T-17: Streamlining Clinical Trials and Patient Experience Using Blockchain and Data Science Technologies
Poster Presenter
Mohit Juneja
Co-Founder
Lyfescience Canada
Objectives
Objective of the abstract is to gain feedback as well as share some of our results and opportunities from use of Blockchain for clinical trials
Method
Our work is not a traditional study. Our work is a proof of concept with publicly available data to test the data flows and efficiencies from smart contracts that blockchain provides.
Results
We implemented a system to mirror a typical clinical trial with stakeholders such as Pharmaceutical companies, regulators, CROs, and other healthcare agencies. Our hypothesis was to test whether permissioned blockchain can streamline clinical trial operations and data sharing. We observed that blockchain can not only enable real time information sharing, but can also codify the rules of clinical protocol into smart contracts - further improving compliance. Based on feedback from the industry, our approach can potentially save 5-6 months in regulatory submissions and reviews
Conclusion
Permissioned Blockchain is a technology that is perfectly designed to streamline clinical trials and operations. For any Permissioned Blockchain implementation to be successful, a key requirement is the presence of entities that don't fully trust each other. Clinical Trials meet the criteria. For instance, for clinical trials, there are compliance requirements that regulators impose on pharmaceutical companies. There is implicit trust but verify relationship between the regulator and the industry. Real time information sharing, distributed ledger technology, and smart contracts can encode trust into smart contracts. This not only improves compliance, but also reduces redundancies, and streamline operations
