We will be discussing a recent eCF/EUCROF positions paper: 

The full history of a clinical trial describes the conduct of the trial and the quality of the data produced. Changes in technology and the evolution of regulatory expectations on electronic systems over the past two decades have resulted in a situation where additional supplementary documentation is needed to reconstruct some clinical trial activities. Many of the computerised systems used during a trial are only used during the active trial data collection stage. This period of use is shorter than the retention period required for the archiving of the essential documents of the trial. Furthermore, the documentation that makes up this history is distributed between sponsor, investigators and vendors. Data is stored locally, in the cloud, on patient devices, at vendors, and sub-vendors. Where the data is archived (sponsor, investigator, vendor), in what format (kept live or static), and for how long are issues discussed in the position paper.  You can download the position paper here: Position Paper: Trial Master File Archiving and the Decommissioning of Computerised Systems Used in Clinical Trials, PR1 (eclinicalforum.org)

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.

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.

Several members of the eClinical Forum's Regulatory Advisory Group have published an article in Applied Clinical Trials on "When should audit trail begin?"  It is a discussion of the regulatory history behind audit trails and its interpretation as it relates to clinical research data originating or residing in EDC or eCOA systems.

We welcome feedback! Please send to: REG@eclinicalforum.org 

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.”

This webinar recording provides the same content as was presented to the FDA CDER Health IT Board on 6-April-2021. Even in 2024, the content is still relevant.

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).

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.

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