Mayo Clinic to Use Blockchain Technology to Protect Data in Trial
Triall’s platform uses blockchain to create an 'audit trail' to ensure data integrity
The Mayo Clinic will use a digital clinical trial platform developed by Triall in an upcoming pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) study.
The platform will support all core activities related to the study, including data capture, document management, monitoring, and electronic consent forms to safeguard the integrity of trial documentation.
The two-year trial will start this month and include more than 500 patients, diagnosed with PAH, across 10 U.S. sites. In addition to the Mayo Clinic, participating sites include Brigham & Women’s Hospital, National Jewish Health, and Weill Cornell Medical Center. Additional trial information has not been provided.
“We are very excited to further our collaboration with Mayo Clinic,” Hadil Es-Sbai, Triall’s co-founder and CEO, said in a press release.
As technology advances, data collection in clinical trials is occurring through an increasing number of devices and remote digital sources. While this offers new and creative ways to conduct trials in the digital age, ensuring the integrity and protection of sensitive trial data is becoming a bigger challenge.
Blockchain is essentially a type of algorithm that tracks and verifies records from a number of sources. The blockchain has data nodes, each containing certain pieces of information, that are then encrypted and strung together. Because pieces of data are stored in different nodes, rather than all together, this type of system is called decentralized.
Records stored this way are unalterable, and help to make certain that no data has been tampered with, lost, or mixed up. Simply put, the technology works to create a single and reliable version of relevant data.
Triall’s eClinical platform makes use of blockchain to create an “audit trail” for ensuring data integrity from study start to finish. Study-related documentation from any source is subject to this audit and can be verified.
Investigators, trial monitoring committees, regulatory agencies, and trial stakeholders will all be able to access an interface for evaluating study-related documentation through this decentralized platform.
Triall said the partnership with Mayo Clinic opens a door for future collaborations to work toward a proof-based, decentralized environment for clinical research.
“It is wonderful to work with some of the thought leaders within Mayo Clinic and we are confident our collaboration will pave the way towards further innovation and enhanced quality in clinical development, utilizing the strengths of blockchain technology where these truly add value,” Es-Sbai said.
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