Informatics to drive British clinical trials

Better standards of data collection and usage could boost Britain's position when it comes to clinical trial research.

This is according to Dr Andrew Morris, dean of the college of medicine at the University of Dundee, who told PMLive that effective informatics could help to counteract the loss in Britain's share of clinical trials.

Ten years ago, the country's share of trials stood at ten per cent of all phase III medicine research in the world, though it now represents less than two per cent.

Mr Morris is aiming to address the problem in Scotland through his work with Diabetes Audit and Research in Tayside Scotland (DARTS), which is used to monitor the data of over 7,000 people living with the condition in the country.

Thanks to the data, doctors can keep real time information about the health of individual patients, which will help to improve outcomes and provide an effective database for researchers who are looking to test new therapies with laboratory equipment.

DARTS has seen its creators liaise with the government in Kuwait to create a similar database for diabetes patients.

However, Mr Morris believes that research must be incorporated into care.

"We need to sharpen our game up if we're going to be a pre-eminent country for research.

"Every patient we see, we know if they've consented to participate in research, so we've got a list of people who are willing to help us out," he explained to the news provider.

Mr Norris went on to say that the size of clinical data can be "overwhelming", adding that computer science needs to be an integral part to any approach of collecting large-scale data.

Another key consideration is regulation, as businesses need to ensure they carry out data collection and tests that are legal, or they could face financial and reputational damage.

Posted by Neil Clark