Medidata ($MDSO) has connected its Clinical Cloud to Apple's ($AAPL) ResearchKit. The link means researchers can feed data gathered by ResearchKit apps into Medidata's cloud platform, where the information can be integrated with other sources of clinical trial results.
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| Medidata President Glen de Vries |
ResearchKit made a splash earlier this year when the first batch of studies to use the platform achieved enrollment rates unimaginable to biopharma clinical trial sponsors. The platform turns each iPhone owner into a potential research participant, making large-scale, real-time data collection--without the cost of device provision--achievable. Sponsors are alert to the potential of the approach.
"There is a strong level of interest among our customer base to use ResearchKit apps to help collect in-life data in clinical trials," Medidata mHealth Managing Director Kara Dennis told Outsourcing-Pharma. The challenge facing sponsors--and by extension Medidata--is how to turn ResearchKit into a platform that fits in with their operations, both in terms of the technology and its compliance with regulations.
Medidata's connector--the source code of which is available on GitHub--is part of the company's attempt to help customers resolve these issues. Significant concerns and questions about ResearchKit still remain--such as the bias inherent in only gathering data from iPhone owners--but there appears to be a willingness to investigate and resolve some of the issues. "Apple is a key part of the ecosystem that defines the new era of mobile health," Medidata President Glen de Vries said in a statement.
- here's Outsourcing-Pharma's article
- read the release