Clinical Research Hub

New, But Not That New

BrainIT established the original model for aggregating data across hospitals and international boundaries, and sharing the database as a common resource. As a result a number of initiatives were started, most notably the Avert-IT FP7 project.

Our Clinical Research Hub will build on knowledge and infrastructure acquired by BrainIT and Avert-IT. We’ll add value with access via web technologies, new analysis tools and shared workspaces.

Highlights

• Researchers will use leading edge data management services to store, understand, and share details of patient condition, treatment and outcomes without increasing workload for hospital or university IT Support teams.
• Software will be provided to “pull” readings from patient monitors, to capture observation and treatment data at the bedside and also to bulk upload from comma separated value files such as exports from Excel.
• Captured data will be “pushed” to the CRH using a standard Internet connection, avoiding any need for access to systems through local firewalls.
• Researchers will have total control over which data is captured, pushed and ways they analyze it.
• The data will be stored securely on servers housed in Glasgow University’s National eScience Center
• Common Data Elements – CDE – will follow guidelines published by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke (NINDS)
  
• Analysis tools will be provided so researchers can aggregate, group, compare, contrast, monitor, alert and report their data to suit their objectives.
• Reporting tools will enable researchers to output electronic Case Report Forms – sCRF.
• Options for sharing research data, on-line collaboration and peer review will be available in 2010
• During 2011 we’ll be adding the ability to interrogate and analyze data using advanced statistical modeling techniques, including Ogmios, our Bayesian Artificial Neural Network – BANN – framework.

Background
The infrastructure, including data management and analysis tools, was originally implemented to support the Avert-It project – an EU funded research program finding ways of predicting upcoming episodes of hypotension during intensive care.  Ogmios, the BANN framework was developed to “learn” patterns preceding events by analyzing data collected by the Brain IT group.

Subsequently it’s been used to monitor real time data feeds and provide clinicians with early warnings of upcoming episodes.  Avantrasara will be providing this resource as a global service for researchers as part of it’s role ensuring the research results are commercially  available to help improve patient safety and reduce health care costs.

Why a Clinical Research Hub?
During the project we identified problems researchers experience in their efforts to understand more about patient conditions and treatments:

• No access to patient monitor data
• Paper based bedside observation and treatment records
• Limited access to patient demographic data held in Hospital Information Systems
• No analysis tools.
• Data storage limited to local standalone databases or Excel files.

These are exactly the constraints we addressed in the Avert-IT project.  The Clinical Research Hub was built as a single solution to enable the research.

Why Advanced Statistical Modeling?
Machine learning has been helping scientists discover relationships between data for more than thirty years. Statistical modeling is well understood as a technique for recognizing patterns, and calculating probabilities.  Bayesian Artificial Neural Networks combine both concepts to help people organize the answers to millions of equations into aggregations they can understand.  This isn’t diagnosis, but it is an effective way of directing clinicians to the parameters indicating conditions for diagnosis.

Why On-Line Sharing, Collaboration, Peer Review?
The philosophy of teamwork and peer review is embedded in science, and particulalry clinical science.

Clinicians, as part of part of normal activities, share and collaborate with colleagues.  The Clinical Research Hub will simply make that sharing and collaboration process simpler, faster and available to more peers – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, anywhere in the world.  More data analyzed by better tools and interpreted by more experts will equal faster and more accurate interpretation, and acceleration in the process of clinical discovery and dissemination.

Service Options and Pricing

In 2010 we’ll be opening the service to accredited clinical researchers, globally and announce pricing.

Researchers interested in joining the Beta program are invited to contact steve[dot]reeves[at]avantrasara[dot]com.