain is going to revolutionize many of the data challenges in medicine, and here is one use that finally might make sense,\u201d says co-author Atul Butte, MD, who is the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Distinguished Professor and director of the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute at UCSF. \u201cWe think it could someday be useful for pharma companies running clinical trials.\u201d","order":0,"get_parent":{},"attributes":[],"attributesType":{"content":{"type":"string","source":"raw"},"lock":{"type":"object"}},"dynamicContent":""}]

UCSF leverages blockchain for secure sharing of clinical trial data

More for you