Clinical meta data serves an important purpose within the clinical trials industry. This is because both in the UK and the US data protection legislation plays a key role in how clinical trials are conducted overall. In this article we will discuss the main notable points about clinical metadata overall.
What Is Clinical Metadata
This form of meta data is typically made up of data that has been gathered during a clinical trial. This can vary from regular data as it is more likely to include medical records rather than general info such as home address and phone number. Typically clinical metadata is used within clinical trials and is subject to strict procedures and legislation such as the CDISC standards. The CDISC standards are a set of standards that have to be adhered to when clinical trials are being conducted.
CDISC standards essentially outline that any data that has been recorded needs to have been taken down accurately and in the correct way otherwise the trials could be stopped or postponed if they are breaking the CDISC guidelines/ procedure.
Why Are People Concerned About Their Data
When things come to personal data many people are very conscious and aware of the importance of their personal data overall. This is partly due to more awareness in the public sphere about how data is handled and sometimes misused. This comes as a result of scandals involving Facebook and google respectively who harvested peoples data and used it in some cases for purposes that they did not agree to.
As a result of these events there has been new laws and legislation published to protect peoples personal data and ensure that it is not misused or used within their consent under any circumstances.
Another key reason why data is important is the value that can be attached to it. As well as holding sensitive information data can also be seen as a resource as many businesses purchase data in bulk through third parties and see it is a valuable resource.
With relation to clinical trials clinical data management is essential and it is important to ensure that it is fully protected to keep peoples trust within that sector overall.
How Important Are Clinical Trials ?
Clinical trials are an essential feature within the health and medicine industries as they can help to accelerate research further and lead to the development of new treatments and medicines overall. Without clinical trials being conducted there would be a lack of knowledge in relation to a wide variety of different medicines as well as cures.
Although clinical trials are of great benefit to the public as well as pharmaceutical companies it is important that they remain closely monitored overall to ensure that peoples data is being handled correctly.
Overall to conclude it is clear that clinical metadata needs to be handled with care and the information provided to those involved in clinical trials should be clear and transparent to ensure good levels of trust between participants and those running the clinical trials.