HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is a standard describing data formats and elements and an application programming interface for exchanging electronic health records. The standard was created by the Health Level Seven International health-care standards organization.  Vulcan is an HL7 FHIR Accelerator that brings together stakeholders from across the translational and clinical research communities in order to bridge existing gaps between clinical care and clinical research, strategically connect industry collaboratives, maximize collective resources, and deliver integrated tools and resources.  HL7 FHIR is the path forward to bridge clinical care and clinical research. A global collaboration between all translational and clinical research stakeholders to co-develop out the standard, it will allow for a reproducible, scalable process for data exchange. The presenters will share not only the conclusions drawn from use cases developed up to this point, but will also provide insight into the future direction and priorities of Vulcan.  

Historically, each sponsor, contract research organization (CRO), clinical site, and eCOA service provider has handled eCOA data change request (DCR) processes differently, resulting in the possibility for mixed expectations among the stakeholders and inconsistent results.   In the worst-case scenario, there is the risk of findings from inspections and audits, either because control over source records did not reside as expected with the site, or because there was a lack of oversight over eCOA data changes requested by sites and performed by the eCOA service provider.  There is a need for a well-defined, consistent, and balanced process for handling eCOA data change requests in clinical trials.  The objective of this document is to outline best practices that will result in improved data accuracy and integrity, greater transparency amongst the different stakeholders, increased consistency throughout the clinical trials industry, and adherence to the study protocol, good clinical practices (GCP), and government regulations. The approach to eCOA data changes outlined here is focused on patient-reported outcome (PRO) data but can be applied, where appropriate, to all eCOA data, including clinician-reported data and observer-reported data.   

A collaborative team comprised of Critical Path Institute’s ePRO Consortium, PRO Consortium and eClinical Forum have been meeting since early 2020 to discuss this topic and produce a best-practice recommendations paper. They will be sharing their discussions during this webinar. The associated paper is anticipated to be published during 1Q 2022.

We are pleased to announce the details of our next Virtual Global Workshop on 19-28 October 2021. The virtual workshop will include presentation, discussion and working sessions and is open to participants from any member company in any region.

Our virtual workshops have been a great success and this one will be even better! The sessions have been optimised to accommodate our members from around the world by spreading the meeting over 6 days (19-21 October and 26-28 October), limiting the duration of each meeting day to 2 hours and by offering 2 sessions a day (at 8:00 UTC and 16:00 UTC). Learning from each other is what we do best, and the workshop will provide opportunity for collaboration and exchange through breakout groups to contribute to the work of the eClinical Forum, round table discussions on hot topics and time for Q&A.  Of course, nothing can replace the networking and camaraderie of a face-to-face eCF meeting, but we will come close! REGISTER HERE

This is a round-table discussion. Participants are encouraged to share experiences, make comments, ask questions, and contribute to the discussion. We will be discussing: “Can we develop best practices for implementing standards across sponsors and CROs of all sizes to drive efficiencies that result in medical advancements getting to patients faster?”

• Can we facilitate a mechanism to share standards across organizations to avoid process changes from one trial to the next?
• Can we track standard utilization across organizations to be data driven about when and how updates are needed?
• With the increase in digital trials, what additional standards should we be considering?
• What does an optimal standards committee look like? 

The eClinical Forum published a joint paper with SCDM in April 2021, titled “Audit Trail Review: Key Tool to Ensure Data Integrity”.  (If you missed it, you can download it here: Public Release: Audit Trail Review: Key Tool to Ensure Data Integrity Version 1.0 (eclinicalforum.org) )  Now that members have had time to review the paper and perhaps discuss with colleagues, we thought it is a good time to hear what different members are doing, or are planning to do, regarding audit trail review. This focus session will not be discussing the paper, but rather will be discussing what practices around audit trail review our members are taking.

This is a two-hour focus session. The first hour will be presentations of case-studies from eClinical Forum members. The second hour will be a round-table discussion.

eCF Webinar:  FDA OneSource and Common Data Model Harmonization (CDMH) - Use of Real World Data in Clinical Research

Presenter:   Mitra Rocca, FDA CDER Health Information Technology Technical Lead

Open To: Staff from eClinical Forum member companies gratis  (If you are not an eCF member, please review our website www.eclinicalforum.org/membership for membership information or contact info@eclinicalforum.org )

This is a round-table discussion. Participants are encouraged to share experiences, make comments, ask questions, and contribute to the discussion. We will be discussing “The utilization of scribes is needed for the conduct of clinical assessments within eCOA.  Therefore, eCOA needs to be built in a manner that meets the regulatory requirements for scribing, to ensure all individuals participating in the assessment are audit trailed.”

The eClinical Forum is pleased to offer a free public webinar – the same as was presented to the FDA CDER Health IT Board on 6-April-2021 – to provide information on our 2 free tools: The “eCF Requirements” (Requirements for electronic data for regulated clinical trials) and eSRA (Site eSource-Readiness Assessment).

We are pleased to announce the details of our next Virtual Global Workshop on 4-18 May 2021. The virtual workshop will include presentation, discussion and working sessions and is open to participants from any member company in any region.

Our virtual workshops in 2020 were a great success and this one will be even better! We have made sure that sessions are as convenient as possible for the different timezones across the world by limiting the duration of sessions and offering more regional sessions. Learning from each other is what we do best and we will be introducing a number of ways to increase interactivity during the workshop (although nothing can replace the networking and comeraderie of an eCF face-to-face meeting!). REGISTER HERE

Audit trails create a step-by-step record of data back to its source. It is utilized when the integrity and confidence of the datapoint has critical/legal significance. It is important to determine and declare when data entry becomes “real” data. In legacy paper, data is manually recorded, but only becomes “real” when it is signed, submitted, or completed. Signatures and confirmations also exist to add additional credibility to the source. If a paper form is being filled, it is considered draft until it is declared complete by the originator. The originator has the option to crumple up the “draft” paper and start another without question. The same should hold true with electronic data entry as this webinar will discuss.

This webinar introduces the NEW "Practical Guide to eConsent" which addresses key themes and hots topics and provides a view on the modernization of the clinical trials informed consenting process, including the current perception shift of eConsent adoption in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.  This is a joint work by the eClinical Forum and EUCROF.

The implementation of new solutions to share electronically the eCRF PDFs with sites have brought up new considerations and challenges to this process.

We would like everyone to share their experiences on how the process has been implemented, as well as the challenges experienced. This will be a group discussion on the recommendations to make this process as straight forward as possible for Sites and Sponsors, while complying with requirements.

Facilitated by Carmen Jiménez, Eli Lilly