Skip to main content

Cancer Center Uses Technology to Improve EHR Data Collection for Clinical Trials

Analysis  |  By Eric Wicklund  
   July 04, 2023

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is replacing an often manual process with a tech platform that streamlines data transfer and verification from its EHR to platforms used by clinical trial sponsors.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) is embracing new technology designed to enable clinical trial sponsors to quickly and easily pull relevant patient data from MSK's EHR.

The New York City health system is partnering with IgniteData, a UK-based developer of electronic data transfer solutions, to provide data integration between MSK's EHR platform and the platforms used by two major clinical trial sponsors. The company will deploy its Archer technology through the MSK Innovation Hub.

The goal is to streamline and improve what is often a manual process of pulling and verifying data from sometimes different EHRs to support cancer research, boosting the efficiency of these trials, improving the process for selecting and monitoring participants, and eventually leading to better outcomes.

The technology is designed to enable research staff to quickly transfer regulatory grade data such as vital signs and labs—which typically account for as much as half of the data needed—into the sponsor's study database, reducing data entry errors and source data verification and query resolution times.

“Today, a typical phase 3 oncology study generates an average of 3.6 million data points," Dan Hydes, IgniteData's co-founder and CEO, said in a press release. "More than half of this eSource data already exists in patients’ electronic medical records, yet it is still being painstakingly transcribed into study databases, burdening research staff and creating inefficiencies and delays."

“This collaboration aspires to automate the routine tasks performed by our research teams and quicken the pace of clinical trial execution, driving us toward our ultimate goal of changing how the world treats cancer through research," added Joseph Lengfellner, MSK's senior director of clinical research informatics.

Once the process is worked out, officials said they would expand interoperability to other clinical trial platforms.

Eric Wicklund is the associate content manager and senior editor for Innovation at HealthLeaders.


KEY TAKEAWAYS

A typical oncology study generates millions of data points, more than half of which may already be contained in patients' electronic medical records.

MSK will be using technology that automates that process, reducing data entry errors and source data verification and query resolution times.

The first phase of the program will focus on integrating MSK's EHR with the platforms of two major trial sponsors, with a goal of expanding to other trial sponsors later.


Get the latest on healthcare leadership in your inbox.